New Zealand MPs overwhelmingly back post-Christchurch gun ban

New Zealand’s parliament has voted to ban most semi-automatic weapons, less than a month after a deadly shooting attack on two mosques killed 50 people in Christchurch.

All but one MP voted in favour (119-1) of a gun reform bill after its final reading in parliament. It must receive royal assent from the governor general before it becomes law.

Brenton Tarrant, 28, a suspected white supremacist, was charged with 50 counts of murder after the attack on 15 March.

“New Zealand stands apart in its widespread availability of weapons of such destructive nature and force,” the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, told parliament on Wednesday. “Today that anomaly ends.”

The law outlaws military-style semi-automatic weapons and assault rifles, though some semi-automatic guns will still be allowed. All of the weapons used by the Christchurch gunman will be banned.

Ardern said the police commissioner Mike Bush had told her shortly after the attack that the gunman had obtained his arms legally.

“I could not fathom how weapons that could cause such destruction and large-scale death could have been obtained legally in this country. I could not fathom that,” she told parliament.

“I could not, hand on heart, go down and face not just the media, not just the public, but the victims that had been left behind from this terror attack and tell them, hand on heart, that our system and our laws allow these guns to be available and that was OK. Because it was not.

“I made a decision after that briefing that I would go down that day and, without having the chance to question the parliament, know that parliament would be with me. And they were.”

(THE GUARDIAN)