New Zealand ban on military-style guns to come into force from next month after Christchurch shootings

Military-style semi-automatic weapons and assault rifles will be banned in New Zealand from next month under tough new laws announced today by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

The announcement comes less than a week after 50 people were killed at two mosques, with Ms Ardern saying: “Our history changed forever. Now, our laws will too.”

The government will introduce a buy-back scheme to guarantee “fair and reasonable compensation” for gun owners as well as an amnesty period to give people time to hand over their weapons.

Semi-automatics will be prohibited from sale from April 11, but the crackdown will effectively begin immediately in an effort to prevent stock-piling of the weapons.

New Zealand is banning the sale of assault rifles and semi-automatic weapons with almost immediate effect, Prime Minister Jacinda Arden announced
AFP/Getty Images

Ms Ardern said she did not want to punish owners who used their guns for legitimate reasons, but believed the action was in everyone’s interests.

She said: “I have been steadfast in my belief that the vast majority of these owners will support what we are doing here today because it is about all of us.

Vigils in memory of New Zealand victims

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“It is in the national interest and it is about safety.”

Ms Ardern said the buy-back could cost up to NZ$200m (£104m) but “that is the price that we must pay to ensure the safety of our communities”.

Australian Brenton Tarrant, a self-proclaimed white supremacist, has been charged with one murder and is expected to face further charges.

He is said to have purchased his weapons legally using a standard firearms license and enhanced their capacity by using 30-round magazines.

Ms Ardern said: “Every semi-automatic weapon used in the terrorist attack on Friday will be banned,”

The ban was widely welcomed across New Zealand which in 2017 had the 17th highest rate of civilian firearm ownership in the world.

New Zealand’s main farm lobby group supported the new laws, with spokesman Miles Anderson saying: “This will not be popular among some of our members but we believe this is the only practicable solution. Christchurch, Friday March 15 has changed everything.”

More victims of the massacre were buried today including 14 year-old Sayyad Ahmad Milne, whose father wrote a poignant message in honour of his son.

“Kind, caring, loving,” he wrote of his child who had nearly died twice when he was born.

“My special little one who had to battle just to live right from the beginning…now there is a bigger hole in my heart than the one that bullet blew out of the exit point of it,” he added.

Semi-automatic weapons like those used in the New Zealand mosque shooting are to be banned

Linda Armstrong, 64, a third-generation New Zealander who converted to Islam in her 50s, was also buried, as were Hussein Mohamed Khalil Moustafa, 70, Matiullah Safi, 55, and Haji Mohammed Daoud Nabi.

New Zealand is expected to come to a halt tomorrow when a two minute silence will be observed across the nation in memory of those who died in last week’s massacre.

Preparations are also under way for a massive Friday prayer service to be led by the imam of one of the two New Zealand mosques where worshippers were killed.

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