New Zealand passes new gun law
The Parliament of New Zealand has passed the law for banning the semi-automatic and military-style weapons overwhelmingly especially after the country was rocked by attacks on two mosques in Christchurch. The legislation has been proposed by the Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern within days of the brutal shootout carried out by a gunman in two mosques, leaving 50 people dead.
PM told the Parliament, “We are here because of them, and I believe they are here with us, supporting what we are doing here because these weapons are designed to kill, and they were designed to main and that is what they did on the 15th of March”.
The new legislation has also imposed a ban on the pump action shotguns with detachable and non-detachable magazines and parts that enable firearms which need to be converted into robust weapons. Surprisingly, the bill was passed with only one member, not in favour of the same from amongst the 120 parliamentarians. The legislation is called the “The Arms (Prohibited Firearms, Magazine and parts) Amendment Bill.
It is furnished that the gun attack on the two mosques had been carried out by a twenty-eight-year-old Brenton Tarrant who confessed that he is a white supremacist and had purchased the weapons legally via online mode and had modified the capacity of the same using a 30-round magazine. Tarrant is said to have an A category gun licence, which is the standard licence for gun owners in New Zealand.
PM also said, “I cannot fathom how weapons that could cause such destruction and large-scale death could have been obtained legally in this country. We are here as an almost united Parliament… there have been very few occasions when I have seen Parliament come together in this way and I can not imagine circumstances where that is more necessary than it is now”.
The passing of the legislation is seen as the first step for added safety of the country. The Bill still needs the Royal Assent by the governor-general of New Zealand, which is a mere formality, and will pass on Friday i.e. exactly four weeks after the attack had taken place. It has just taken less than two weeks for the legislation to pass and gun owners were only given one day to make suitable oral statements about the new laws. Farouk also said that the law is proof that the interest of wider society is greater than individuals.
