Is Gun Reform In New Zealand Really Working?
Is Gun Reform In New Zealand Really Working?
CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand — It’s been a year since he was shot in the spine while praying in a mosque, but Rahimi Ahmad still feels constant pain.
On March 15, 2019, a white supremacist allegedly killed 51 Muslim worshippers in a terrorist attack on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. “We heard a very loud sound: ‘bang bang’ … two times. We heard the people at the back scream ‘run, run’! Shooter!” Ahmad said. “I got shot. I thought this is my final day.”
Twenty-eight-year-old Brenton Tarrant has pleaded not guilty to the killings, the attempted murders of 40 people and one charge of terrorism. He goes on trial in June.
The massacre left deep scars — and radically changed the firearms laws in the small South Pacific country. Within 28 days, the prime minister pushed sweeping reforms that banned the military-style semi-automatic weapons allegedly used by Tarrant.
More than 60,000 now-illegal weapons were handed into the government at a series of buyback programs that ended on December 20. The government paid out U.S. $60 million as compensation.
But the success of the reform is still up for debate — and no one knows just how many people didn’t turn in their guns at all.
VICE News traveled to New Zealand and met with police, a gun retailer and gangs to assess the ongoing impact of the mosque massacres and the law reform that followed.
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The only people who got their firearms taken were the law-abiding citizens. A criminal would never hand over their firearm in a buyback. Recent times have said that even without access to a firearm, death can still be caused. Law-abiding citizens are the ones who suffer. Law-abiding citizens are the only ones who will be left without a firearm.
I’m sad, another reason to leave new Zealand.
My place of birth is such a disappointment…
Time will tell.
oh vice lol. so glad i dont live in a country where people think the government has their best interests at heart lol.
Interesting that they had to film persons not in a gang but grouped them as if they are/were 🤔 #fact checking much 🤦♀️
The sheep saw a wolf kill a sheep with its teeth. The sheep removed all their own teeth for their own protection.
How can a government buy back something they never owned?
Let the government ban them just order a gun on the darknet ak47 wat ever u want pistol semis it be in New zealand in a week
I’m convinced new Zealand is run by nazis because they did exactly what the shooter wanted
Perfect excuse to prive citizens from owning weapons.
When you ban objects for problems you’re not looking at the problem.
No
The answer is NO!
Estimate no. of banned guns in NZ in 2019: 170k
No. of banned guns handed in: 56k
No. of registered banned guns in NZ in 2019: 15k
No. of registered banned guns handed in: 14k
If 1000 registered guns can ‘go missing’, then thousands of unregistered guns going missing can be considered normal!
No. It’s not helping….just had a mass stabbing. Gotta ban knives next!
I wonder how many criminals participated in the gun buy back program.
does vice know how big america is??
What a joke
Look at Australia now I bet you those people wish they had a gun
so wait you mean to tell me gun laws don’t stop bad people form being bad people? "I am shocked, Shocked! well not that shocked"
wow comunist countries are stupid
Large scale deeeth? Lol
Funny how it’s OK for the police to stereotype us when they want more control, but not OK for us stereotype them. When they say, "it was an isolated incident" referring to a bad cop, we too can say the same thing when referring to a bad gun owner. Maybe we should ban the police too.
New Zealand circa 2019;
Population 5,000,000
U.N. Estimate of firearms in civilian hands; 1,700,000 (probably far underestimated) which means 30 firearms per 100 people, probably closer to or exceeding 50 per 100. One of the highest gun ownership rates in the world.
An average of around 30 murders per year, many NOT by firearm and where so NOT by licensed gun owners,
i.e. criminal (by definition; a person who breaks laws). Licensed gun owners account for 1% of ‘gun crime’ defined as anything from misdemeanor to murder.
Answer to, albeit tragic and unpardonable, one off attack by foreign looney with illegally modified automatic weapon….ban all automatic weapons in the hands of law abiding New Zealand citizens. Seriously consider banning anything more dangerous than a BB gun.
no
Absolutely gross how they disarmed the law abiding public in Europa.
No, no it’s not
Glad the nz police established criteria for what both success and failure would have looked like post confiscation….. except they didn’t and there was no way they would accept any other answer.
And here we are a year later. New Zealand mass stabbing and a knife ban. Wild
To me. It’s made no difference
"it’s a safer place" says the man who carries a gun with him everywhere he goes.
No, no it isn’t
"Semi-automatics shouldn’t be used at the rate they were" You mean the one guy that shot up a place once who shouldn’t have had his. That one time it was a problem because the police and intelligence services didn’t do their job.
For the silly comments like : gun reform doesn’t work…
Have you ever heard of a mass shooting in Japan ? 😂😂
Black market gonna operate now and every nzer will have an ar15
So can somebody from N.Z. tell me they banned the AR-15 style action but any other semiauto rifle is ok to own??
Talk about knives now lol….eventually assault vehicles are gonna be banned
Shootings are still going on here….gangs mostly….legal fire arms owners paid the price…handed in their guns …criminals kept theirs…theres still heaps of guns in NZ….stupid law makes the people that sat their licences and store their guns correctly…got made criminals overnight…….
Most of the guns not handed in, are not owned by the person who purchased it. They swap the guns they buy for crack they get off the gangmembers, thats why they cant hand them back in. Dont listen to MMM Waikato they dont fued with anyone around them. If you look elsewhere youll see gang incident, after incident of gun use especially recently. This doco was made by people who want guns in everyday peoples hands.
This should be called when ignorant tyrants make laws.
Well the whole reasoning was to slow the process of becoming a fully armed police country
At this point New Zealand police are classified as ready armed Not fully armed
This mean they have red tape to jump in order to get the guns out .(Fully armed trials are being run in West Auckland)
The reasoning is the increases of semi automatic guns being confiscated
and the increases of new gang members in the number of 40 thousand over a 14 year period
In my opinion any chance to slow becoming fully armed is good but at this rate its inevitable
I see you vice, trying to want this for America. Everyone tries to pin gun violence on guns themselves. It’s PEOPLE that create violence. It’s already illegal to kill someone. It’s illegal to commit violence towards others. Yet people still do it. You can create all the laws in the world but that’s still not going to solve the problem. If someone wants you dead, they’ll find a way.
When New Zealand finally rounds up all the guns me and some buddies are going to invade and take over.
That guy is a dealer in death! Sickening
She asked a gun store owner, a cop and a gang haha. The gun store complained about gun control, the cop said he’s doing what he can given the reality of the situation and the gang said they don’t commit crime. Then comment section is like, "nah, not working; cuz vice inferred it, and they’re cool". Just another day on planet earth
Now they are going to ban knives. Can’t wait til the car ban.
Interview a gun store owner on his view on firearms. Joke.
The answer "NOPE"
The gun ban actually MADE IT WORSE
We have had more officers shot at now then ever before thanks to Comrade ardern and her stupid by back
Wait so is it still legal to own a pistol??
What I conclude from this report is the laws were ineffectual.