A different approach to mass shootings

New Zealand’s prime minister is taking a hard line in the wake of last week’s deadly mosque shootings.

This is a tale of two nations.

Both have been stung by the rage of people blinded by hate – and armed to the teeth.

Here in the United States, the names are now too familiar. They no longer signify locations. They mark graves, the mounting toll of lives lost to gun violence.

Columbine, Sandy Hook, Virginia Tech, Aurora, Las Vegas, Orlando, Parkland. They represent the very fiber of our communities: Schools, houses of worship, a movie theater, a nightclub, an outdoor concert.

Each time the nation recoiled in horror. We looked to our leaders – first for compassion – and then for action.

We heard again and again the same two words that are omnipresent after such hateful acts: Thoughts and prayers.

We used them so often that they started to lose their meaning.

We yearned – and waited – for our leaders to take action. And we continue to wait. Contrast that with the horror that unfolded last week on the other side of the world.

A white nationalist consumed by hate for Muslims armed himself with a shotgun and semi-automatic rifle, then walked into two mosques and delivered his own warped, perverted sense of reality.

When he was done, the gunman had killed 50 people, worshippers who had visited these holy grounds to visit with their God and take part in the weekly Jummah prayer. Instead they met nothing less than the face of evil itself.

Once again the world reeled. We reached out to console, and comfort the citizens of Christchurch and the nation of New Zealand.

But the tone coming from New Zealand’s leader was decidedly different.

Yes, while Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern shared the universal outpouring of “thoughts and prayers,” she also supplied something else. Something not always seen in such trying moments.

While across the globe the leader of the free world was struggling with the notion of the troubling rise of white nationalism, Ardern left no doubt as to her belief.

She quickly labeled the heinous act a terrorist attack, and condemned white supremacist ideology, saying she believed her country was targeted because it “represents the values of diversity, kindness, compassion.”

Then she summed up her nation’s resolve.

“You may have chosen us, but we utterly reject you,” a steely Ardern said.

But Ardern was not satisfied with mere lofty words. The people of New Zealand – as do many citizenries reeling in the aftermath of such wanton carnage – wanted change.

She is vowing to deliver it. And she’s not wasting any time.

With in days Ardern said New Zealand gun laws would change.

The prime minister, who is vowing not to utter the name of the gunman and urging others to do likewise so as to deny him the platform he clearly wanted for his hateful white supremacist beliefs, also is launching an inquiry into her nation’s intelligence and security services.

Questions are being asked as to why these organizations failed to detect any hint of the attacker or his plans. Some have suggested the focus was on the Muslim community, which instead wound up as the target of a pure hate.

For the most part, New Zealand has stricter gun laws that those in the United States. They do share one common – and too often deadly – characteristic.

Assault weapons can be purchased legally, just as they are in the United States.

There are those who will question any move to ban the sale of assault weapons.

They question whether it would withstand a Second Amendment challenge, as well as if it would even halt the problem of mass shootings.

But as we reel from the latest mass shooting, and wonder about the evil walking openly – and increasingly defiantly – in our midst, it’s nice to know some officials realize the need for more than just “thoughts and prayers.”

We thank New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern for showing the way.