Mourning nation weighs in on guns
New Zealand will debate law changes
As New Zealand grappled with grief and horror on Sunday — two days after a gunman opened fire at two mosques in the city of Christchurch, killing at least 50 — Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said that her government would discuss the New Zealand’s gun laws at a meeting on Monday.
“There will be changes to our gun laws,” she said at an afternoon news conference, as authorities were racing to identify the massacre’s victims so that their families can bury them in accordance with Muslim tradition.
The terrorist attack appeared to have been carried out by a white nationalist — an Australian identified in court papers as Brenton Harrison Tarrant, 28 — who posted a racist manifesto online and streamed live video of 17 minutes of the rampage on Facebook.
The shooting has vaulted New Zealand into what could be a divisive political battle over gun control in the country, where an extraordinary number of people own weapons, with few restrictions. The authorities say the suspect in the assault used five guns he had acquired legally, including two semiautomatic assault weapons.
Within hours of the Friday killings, the prime minister promised changes to gun laws and said regulations of semiautomatic weapons were “one of the issues.” She also said she would look into reports that there had been a surge in gun sales in New Zealand since the attack on Friday.
Ms. Ardern added Sunday that the Australian suspect, who purportedly emailed her a copy of his manifesto minutes before the shooting began Friday, would be tried in New Zealand.
New Zealand’s attorney general, David Parker, appeared to go beyond that statement at a vigil for the victims on Saturday, indicating that semiautomatic weapons would be banned, but he later backtracked.
Mr. Parker told Radio New Zealand that he had been trying to reflect Ms. Ardern’s comments that “we need to ban some semiautomatics, perhaps all of them.”
“Those decisions have yet to be taken, but the prime minister has signaled that we are going to look at that issue,” Mr. Parker told the broadcaster.
Licensed New Zealand gun owners pushed back. The Kiwi Gun Blog, a gunrights online publication, said that among the mosque shooter’s goals, one was “to cause the gun rights of responsible New Zealanders to be attacked.” It said “our prime minister is now capitulating with him.”
Mr. Tarrant, the man charged in the Christchurch shootings, was a member of the Bruce Rifle Club in New Zealand, the club confirmed on Sunday. The club is about a 35-minute drive from Dunedin, New Zealand, where Mr. Tarrant lived. In a statement, the club said it had about 100 members, all of whom are licensed to own and use firearms.
In a live video on Facebook on Saturday, a former member of the New Zealand military named Pete Breidahl said he had reported the Bruce Rifle Club to the police years ago after a visit because he had “serious concerns about the mental stability of some of those members.”
He also posted an image of a comment dated Nov. 20, 2017, about the club, in which he said that at least half the members would be going home to “their mums basement and onto the internet for a night of heroic talk in gun forums.”
Scott Williams, the club’s vice president, declined to comment on Mr. Breidahl’s Facebook video.
There is no dispute that acquiring a military-style semiautomatic weapon is relatively easy in New Zealand, where guns are plentiful. According to a 2017 small arms survey, there are more than 1.2 million firearms among the population of 4.6 million.
Under New Zealand law, anyone 16 or older may seek a firearms license, and anyone 18 or older who has applied for a firearms license can seek a permit to possess a military-style semiautomatic weapon.
For their part, the police on Sunday said the death toll had risen to 50 as officials discovered another body at the mosque on Deans Avenue, where most of the victims had been killed. Another 50 people were injured.
“As of last night we were able to take all of the victims from both of those scenes and in doing so we have located a further victim,” said Mike Bush, New Zealand’s police commissioner.
Mr. Bush said a list of victims’ names has been compiled with the help of senior religious leaders and had been shared with family members. He said the list was an informal one, though, and officials would not confirm the names publicly until the bodies had been formally identified.
The bodies have not yet been released to the victims’ families, but Mr. Bush said he was conscious that Muslim religious practice requires prompt burial.
“We are aware of the cultural and religious needs so we are doing that as quickly and sensitively as possible,” he said.
Ms. Ardern said during the news conference Sunday that a few bodies would be returned to their families that night, and that she hoped all would be returned by Wednesday.