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Editorial: New Zealand sets an example on gun control

 
Mourners lay flowers near the Al Noor mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, Thursday, March 21, 2019. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)
Mourners lay flowers near the Al Noor mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, Thursday, March 21, 2019. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)
Published March 21, 2019

Six days after 50 people were killed in attacks at two mosques, New Zealand moved to ban semiautomatic weapons and high capacity magazines. Yet Congress and the Florida Legislature have failed to take similar action after multiple mass shootings. While New Zealand is politically and culturally different than the United States, this nation also should summon the moral courage to take military style weapons off the streets.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced the new bans Thursday and is expected to receive strong support from the nation's Parliament. Officials said that five guns, including two AR-15 semiautomatic weapons, were used in the massacre and acquired legally. As the prime minister pointed out at a news conference, the goal is to eliminate the type of weapons used in the attack that can fire quickly and feature large capacity magazines. "It's about all of us, it's in the national interest and it's about safety," she said.

Yet facing similar circumstances, elected leaders in Florida and the nation have not responded with the same directness. High-capacity, rapid-firing weapons were not banned after 17 people were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland last year. Or after 49 people were killed at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando in 2016. Or after 58 were killed at the Las Vegas music concert in 2017. Or after 27 were killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Connecticut in 2012. In a country with far more mass shootings and other gun-related crimes, what is it going to take to act with the same sense of purpose as New Zealand?

To be sure, New Zealand and the United States are different nations. New Zealand's Parliament is elected differently than members of Congress and the Florida Legislature, who are more susceptible to the attitudes of voters in their single-member districts than they are to the national or state consensus. New Zealand does not have a Second Amendment, which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2008 protects an individual's right to own firearms even as the court also noted it was not declaring the "right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose." And while both countries have gun lobbying groups, the National Rifle Association is more publicly aggressive and a greater threat to politicians who stand up to it.

Former Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Legislature did react quickly to the Douglas High School shooting, writing new law in just three weeks last year that includes raising the age to buy rifles from 18 to 21 and banning bump stocks that enable weapons to fire more rapidly. But efforts to include bans on semi-automatic weapons and large capacity magazines failed even in the immediate aftermath of a massacre that deeply moved the state and the country.

It is not impossible to do the right thing. This nation had a national ban on assault weapons for a decade before the ban expired in 2004. Yet Congress has failed to act after every recent mass shooting. And now the Florida Legislature is again contemplating a plan to train and arm teachers. More guns are not the answer.

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Six days after a national tragedy, New Zealand acted decisively to ban what have become the weapons of choice in mass shootings. A year after the mass shooting in Parkland, Congress and the Florida Legislature still refuse to take the same responsible action.