Tag: gun ban

A Cautionary Tale: New Zealand Moves to Ban Semi-Automatic Guns

 

We saw it coming: after the horrific shooting on the mosques in Christchurch, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern warned the public that gun laws would change. The deed has been done.

Today, New Zealand began the process for banning “military style semiautomatic weapons, assault rifles and high-capacity magazines.”

These are the kinds of actions that government takes when people are afraid. Their decisions are knee-jerk reactions instead of ones giving serious consideration to the comprehensive question of mass shootings. We’ve seen our own anti-gun lobby try to capitalize on mass gun shootings and continue to argue that the guns are the problem, when we know that any person with a certain level of skill can turn handguns into weapons of mass destruction. But logic and common sense play no role here. Here is one comment from Ms. Ardern:

Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America are pleased to see pathetic levels of voter enthusiasm among Democrats in Texas and Georgia and they dissect the substantial personal debt afflicting the party’s nominee for governor in Georgia.  They also fire back as California Rep. Eric Swalwell argues for a ban on military-style semiautomatic rifles, a buyback program aimed at those who own such weapons, and criminal prosecution for anyone subsequently caught with one.  And they shake their heads over the 30-year-old man who took his parents to court for insisting he move out of their house.