“I think about what happened to us, and all I can reflect is we are a very pragmatic people. When we saw something like that happen, everyone said never again. So then it was incumbent on us as politicians to respond to that,” said Ardern.
In the aftermath of the Christchurch shooting, New Zealand enacted stricter rules on gun sales and ownership which saw a ban on nearly all semi-automatic weapons and assault rifles as well as magazines and parts. The new gun law was passed by New Zealand’s parliament near-unanimously, with only a single dissenting vote.
Ardern explained that New Zealand did not totally ban firearms, as “we have a legitimate need for guns in our country for things like pest control and to protect our biodiversity,” but she said “you don’t need a military-style semiautomatic weapon to do that. And so we got rid of them” The prime minister then said that New Zealand’s government instituted a gun buy-back scheme, so people could turn in their weapons and be compensated.
Ardern ended the discussion by saying that New Zealand’s approach to gun control was not perfect, and there are instances of “guns that are misused” in the country, but she added that the public and politicians “saw something that wasn’t right, and we acted on it.”
Source: Entertainment Trends (entertainmenttrends.net)
You cant compare NZ gun culture to american gun culture. theres 390million guns out there in america. The good guys give theirs up then just the bad guys have all the guns.
If only the rest of the world could get more leaders like Jacinda Ardern, it would be a much better place for everybody.
Going thru my Twitter rn & it took me far too long to see a post abt this & I’m baffled/disgusted. It feels like this country is so desensitized, w how often this happens, tht a wk of public outcry IS the only effort 4 elected leaders to make ACTUAL change as our only reality
Just other political team. Kia ora from Aotearoa
Unlike the US
This is not New Zealand…in fact it’s about half the size of California.
thankfully we have a constitution