New Zealand Prime Minster Jacinda Ardern expressed shock at the lack of action in the United States to implement gun control laws.
“You can draw a line and say that does not mean you need access to military-style semi-automatic weapons and assault rifles. You do not. And New Zealand has by and large absolutely agreed with that position,” Ardern said in a CNN interview.
“Australia experienced a massacre and changed their laws; New Zealand had its experience and changed its laws,” Ardern said, referring to the country’s mass shooting at Muslim mosques in March. More than 50 people were killed during the gunman’s attack.
In response to the mass shooting, Ardern pushed for more gun control, saying New Zealand “had pretty permissive gun legislation.” Ardern did say firearms have a use for hunting, but only certain guns should be sold.
“To be honest with you, I do not understand the United States,” she said.
Some of the new gun laws the New Zealand parliament passed after the mass shooting at Christchurch included a mandatory gun buyback, with an amnesty period until September 2019. The Evening Standard reports said there are only two exemptions: If the weapon is used for pest control on private and nonconservation land and if the weapon is a family heirloom.
The last time the gun laws in New Zealand were updated was after the country’s last major mass shooting in 1992.
[Opinion: New Zealand’s gun laws would be impossible to replicate in the US]
