‘Please do not put our safety at risk again’
‘Here’s your migration compact!” These words were painted on a firearm used by the Christchurch terrorist. He had military-style semi-automatic weapons, along with various shotguns and rifles. and a Magnum. This person walked into Al-Noor mosque and shot people in the corridor and main prayer room until he ran out of ammunition. He retrieved more weapons from his vehicle, then returned to kill the injured. Shooting people as he left the mosque, he travelled to the Linwood Islamic Centre and continued his attack there.
The terrorist stated that he chose Aotearoa New Zealand as the location for his attack because of our lax gun laws at the time. He is Australian and could have chosen from hundreds of mosques in his home country. But the John Howard government had pushed through strict gun controls 12 days after the 1996 Port Arthur Massacre. His country wasn’t an option. Our country was.
The Islamic Women’s Council of New Zealand submitted on both the Arms (Prohibited Firearms, Magazines, and Parts) Amendment Act 2019 and the Arms Legislation Act 2020. I still recall speaking to the select committee mere weeks after the tragedy had occurred, sitting with the full force of grief fresh in my heart. It was a secondary grief, as I had neither been present during the attacks nor during the immediate aftermath. Mine had been a more distant role of advocacy and giving voice to the changes we needed.
Our submission noted the work done in 2016, which might have prevented these attacks had it been completed then. We recognised the rights of law-abiding gun owners, noting that these rights need to be balanced with the rights of citizens to be safe. We looked forward to the wider legislative reforms that were to come.
All parties bar one voted in favour of this legislation and Honourable Judith Collins “backed it strongly, saying it was one of the most important pieces of legislation that would be put through the House”, as one media report stated.
Later that year, when the second tranche of legislation was open to submissions, some of the commentary on social media was frightening. I walked into the select committee hearing in Kirikiriroa (Hamilton), with a non-sworn police staff member beside me and an officer seated at the back of the room. Local police responded to my fear that it took just one of those disgruntled people being angry enough with the provisions to cause significant harm. I continue to be grateful for the police support that day.
While the second tranche did not receive as near unanimous support, it did pass comfortably. Since then, there have been significant improvements to the licensee registration process, the buyback of illegal firearms, better training within the police, and work done to register firearms as well as owners.
During my presentation to the select committee, I quoted a paper published in the British Medical Journal (now BMJ), showing that “mass shooting rates dropped in states with restrictive laws as they accelerated in states with more lax ones”.
I also had a request to the Government: don’t use the Christchurch mosque attacks to justify this legislation. The first piece of firearms legislation after the mosque attacks was directly relevant to that event. This legislation, and any other, needs to stand or fall on its merits; it shouldn’t be tied to the Muslim community or to those 51 deaths. Please make sure your rhetoric and messaging does not divide any one community from others.
That message is still relevant today and for the future, regardless of the political alignment of the Government. We believed the second tranche of legislation did stand on its merits, and still does.
On this fifth anniversary of the attacks, I know our grief will be refreshed as we remember those who passed and those still living with the injuries and trauma. Whether they were present and survived, lost a loved one, or helped with burials and care, five years is not enough time to heal these wounds.
We can learn to carry on, be happy and be part of the community, but the grief is still there. It rises to the surface at unexpected moments, but sits with us all the time. We ask the new Government not to forget, just as we cannot. Please honour the statements made in April 2019, do not put our safety at risk again. We know arms manufacturers and retailers have a huge advantage in lobbying power, both with institutional and financial resources. It is difficult for impacted communities to compete with a powerful global lobby or a well-organised and long-standing local one. It is the role of the government to protect citizens and communities from those vested interests that will not put our wellbeing and safety first.
To quote John Howard: “People used to say to me, ‘You violated my human rights by taking away my gun’. And I’d tell them, ‘I understand that. Will you please understand the argument [that] the greatest human right of all is to live a safe life without fear of random murder?’.”