NEW ZEALAND

New Zealand measure targets semi-automatic weapons, parts to make them

lawmakers expected to back gun ban.

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand — Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand is expected to encounter little resistance in Parliament to her announcement Thursday of a national ban on all military-style semi-automatic weapons, all high-capacity ammunition magazines and all parts that allow weapons to be modified into the kinds of guns used to kill 50 people at two mosques in Christchurch last week.

“What we’re banning today are the things used in last Friday’s attack,” she said, adding: “It’s about all of us, it’s in the national interest, and it’s about safety.”

The largest opposition party in Parliament quickly said it supported the measures.

She said her goal was to eliminate from New Zealand the weapons that the killer used in Christchurch. She emphasized that it would require a buyback of banned weapons in circulation, plus regulation around firearms and ammunition.

“The guns used in these terrorist attacks had important distinguishing features,” she said at a news conference at Parliament in Wellington, the capital. “First big capacity and also their delivery. They had the power to shoot continuously but they also had large-capacity magazines.”

Ardern’s plan for immediate gun policy changes, announced six days after a mass shooting, stands in stark contrast to the stalemate and resistance to change that have stymied similar calls for restrictions on firearms in the United States.

“It’s a very bold move,” said Philip Alpers, a University of Sydney academic who runs GunPolicy.org, an international clearinghouse for gun research.

Chris Cahill, president of the Police Association, the union representing New Zealand’s police officers, praised Ardern’s plan, saying his group had been calling for such measures for years.

“This addresses the key concerns we have,” he said. “It’s hitting those military-style semi-automatics. It’s exactly what we wanted.”

The overhauls, Ardern said, are inspired partly by what Australia set in motion after a mass shooting there in 1996: a mix of buybacks, registration and outright bans that severely reduced mass shootings.

But experts said there were some key differences.

“In Australia, it was a very simple definition, all semi-automatic rifles and shotguns, full stop,” Alpers said. “Here I can see a few gray areas.”

New Zealand’s plan takes aim at capability, not just a particular class of weapons.

Gun owners in New Zealand, responding online to the announcement, said it was confusing and began asking which of their weapons would be banned or exempted. Others seemed more resigned to giving up their guns.

“Glad I took my ar15 for a walk up the range today,” one commenter wrote, referring to a type of firearm. “We had a blast could be the last time.”

The “capability” approach — which is likely to lead to a list of banned items, Alpers said — could be watered down through lobbying. But it could also amount to a new global standard, broad enough to go beyond Australia’s because it could include weapons and accessories not yet developed.

That seemed to be Ardern’s intent.

“Today I’m announcing New Zealand will ban all military-style semi-automatic weapons,” Ardern said in outlining the changes. “We will also ban all assault rifles; we will ban all high-capacity magazines. We will ban all parts with the ability to convert semi-automatic or any other type of firearm into a military-style semi-automatic weapon.”

“We will ban parts that cause a firearm to generate semi-automatic, automatic or close-to-automatic gunfire,” she added. “In short, every semi-automatic weapon used in the terror attack on Friday will be banned in this country.”

Alpers said the challenge for New Zealand would mainly be getting the ammunition and guns that already exist out of circulation. Half of Australia’s states had some kind of gun registration plan in place before the 1996 changes, making it easier for the authorities to know what weapons were out there and what needed to be taken in.

New Zealand registers only 4 percent of its weapons. According to the police, about 250,000 people in the country own an estimated 1.2 million to 1.5 million firearms. It is unclear how many of them would be affected by the ban.

Ardern said that fair compensation would be paid to all those who participate.

Noting that there would be some limited exceptions for specific purposes, especially in rural areas, she said she expected the new law to be in place by April 11, by the end of Parliament’s next session.