Page 8 - ARUBA TODAY

A8 WORLD NEWS
Friday 22 March 2019

New Zealand bans ‘military-style’ guns after mosque attacks

By JULIET WILLIAMS company will no longer
NICK PERRY stock any assault-style fire-
Associated Press arms and will also stop sell-
CHRISTCHURCH, New Zea- ing firearms online.
land (AP) — The govern- “What (Ardern’s) done is a
ment of New Zealand an- very brave move, and it’s
nounced a ban on “mili- the kind of move that can
tary-style” semi-automatic only be done in a common-
firearms and high-capacity law country where guns are
magazines Thursday, just a not a right,” said Alexander
week after such weapons Gillespie, a professor of in-
were used in attacks on ternational law at Waikato
two mosques in the city of University. “Guns are a real
Christchurch that killed 50 privilege. If there was a le-
people. gal right like there is in the
An immediate sales ban United States, this would be
went into effect to prevent much more difficult.” There
stockpiling and new laws are nearly 250,000 licensed
would be rushed through gun owners in New Zea-
Parliament that would im- land, which has a popula-
pose a complete ban on tion of 5 million. Officials es-
the weapons, Prime Minis- timate there are 1.5 million
ter Jacinda Ardern said. guns in the country.
“Every semi-automatic Ardern said people could
weapon used in the terror- hand over their prohibited
ist attack on Friday will be guns under an amnesty
banned,” Ardern said. while officials develop a
The prohibition includes In this March 20, 2019, photo, New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaks during a press formal buyback scheme,
semi-automatic guns or conference following the March 15 mosque shooting, in Christchurch, New Zealand. which could cost up to
shotguns that can be used Associated Press 200 million New Zealand
with a detachable maga- The ban does not apply action shotguns with non- does not have a constitu- dollars ($140 million). She
zine that holds more than to guns commonly used detachable magazines tional right to bear arms. said there will be “tightly
five rounds. It also applies by farmers and hunters, in- that hold up to five rounds. The announcement regulated” exemptions for
to accessories used to con- cluding semi-automatic .22 Ardern’s party controls a brought immediate com- some owners such as hunt-
vert guns into what the caliber or smaller guns that majority in Parliament, so parisons to the United ers and farmers.
government called “mili- hold up to 10 rounds, or passage of the legislation States, where contentious The government said the
tary-style” weapons. semi-automatic and pump- is expected. New Zealand debate over gun control police and military would
remains unresolved after be exempt. Access for in-
frequent mass killings. ternational shooting com-
Firearms experts said the petitions would also be
ban in New Zealand has considered.
wide support. The man charged in the
Polly Collins of Christchurch mosque attacks had pur-
was thrilled to hear of Ar- chased his weapons legally
dern’s announcement as using a standard firearms li-
she visited a memorial to cense and enhanced their
the victims. capacity by using 30-round
“The prime minister is amaz- magazines “done eas-
ing,” she said. “It’s not like in ily through a simple online
America, where they have purchase,” Ardern said.
all these things and then Although the exact weap-
they go ‘Oh yeah, we’ll ons used in the mosque
deal with the gun laws,’ attacks have not been an-
and nothing’s done.” nounced, images posted
One of New Zealand’s by the gunman show at
largest gun retailers, Hunt- least one of them to be a
ing & Fishing New semi-automatic rifle similar
Zealand, said it supports to an AR-15 that is widely
“any government measure available in New Zealand.
to permanently ban such Semi-automatic refers to a
weapons.” firearm’s ability to self-load,
“While we have sold them not only firing a bullet with
in the past to a small num- each trigger pull, but also
ber of customers, last reloading and making the
week’s events have forced firearm capable of firing
a reconsideration that again. The military versions
has led us to believe such most resembling the AR-15
weapons of war have no rifle are the M16 and M4
place in our business — or carbines, which can fire
our country,” chief execu- in semi-automatic mode,
tive Darren Jacobs said in three-round burst mode or
a statement. He said the fully automatic mode.q