OPINION: New Zealand a Model for How to React to Shootings
New Zealand Police Minister Stuart Nash, left, speaks during a press conference with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern at the Parliament House in Wellington on March 21, 2019.
Last month, 50 people died and 50 were injured in shootings by a terrorist with white supremacist leanings at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. New Zealand took new approach to dealing with the mass shooting, one the U.S. has never tried before: Instead of New Zealand’s government simply encouraging the country to send thoughts and prayers to the families of those affected, they actually did something to prevent future attacks. And they deserve some applause for taking action.
Within 24 hours after the attack, New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, announced that New Zealand would be changing its gun laws. Ardern’s plan is to ban semi-automatics, assault rifles, and high-capacity magazines. She considers these to be military-style weapons and will no longer allow citizens to be in possession of one. These are the weapons that the shooter had when he attacked the mosques.
Currently, there are three citizens for every gun in circulation. New Zealand will be buying back these guns from citizens, a project that will cost the government approximately $100-200 million. However, no one can put a price on people’s lives. New Zealand’s Parliament overwhelmingly backed the prime minister’s bill Tuesday.
Notice how it took New Zealand two shootings and a day to decide to do something. They are setting a standard for how tragic shootings should be dealt with. Meanwhile, the U.S. continues with the plan of praying and thinking.
Australia did something similar to New Zealand back in ‘96 and as a result, saw a major decrease in gun-related deaths. Citizens can still own a gun; they just can’t own guns that were created specifically to kill people.
Just because people have the right to own a firearm doesn’t mean they have the right to own every firearm. No one is trying to destroy the Second Amendment; however, if our country is expected to continue to be one of the major world powers, then change needs to happen. It’s part of life.
Further, the most advanced rifle during the time of our Founding Fathers still had bayonets. They never imagined that people would be breaking into schools or religious buildings or gay bars and shooting innocent people with military-style weapons.
Gun reform doesn’t mean the government is coming to take everyone’s guns; it means that the government cares enough about its citizens to ban and buy back guns that are used in war.
New Zealand decided to take action, leaving America dumbstruck. New Zealand is setting a standard that the U.S. should really consider meeting.
Emily Goetz is a ninth grader who enjoys any kind of writing. This is her first year at BASH CUB and she looks forward to the opportunity to work with...
Echo • Apr 8, 2019 at 11:21 am
Eh, up for debate
austin holiday • Apr 9, 2019 at 9:52 am
How is that up for debate. Those are legit facts. Those facts don’t care about your feelings. Can you please tell me how me response was debatable? I would really like to understand your opinion on my response
austin holiday • Apr 5, 2019 at 12:09 pm
This is wrong and I disagree. the response that the prime minister gave and implied was more of a emotional response rather than a factual response. there are almost 1.2 million guns in new Zealand in 2017. And the entire country of new Zealand had around 40 murders. And most of those were not by weapons. and now there talking about criminalizing presumably hundreds of thousands of people who don’t turn over their guns. And making people turn over their weapons just because of a terrible incident would not work. And the democrats or the left leaning side people of politics said that they were not trying to get rid of guns and now are almost completely getting rid of guns. You also said they are trying to get rid of semi-automatics. Which is a pistol technically, because it is a single shot. And most murders are caused by pistols in the USA. So those new Zealand citizens have a right to own weapons. And in america we have the second amendment that is deeply embedded into american culture. and if your going to pick country’s that are good examples of why gun confiscation is needed, new Zealand is not one of them. New Zealand had about 40 murders in the entire country in 2017, in a country with about four and a half million people. Also if you look at Chicago and their murder rates, you can see that they are extremely high for being a heavily gun controlled area. Also if you look at all the leaders who took weapons away from their own people, like Hitler, Stalin, the Venezuelan government they all failed because they were idiots and could not listen and understand to history. Also when you said earlier in your essay, you said that they want to ban weapons that are military weapons, and as you said the semi automatic, fully automatic and high capacity magazines. Most guns that are semi automatic are the ones that look scary. But those guns that look scary are less deadly than what you call a hunting gun. And some pistols have more or the same power as an AR-15. So banning guns that look scary do not work. And most weapons are used all over the world in any armed forces. You can also not change a law just because a single shooting happened. That is absurd. And mostly all guns are used to kill people during war and hunting. Also you said WE shouldn’t have the right to own every firearm, the people who normally cant own firearms are convicts. Also to get a firearm is very hard to do because of how strict we are with guns. And to own a automatic weapon, you must have a very special license that is very hard to get. And you also said that our founding fathers would never expect to see people do despicable things. They also knew that if something did happen, they new that people would fight back. But you did say the government isn’t trying to take away everyone guns. Which is false, because most guns are the type of guns you said, semi and auto. Almost every single gun made is semi and automatic. And for the finally thing that is wrong that you said is that they did decide to take action. But many actions that our world have experienced have been bad and good. And statistically this is a big mistake on new Zealand part. And if they bought every single gun in their country, the money spent is crazy. Instead of putting the country in more debt and more expenses being used on something that going to hurt you country economically is terrible. Maybe instead of buying weapons and destroying them. You should encourage guns to keep the country safe. Because statistically your your information is incorrect
A response to this would be nice
links: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vT0xHrshRsg
https://www.npr.org/2019/03/15/703737499/in-new-zealand-mass-shootings-are-very-rare
austin holiday • Apr 5, 2019 at 11:40 am
This is wrong and I disagree. the response that the prime minister gave and implied was more of a emotional response rather than a factual response. there are almost 1.2 million guns in new Zealand in 2017. and the entire country of new Zealand had around 40 murders. And most of those were not by weapons. and now there talking about criminalizing presumably hundreds of thousands of people who don’t turn over their guns. and making people turn over their weapons just because of a terrible incident would not work. And the democrats or the left leaning side people of politics said that they were not trying to get rid of guns and now are almost completely getting rid of guns. you also said they are trying to get rid of semi-automatics. Which is a pistol technically, because it is a single shot. And most murders are caused by pistols in the USA. So those new Zealand citizens have a right to own weapons. and in america we have the second amendment that is deeply embedded into american culture. and if your going to pick country’s that are good examples of why gun confiscation is needed, new Zealand is not one of them. New Zealand had about 40 murders in the entire country in 2017, in a country with about four and a half million people. Also if you look at Chicago and their murder rates, you can see that they are extremely high for being a heavily gun controlled area. Also if you look at all the leaders who took weapons away from their own people, like Hitler, Stalin, the Venezuelan government they all failed because they were idiots and could not listen and understand to history. Also when you said earlier in your essay, you said that they want to ban weapons that are military weapons, and as you said the semi automatic, fully automatic and high capacity magazines. most guns that are semi automatic are the ones that look scary. But those guns that look scary are less deadly than what you call a hunting gun. and some pistols have more or the same power as an AR-15. so banning guns that look scary do not work. and most weapons are used all over the world in any armed forces. You can also not change a law just because a single shooting happened. that is absurd. and mostly all guns are used to kill people during war and hunting. Also you said WE shouldn’t have the right to own every firearm, the people who normally cant own firearms are convicts. also to get a firearm is very hard to do because of how strict we are with guns. and to own a automatic weapon, you must have a very special license that is very hard to get.