I support gun law changes
Stuff reports:
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says gun laws will change after Friday’s deadly mass shooting in Christchurch.
On Friday, a gunman opened fire at a mosque on Deans Ave in Christchurch killing 41 people.
A further seven people were killed at the Linwood Ave mosque. Another one person has since died in hospital, and a further 48 are injured, two in a critical condition.
A 28-year-old man has been charged with murder and appeared in court on Saturday morning.
On Saturday morning, the prime minister said the main suspect was in possession of a gun licence, obtained in November 2017. Five guns were used in the attack including two semi-automatic weapons and two shotguns. A lever action firearm was also found.
On this issue, the PM has my support, and I suspect almost all of Parliament.
Yes terrorists can kill without guns. They use vans and knifes etc. But the death toll we saw in Christchurch would not have been as high as 49 without the access to guns.
Guns are validly needed for farming, hunting, etc. But I’ve never seen semi-automatics in the same light. There should be a massively high threshold for such guns, and the terrorist should not have been able to legally acquire them.
This is not an abstract debate. A gun is not the same as a knife or a van.
Yes I am aware the terrorist said in his manifesto he did this to cause gun laws in the United States to be tightened, so it would lead to a breakdown in US society. But people should be wary of taking his manifesto at face value. It is a propaganda document and at least some of it is trolling.
A good background on the problem with our current law.