Pirate's Cove

Blaming the gun, rather than the people

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern expected to announce gun law changes following mosque shootings

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is expected to announce a ban on military-style semi-automatic weapons and tighter controls on gun ownership following a Cabinet meeting tomorrow that will focus entirely on the Christchurch mosque shootings.

Ardern has been firm that the country’s gun laws will change following the attacks on two mosques on Friday in which 50 people were killed.

She is also expected to announce a review of any failings of security agencies in the lead-up to the attacks.

Australian man Brenton Tarrant has been charged with murder over the shootings of worshippers at mosques in Linwood and Riccarton.

Ardern indicated she had the support of Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters for the changes, despite previous strong opposition from New Zealand First on the issue of tighter gun control.

“As I’ve already indicated, there will be changes to our gun laws. We will be discussing the more detailed policy at Cabinet tomorrow. Of course I’ve had conversations directly with the Deputy Prime Minister, as you would expect,” Ardern told reporters today.

But, are they looking to ban the scary looking rifles, which are exactly the same as the non-scary looking ones, or all semi-automatic rifles?

New Zealand bans semiautomatic rifles less than 24 hours after the Christchurch mass shooting. Imagine: elected officials putting public safety over gun manufacturers’ profits.

Americans deserve better than lawmakers who are letting gun lobbyists write our nation’s gun laws. https://t.co/TinWP7PSfM

— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) March 16, 2019

This seems to propose that all will be banned.

And then there’s this

Watts did not point out that the attacker possessed five guns–legally–and only two of those were semiautomatic rifles. Therefore, even with a ban, he would have possessed the majority of his weapons for the attack.

Moreover, Watts did not mention that New Zealand has all of the gun controls Democrats are pushing for in the U.S. None of those controls, however, prevented the mosque attacks.

On March 15, 2019, Breitbart News reported that New Zealand requires all would-be gun owners to acquire a license. The acquisition of that license includes background checks into criminal, mental, and health history. The checks also include interviews with immediate family and require the license applicant to submit third-party references. Once a license is obtained, the individual is allowed general firearm purchases. New Zealand Police noted that a “specific endorsement” is required if the individual wishes to buy a “military style semiautomatic, pistol, and restricted weapon.” And GunPolicy.org reported that “handguns, military-style semi-automatic and restricted firearms” have registration requirements not in place for general firearm purchases.

Despite all that, and that the the wacko Tarrant was not even a New Zealand citizen (Australian), the murder occurred. And, of course, we have wackos like this

Nobody needs an AR-15 to hunt.

Nobody needs a semi-automatic rifle to defend their home.

But mass shooters NEED these weapons in order to murder as many people as efficiently as possible.

And so nobody will miss them when they are illegal – except for the killers.

— Chris Murphy ???? (@ChrisMurphyCT) March 16, 2019

You can murder just as many people with a semi-auto handgun, which fires at the same rate as one of the “assault rifles”: one round per trigger pull. Further, no one really needs for semi-auto and automatic rifles to protect the Congressional buildings and congresspeople, right? Because the weapons are only for mass shooters. Why is Chris not calling to ban their use for protection?