New Zealand agrees to overhaul gun laws after mosque massacre

Bloomberg

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s Cabinet resolved on Monday to overhaul New Zealand’s gun laws after the nation’s worst mass shooting in modern history left 50 people dead.
Ardern told reporters in Wellington that ministers had made “in-principle decisions around the reform of our gun laws” and would make an announcement on the proposed changes before Cabinet meets again next Monday.
“This ultimately means that within 10 days of this horrific act of terrorism we will have announced reforms which will I believe will make our communities safer,” she said.
The nation is reeling from Friday’s apparently well-planned terrorist attack in which a gunman opened fire on worshippers in two mosques in the South Island city of Christchurch, and live-streamed the shootings to social media. Police recovered two semi-automatic weapons, two shotguns and a lever-action firearm, which the attacker could own legally because he had a category-A gun license.
New Zealand’s gun ownership rate has risen in the past decade to become one of the highest in the world, yet its homicide rate remains well below global norms as many of those weapons belong to hunters and farmers. The previous government in 2017 rejected recommendations from a parliamentary inquiry to tighten the laws.
Ardern has indicated her response to the mosque shootings may echo that taken in Australia, which enacted sweeping reforms after a massacre in 1996 left 35 people dead.
Brenton Tarrant, a 28-year-old Australian, appeared in court at the weekend charged with one count of murder and is likely to face further charges, according to police.