To begin with, there has recently been a shooting having to do with terrorism in Christchurch, New Zealand. It has left 50 people dead and 20 people seriously injured. Three people were arrested in connection with the shooting. A 28-year-old man was charged with murder and the two others were arrested on suspicion of possession of firearms. A total of 48 people, including young children with gunshot wounds, were taken to hospital.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced, “our gun laws will change”. Apart from that, the United States has been trying to add in a law that eliminates guns for almost 10 years now, and the New Zealand Prime Minister managed to complete it from within a week. New Zealand’s parliament has voted overwhelmingly in favor of legislation to ban semi-automatic and military-style weapons. This was news received from the CNN News Station.

Apart from that, the president of the Islamic Association of New Zealand, Mustafa Farouk, said the speed with which the legislation was passed was necessary to honor the victims of the country’s worst-ever attack. “It tells our community that our government took what happened in Christchurch seriously. The laws also are part of telling the families of the victims that they will get justice.” Abdurahman, a shai’k in the Michigan Islamic community felt strongly in those very words and stated,” our government should do the same, The New Zealanders have the right to be protected from guns and so should we.” (<But translated in English)

Only people who legally obtained the firearms will be eligible. To date, more than 300 weapons have been handed over during the amnesty, which is set to last until the end of September. The amendments set to be passed into law are just the first in a set of reforms to the Arms Act which have been signaled by the Government. Its focus will now turn to reform the vetting process to address what the police minister describes as “long-debated” questions around gun registers and the licensing regime. ( Info provided from NBC News)

Finally, the New Zealand gun shooting incident had a big effect on us all. It warned us to fight for our rights. The prime minister changed the rules into making New Zealand safe for her people. We should have a right to do so too.