John Hart couldn’t take his mind off the semi-automatic rifle in his gun cabinet.
The Masterton, New Zealand, farmer had purchased it legally under the country’s regular firearms license, and the weapon had none of the upgrades, such as high-capacity magazines, that would have rendered it a military-style rifle and thus subject to a tougher permitting process.
But such devices could be added easily enough, he knew, something that weighed on him in the aftermath of the March 15 attack on two Christchurch mosques that left 50 people dead.
“I looked in the gun cabinet and thought, ‘If somebody got hold of it, what’s to stop them from using it?'” Hart told the Washington Examiner. “Can I in all conscience keep it, knowing what it’s capable of? Do I really need it?”
The answer, he decided, was no. On farms and in rural areas, such weapons are primarily used to control pests, such as wild goats and pigs, and Hart had other guns that would remain legal.
So he took the semi-automatic to his local police station and surrendered it, an option long available to New Zealand residents and one that Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s government would later move to make mandatory for semi-automatic weapons.
In the week after the attack, New Zealand’s executive council changed firearm licensing requirements to immediately block sales of semi-automatic weapons and military-style rifles, which the Parliament expects to outlaw by early April.
That pace of change is virtually unheard of in the U.S., which has suffered a string of mass shootings in the past decade that have nonetheless yielded almost no changes in policy due to political gridlock in Washington. Republicans and even some Democrats are loath to support tighter gun controls, citing the Constitution’s Second Amendment, which guarantees the right to bear arms.
New Zealand’s actions have drawn praise from liberal lawmakers, including presidential contender Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and outspoken freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. The National Rifle Association has seized on such statements as proof of a desire to confiscate firearms.
“The recent stateside reaction to the New Zealand government’s actions has only served to further reveal this long-held but oft-concealed position,” the organization said in a statement. “It is up to all gun-rights supporters to ensure that everyone is made aware of U.S. anti-gun advocates’ actual objective and to work against all gun control measures that bring the U.S. closer to that target.”
Some residents of New Zealand complain that the NRA has extended its campaign for gun rights to their far-flung country.
Former Police Minister Judith Collins, who backs stronger firearms regulation, recalls receiving materials that cited the Second Amendment even though New Zealand doesn’t have one. She told the Sydney Morning Herald that the organization should “bugger off.”
The temporary block of semi-automatic weapons, meanwhile, illustrates just how confident the government is that Parliament will succeed in banning them outright.
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. The opposition National Party, which has 56 seats, also backs her plan.
“The terrorist attack in Christchurch last week has changed us as a nation,” said National Party leader Simon Bridges. “We agree that the public doesn’t need access to military style semi-automatic weapons. National supports them being banned, along with assault rifles.”
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 onetime 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.”
National’s support is crucial, in Hart’s opinion, since any measure pushed through along party lines could be easily reversed once the opposition regained power.
“Especially with things like gun control, if you haven’t got widespread political support, it’s not going to stick,” he said. “The prime minister and her team have come up with this piece of legislation which seems to tread the incredibly delicate balance between maximizing public safety by removing weapons but not imposing such a burden that legitimate owners, legitimate shooters, they wouldn’t comply with it.”
