New Zealand to Immediately Reform Gun Laws in Response to Mosque Attacks That Killed 50

New Zealand will reform its gun laws within days of the mosque attacks that killed 50 people last week.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told reporters that the "worst act of terrorism on our shores" has exposed the need to reform the country’s gun laws.

"Within 10 days of this horrific act of terrorism we will have announced reforms which will, I believe, make our community safer," she said according to CNN.

"I strongly believe that the vast majority of gun owners in New Zealand will agree with the sentiment that change needs to occur,” she added.

The announced changes come after an apparent white supremacist gunman killed 50 people in an attack on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand.

New Zealand has approximately 1.5 million firearms among its 5 million residents, Reuters reported.

Top gun seller drops semi-automatic weapons:

Popular New Zealand online shopping site TradeMe announced that it would no longer sell semi-automatic weapons.

"We have listened to public sentiment following Friday's terrorist attack in Christchurch and decided to remove all semi-automatic firearms sales and parts associated," the company said in a statement.

The owner of gun shop Gun City, David Tipple, told reporters that the gunman legally bought four weapons online from their shop but said that he did not sell the shooter the AR-15 style rifle used in the massacre.

“The MSSA, military-style automatic, reportedly used by the alleged gunman was not purchased from Gun City. Gun City did not sell him an MSSA, only A-category firearms,” Tipple said.

Tipple said he supporters Ardern’s decision to reform the country’s gun laws after the shootings.

Why not the US?:

“More than 86 percent of New Zealanders now live in urban areas and form a largely liberal majority. In the United States, the ratio of citizens living in urban areas is slightly lower. More importantly, however, the U.S. system of representation and the way congressional districts are drawn increase the significance of rural Republican voters disproportionately,” The Washington Post reported. “That helps explain why the NRA can pressure politicians into following its demands, even though NRA supporters account for only a fraction of all U.S. voters.”

“Our form of government, with a Senate that gives extraordinary power to rural states over urban states and is deferential to states’ rights, makes it difficult to advance relatively modest gun-control measures, much less more sweeping measures,” gun policy expert Daniel Webster told the outlet.

“The gun lobby has been very influential in convincing people the [Second Amendment prohibits any] form of gun control, which affects the politics over even modest measures,” he added.

 

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