Within a week of the massacre at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, that left 50 dead, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that the country had banned so-called assault rifles and established a national government buyback program to take those particular firearms off the streets.
“I strongly believe that the vast majority of legitimate gun owners in New Zealand will understand that these moves are in the national interest, and will take these changes in their stride,” Ardern said on Thursday. “What we’re banning today are the things that were used in last Friday’s attack.”
New Zealand also put a halt to all gun sales to prevent stockpiling. If firearm owners don’t comply with the new buyback program after the return period expires, they’ll be slapped with a hefty fine of $2,700 and sentenced up to three years imprisonment.
In the U.S., several prominent Democrats praised Ardern and the New Zealand government for their swift action and hoped for similar action in the States.
This is what real action to stop gun violence looks like. We must follow New Zealand’s lead, take on the NRA and ban the sale and distribution of assault weapons in the United States. https://t.co/lSAisDG9Ur
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) March 21, 2019
Sandy Hook happened 6 years ago and we can’t even get the Senate to hold a vote on universal background checks w/ #HR8.
Christchurch happened, and within days New Zealand acted to get weapons of war out of the consumer market.
This is what leadership looks like ⬇️ https://t.co/TcdR63anBt
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 21, 2019
Following New Zealand’s lead on gun control, however, is extremely difficult, if not downright impossible.
Many gun control advocates are attempting to push a one-size-fits-all approach to end gun violence — applying a system that could work very well for a tiny island nation of 4.8 million, but not a bubbling country of 327 million.
If Congress, in coordination with the executive branch, passed and signed comprehensive gun legislation into law, it would only go so far. The size and scope of enforcing the type of gun laws New Zealand implemented is enormous. Given how dedicated many Americans are to protecting their Second Amendment rights, a New Zealand-style government buyback program would be equivalent to confiscation.
The best hope American gun control advocates have is strengthening the flawed background check system.
For the time being, U.S. federal law requires background checks on all gun sales through a licensed gun dealer via the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. However, only a dozen or so states mandate background checks for private sales, i.e., sales not through a licensed gun dealer. Even then, guns can still get in the hands of people who intend to do harm due to a lack of enforcement across state lines.
While there are certainly incidents of gun violence that could be prevented if new laws were introduced, i.e., universal background checks and a national gun registry, enforcing the laws currently on the books is the key.
