New Zealand begins gun buyback prompted by mosque attacks
WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND >> More than 150 gun owners turned in semi-automatic weapons and gun parts to police in Christchurch, New Zealand, on Saturday, the first day of nationwide gun buyback events after the government banned most such firearms in the wake of a terrorist attack on mosques in the city.
Mike Johnson, commander of the district’s police department, told reporters that gun owners would be paid a total of close to $300,000 for the 224 now-illegal weapons handed over during the fivehour event.
It took place in the same city where on March 15, a lone gunman stormed two mosques, killing 51 people and injuring dozens more in an attack that rattled the nation and prompted calls for dramatic changes to gun laws.
New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, announced six days after the attacks that most semiautomatic weapons, including all the military-style firearms used by the gunman, would be outlawed. Three weeks later, the country’s Parliament overwhelmingly passed a law banning them.
On Saturday, gun owners lined up for an hour and a half before the venue opened for the first of 258 buyback events to take place around the country over the next three months.
Ardern predicted it would cost the government $60 million to $130 million to buy back the banned weapons, but other politicians and some critics have indicated that the scheme is likely to be more costly.
Although reporters earlier had been invited to attend the Christchurch buyback, outcry from some groups representing gun owners — who said they feared those turning in weapons would be vilified — led the police to bar the media from the venue while gun owners were there.
After the end of Saturday’s event, Johnson, the police commander, said he was “ecstatic” with the turnout and with what he saw as positive interactions between gun owners and officers.