New Zealand to change gun laws after mosque massacre

Bloomberg

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she will change gun laws as the country reels from a terrorist attack at two mosques that left 49 people dead and several still fighting for their lives.
“While the nation grapples with a form of grief and anger that we have not experienced before, we are seeking answers,” Ardern told a news conference in Wellington on Saturday morning. “I can tell you one thing right now, our guns laws will change.”
In what Ardern has described as a well-planned terrorist attack, a shooter walked into a packed mosque in the South Island city of Christchurch and opened fire on worshippers, filming and live-streaming the act to social media. After killing 41 people there, he drove to another mosque and continued the massacre, murdering a further seven people. Another person died in hospital.
Christchurch hospital is treating 39 injured people, 11 of whom are in a critical condition, chief of surgery Greg Robertson said. He said a four-year-old girl, also critically injured, has been flown to Starship children’s hospital in Auckland.
Brenton Tarrant, a 28-year-old Australian man, appeared in the Christchurch District Court on Saturday charged with murder. He entered no plea and was remanded in custody until April 5, police said. They are still assessing whether two other arrested people were involved in the attacks.
New Zealand’s cabinet will discuss gun laws at its next meeting on Monday, Ardern said later Saturday in Christchurch after meeting the families of victims. There are a range of issues not just limited to potentially banning certain weapons but also modification of guns which can make them more lethal, she said.
Cabinet will also receive reports on issues around the adequacy of security and intelligence service monitoring, the process around security watch-lists and whether border protections are in the status they should be, Ardern said.
Ardern said Tarrant has traveled around the world with sporadic periods of time spent in New Zealand. He was not a resident of Christchurch and most recently lived in the southern city of Dunedin, she said. He was a member of the Bruce Rifle Club in the south Otago town of Milton, New Zealand media outlet Stuff reported.
Tarrant spent an extended period of time in Turkey and authorities “are currently investigating the suspect’s movements and contacts within the country,” the Turkish government said in a statement. He may also have traveled to countries in Europe, Asia and Africa, it said.
Tarrant posted a manifesto online before the attack, suggesting a racially motivated act of terrorism. In a rambling document that’s dozens of pages long, he says he was inspired by Norwegian terrorist Anders Behring Breivik, who was responsible for the deaths of 77 people in 2011.
Ardern said police have recovered two semi-automatic weapons, two shotguns and a lever-action firearm. The accused had a category-A gun license which meant he could legally buy the weapons he used, she said.