Gun reform coming soon, New Zealand leader says
CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand — New Zealand’s coalition government plans to announce gun-law changes within the next week in response to Friday’s deadly shooting rampage at two mosques in Christchurch, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Monday.
The measures could include restricting the military-style semiautomatic weapons that were used in the attacks, which killed 50 Muslim worshipers and injured more than 40. Similar weapons have been used in recent mass shootings in the United States.
The death toll exceeds New Zealand’s annual homicide rate; 35 people were killed in 2017, the latest year for which figures are available.
“As a cabinet, we were absolutely unified and very clear. The terrorist attack in Christchurch on Friday was the worst act of terrorism on our shores,” Ardern said. “It has exposed a range of weaknesses in New Zealand’s gun laws. The clear lesson from history around the world is that, to make our community safe, the time to act is now.”
The cabinet, dominated by the center-left Labour Party, made a decision “in principle” about changing gun laws, Ardern said, adding that she will provide further details before the cabinet meets again next Monday.
“Within 10 days of this horrific act of terrorism, we will have announced reforms which will, I believe, make our community safer,” she said.
The politicians’ broad agreement highlights the consensus in New Zealand that making certain types of guns less accessible could have prevented or limited Friday’s massacre.
The attacks have sent shock waves through this country of 4.5 million people at the bottom of the South Pacific. Vigils continued nationwide on Monday, from Auckland in the north to Queenstown in the south.
New Zealand had long been considered safe from terrorism and from the outside world in general. In fact, American tycoons flocked to buy property here in the wake of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and other terrorist attacks on the U.S.
Hundreds of high school students gathered for a candlelight vigil in Hagley Park, directly opposite the Masjid Al Noor mosque where the first and deadliest attack occurred. Students from a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds sang songs and performed a ceremonial haka dance of the indigenous Maori culture.
Jitters remain high. One student told her friends she thought a journalist’s camera was a gun at first glance. There were bomb alerts in Auckland, Christchurch and Dunedin, but they turned out to be false alarms.
Brenton Tarrant, 28, of Australia was arrested after the attacks and has been charged with one count of murder. He is expected to face more charges when he next appears in court on April 5.
His court-appointed lawyer, Richard Peters, said Tarrant has fired him. He said Tarrant plans to represent himself in court.
“He didn’t appear to me to be facing any challenges or mental impairment, other than holding fairly extreme views,” Peters told the New Zealand Herald.
The lawyer suggested Tarrant might want to use his trial to espouse his extremist white nationalist beliefs. The suspect left behind a 74-page hate-filled manifesto in which he said he wanted to”directly reduce immigration rates to European lands.” He also praised President Donald Trump as “a symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose.”
In response to criticism that he has implicitly encouraged white nationalism, Trump tweeted Monday: “The Fake News Media is working overtime to blame me for the horrible attack in New Zealand. They will have to work very hard to prove that one. So Ridiculous!”
Ardern announced an inquiry into what the immigration and intelligence agencies knew about the alleged attacker.
Investigators will also look into Tarrant’s socialmedia usage. The gunman live-streamed the attack on the Al Noor Mosque, where 42 people were killed, on Facebook. The video was deleted but not before it had been widely shared.
Facebook and other socialmedia companies “have to step up” and do more to fight hate speech, the prime minister said. Australia's prime minister, Scott Morrison,urged world leaders to crack down on social-media companies that broadcast terrorist attacks.
Currently, people in New Zealand must obtain licenses to own guns. But 99.6 percent of the 43,509 license applications filed in 2017 were successful.
Ardern has talked about requiring licenses for individual guns, rather than for users, and banning semiautomatic weapons, like the variant of the AR-15 semiautomatic weapon that Tarrant used.