New Zealand initiates bill to ban guns used in mosque attack

New Zealand initiates bill to ban guns used in mosque attack

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand’s government on Monday introduced a bill it plans to rush into law that would ban the types of weapons a gunman used to kill 50 people at two mosques.

Police Minister Stuart Nash said that if lawmakers pass the bill as expected, the new law will take effect April 12, less than a month after the March 15 attacks. Plans for law changes were first announced by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in the days after the attacks, when the government imposed an immediate ban on the sales of such weapons.

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'He said one of the weapons used by the gunman was an AR-15 style rifle, and that all the weapons the gunman used in the attacks would be banned.

The bill would ban “military-style” semi-automatic guns and high-capacity magazines. It would also ban semi-automatic shotguns that could be fitted with detachable magazines and pump-action shotguns that can hold more than five rounds.'

A similar ban went down in neighboring Australia after a mass killing some years ago.

New Zealand's National Rifle Association is a small sporting organization, not a wealthy political lobby group like its American counterpart. New Zealand didn't have the Aussie-style gun control law and the gunman was a migrant from Australia who legally purchased semi-automatic guns in New Zealand. To prevent an act of terror from happening again in New Zealand, it is a necessary measure. Otherwise, angry migrants like the Aussie gunman are coming to New Zealand to get their hands on semi-automatic guns.

NZ doesn't have America's gun problems and doesn't want them. It also, to be fair does not have a second amendment and a 'tradition' of gun ownership, inasmuch as it can be called so. Nor, to be less fair, do a large number of gun owners suffer from the delusion that their guns will protect them from government.

This law will really only affect a handful of hobbyists and enthusiasts who'll have to give up their toys. One day a push for electric engines may force boy-racers to give up their noisy old beaters as well. Life goes on as before. For NZ getting rid of certain guns is no big deal and the benefits outweigh the costs.