Following PM Jacinda Ardern’s promise to tighten gun laws, New Zealander gun shops have registered a significant increase in sales. Peace activists and scientists have issued a call for an urgent moratorium on semi-automatic weapons – the type used in the Christchurch massacre – while changes are in process.
According to the call issued by the Peace Movement Aotearoa, “changes to the firearms legislation are not a knee-jerk reaction – they are twenty-two years overdue.”
Click here to access the full text of their call, recent updates on the issue and the full text of a statement released by experts in the Department of Public Health of the University of Otago (Wellington, NZ), which also recommends an urgent moratorium on sales, imports and advertising of semi-automatics until legislation is reformed.
Photo credit: RNZ