New Zealand takes first step toward gun ban days after mass shooting

On Thursday, New Zealand’s executive council changed firearm licensing requirements to immediately block sales of semi-automatic weapons and military-style rifles that the Parliament expects to outlaw by early April.

The suspect in the Christchurch killings relied on two guns that were obtained legally, Ardern said. He used a standard “A” category firearms license that allows people aged 16 or older to own an unlimited number of sporting rifles or shotguns, then added 30-plus-round magazines that effectively turned them into military-style weapons.

Through an “order in council,” a mandate akin to an executive order in the U.S., the country’s executive council on Thursday began requiring an “E” category endorsement to its standard “A” license for these weapons. That endorsement, basically a permit obtained from police that allows the purchase of such a weapon, is available only to those 18 and older who are deemed fit.

The move shows New Zealand has confidence that the Parliament will act next month to ban the weapons entirely.

“We did not wish to allow a situation where irresponsible dealers continue to sell weapons that will be banned within a few weeks,” Ardern said. “No one will be able to buy these weapons without a permit to procure from police. I can assure people there is no point in applying for such a permit.”

New Zealand officials themselves back up her assessment. In that country, “it is a privilege and not a right to own guns,” Police Minister Stuart Nash said during a news conference in which Ardern detailed her response to one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in the country’s modern history.

The next step for New Zealand will come next month, when the Parliament holds a two-week session to consider legislation to outlaw such weapons and high-capacity magazines, Ardern said. Her governing coalition will let them pass whatever ban they want, as long as the coalition holds.

Ardern’s Labor Party has 46 seats in the 120-member legislative body, and she holds power thanks to a coalition with the New Zealand First party, which has seven seats, and the Green Party, which has eight.

Passing or revising a law in New Zealand requires three votes in Parliament, the second of which typically follows a six-month committee review, and approval by the governor-general, a representative of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, since New Zealand remains a part of the Commonwealth of one-time colonies. Ardern is expediting the committee review in this case, urging people who want to offer input to do so quickly.

Exemptions from the ban will be available, particularly for rural landowners who use such weapons for pest control, and a buyback program will be offered to residents who purchased the guns legally.

“We do have guns in New Zealand that are used for legitimate purposes by responsible owners every single day,” Ardern said. “The vast majority of these owners will support what we’re doing here today. It’s about all of us. It’s in the national interest, and it’s about safety.”

The pace of change in New Zealand is unheard of in the U.S., which has seen several mass shootings across the country over the last few years that have each time yielded almost no changes due to political gridlock in Washington. Republicans and even some Democrats are loathe to support tighter gun controls in the country, citing the Second Amendment to the Constitution that guarantees people’s right to bear arms.

The brick wall has led Democrats to argue for years that the National Rifle Association has an iron grip on Congress that prevents reforms, even in the face of dozens of tragedies.

But the timing of the New Zealand shooting has led to new calls for gun control in the U.S., including from Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, and rising Democratic star Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.

Even so, those calls have led to pushback from the U.S. gun lobby, which is making it clear that just because New Zealand can act quickly doesn’t mean the U.S. can.

“First, define ‘assault weapon,” said Dana Loesch, a spokeswoman for the National Rifle Association. “Words are important and certain laws come into play depending on which words are used, so define this. Secondly, the U.S. isn’t New Zealand. While they do not have an inalienable right to bear arms and to self defense, we do.”