U.S.A. — A mass shooting at a construction site in Auckland, N.Z. Thursday has provided plenty of evidence that gun control failure is a global problem, and that gun prohibitionists can be as ignorant of firearms facts elsewhere as they are in the United States.
According to The Guardian, two men were killed and ten others were injured when a 24-year-old man with a pump shotgun opened fire. The killer was identified as Matu Tangi Matua Reid. He reportedly also worked at the construction site. Two of the injured were police officers.
It did not take long for New Zealand anti-gunners to start talking.
The report said Gun Control New Zealand, defending the establishment of gun registration in the country, declared:
“A gun registry makes firearms owners much more accountable for their guns and less likely to lend a gun to their unlicensed mate or sell guns to organized crime groups.”
But the suspect, who was killed, got his hands on a gun anyway, and the conversation ramped up when the gun control group asserted that pump-action shotguns are “more dangerous than a bolt action rifle.” This appears to be straight out of the proverbial “gun control playbook,” which is to simply demonize the specific type of firearm antis want to ban.
The group continued using rhetoric which seems hauntingly familiar to statements made by U.S. gun ban groups looking to whittle down the number of privately-owned firearms, one type at a time. This time around, it’s pump shotguns.
“The Australian government only allows farmers to own them and they are limited to only a single shotgun. In New Zealand, anyone with a licence can buy as many pump-action shotguns as they like,” the group reportedly said.
The BBC noted that the suspect “did not have a license to own a firearm.”
New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has promised a full investigation. It will likely find that all gun control laws cannot keep firearms out of the hands of people intent on committing mayhem.
A separate report in The Guardian revealed Reid had a somewhat violent criminal history and, not unlike some American troublemakers, he was on home detention for a previous crime. According to The Guardian, Reid had been sentenced in March 2021 to five months of home detention related to an assault in which he “struck and strangled” a woman, leaving her with a broken neck bone. At the time, he was also “serving a sentence of supervision following an earlier assault,” the newspaper said.
The report acknowledged authorities in the island nation are now wondering why Reid was on home detention and how he was able to get his hands on the shotgun. These are questions being asked here in the U.S. every time somebody with a violent history commits a multiple killing.
For example, authorities in Louisiana are still investigating a fatal double shooting at a shipyard in Harvey, in which the suspect was arrested in 2018 for “simple robbery,” and he was “under active probation” until earlier this year.
Last month, one of the suspects in a deadly shooting in Lebanon, PA reportedly “has a criminal record and was wearing an ankle monitor at the time of the shooting,” according to WGAL News. He was out on bail at the time of the incident, which left two youngsters and a 19-year-old dead.
So far, no motive has been established for the Auckland shooting.
The incident may have gotten additional attention because it occurred only hours before the Women’s World Cup tournament got underway in the city. There did not appear to be any connection between the shooting and the tournament.
The last high-profile shooting incident in New Zealand was in 2019 in Christchurch, in which a killer attacked two different mosques in the city, killing 51 people. After that incident, then-Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern declared gun laws would “change.” The government quickly passed the Arms (Prohibited Firearms, Magazines, and Parts) Amendment Act 2019, according to Wikipedia, resulting in the “buy back” of tens of thousands of firearms.
Based on what occurred last week in Auckland, those gun controls did not prevent another tragedy, but instead of acknowledging this, New Zealand officials will likely double down and push for even stricter laws than are now on the books.
About Dave Workman
Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms, and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.
The LIE is that there IS NO GUN VIOLENCE AT ALL!!
An INANIMATE OBJECT CANNOT BE VIOLENT.
ANY inanimate object can be used by a VIOLENT CRIMINAL/TERRORIST/KILLER.
Even a ROCK can be used to BE VIOLENTLY USED by a CRIMINAL! Just ask the first CONVICTED MURDERER(Cain)!!!!
I read it that way too MM. maybe if it read “The truth about it is there is no gun violence at all.” Or “The lie is there is such a thing thing as Gun violence…” the part I find funny is of all your posts I’ve ever read, you tend to make that point… it’s ok, I’m sure at least one of them will defend the schooling they received, because the truth about it is, either they didn’t get that point in English class, or they had bad schooling…
is even stranger than that. The record issimply silent as to what the murder weapin was. Could have been a rock, club, axe, knife, rope…. but the tool used is so irrelevant it is not even mentioned.
Nope, its hever the arrow its always the indian
never the hardware, always the software.
Murder lies in the HEART of the murderer. That’s what the bible says about the Cain incident. Once it gets there, the rest is irrelevant, not even worth mentioning. And certainly can never be banned or regulated.
If there had been just one more law, this shooting wouldn’t have happened. Because he would have obeyed it, unlike all the others he violated.
but, but, but…..
i thought this would never happen because they wisely took away all those scary bad guns.
there must hve been a few bad guns that refused to admit their evil lurking within, and they managed tohide themselves to not get taken up and put into the scrapyard photo we all laughed at. Now all they have to do is find the rest of those evil guns and send them off to the gulags or furnaces. Problem solved…. in their pea-sized minds. Problem is that in a construction site like where this happened, there are all manner of tools and items that can easily be used to kill. Take all those tools away, no workgets done. Its… Read more »
New Zealand was the fastest gun grab to police state I’ve ever seen or heard of.
Next to Germany!
No, Weimar was disarmed by the western allies and took years before it was threatened enough by communists to elect those guys. NZ took months.
Why is it when a cop shoots someone we blame the cop, but when someone else shoots someone we blame the gun?
SO TRUE SO TRUE!
it’s almost as if they have never heard of the black market. and the batfe.
Once again, it’s the person not the tool that is to blame!!
Sorry laddyboy and musicman, there is no such thing as gun violence. There IS violence with guns, and knives, and hammers etc…
Guns are inanimate objects and cannot animate themselves to do anything.
The term “gun violence” is a construct of the anti-gun crowd; therefore, it should be avoided completely so we don’t help their narrative. We should always use the term “violence with guns” and follow that by stating who (the who is the important part) committed the act.
Dictators love gun control as it leads to total control over all disarmed servants . Give up your guns and you give up your freedom and means of self defense , it’s that simple .
“A gun registry makes firearms owners much more accountable for their guns and less likely to lend a gun to their unlicensed mate or sell guns to organized crime groups.” – New Zealand
A system of licensing and registration is the perfect device to deny gun ownership to the bourgeoisie. – Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
Gun control was never about stopping murders or violence, it’s about stopping resistance to govt or even individual tyranny. Question is, why are there so many willing to FORCE you to give up your guns to allow govt or other to dictate our lives? Do we really have that many Communists Fascists in this world and America?
Dave, before the trolls begin their off-the-meds tirades I want to be clear that I am a combat vet who STRONGLY believes in the Second Amendment. I am a member of the 2nd Amendment Foundation, GOA, USCCA, VA Citizens Defense League, and CCRKBA. I am also a life member of the NRA, fervently wishing for a coup within that organization to clear out the clowns who have demeaned a once great organization. Also a life member of VVA and DAV. This should make my politics crystal clear to most. That said, I must take issue with your question “Will anyone… Read more »
Cn you cite the mass shooting in New Zealand previous to the one back in 2019?No? Why not? Because there ISN”T one!!! That was tthr first such incident in the nation’s history, other than military actions against people groups such as the Maori… And their close sister nation have a similar history. There was ONE mass shooting, Tasmania if I remember aright, back a couple decades. They used that to disarm as many as were honest and foolish enough to surrender their hardware.Amnd the jmbers clearly reveal that after “gun control” had “disarmed” Australia, violece of various srts began to… Read more »
Actually, there have been several mass shootings in NZ prior to the 2019 incident, but didn’t feel it necessary to list them as my point had been made comparing the two most recent. Interestingly, the others are few and even further apart: Raurimu, 8 Feb 1997, 6 dead 4 wounded, sawed off shotgun; Bain family murders, 20 June 1994, 5 dead, 22 semi-auto; Schlaepfer family murders, 20 May 1992, 7 dead; Aramoana, 13 February 1990, 5 dead. Readers will undoubtedly draw their own conclusions which is, of course, one of the reasons we engage in these discussions.
It’s about people control…
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/may/30/calls-to-ban-verney-carrons-fast-lever-action-rifle-in-australia
https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/australia-bans-rifles-that-look-like-assault-rifles/
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/australia-bans-bolt-action-rifle-because-of-its-scary-appearance
(The links in this no longer work as both the Brisbane News Facebook page and YouTube have conveniently removed the content).
It is always blame the gun not the person.
If a father pulls his belt off and whips his child was it the belt that committed the act?
Anyone ever hear of a tennis ball bomb ?
They are deadly so let’s restrict or outlaw tennis balls. Silly, yes
If a person wants to go where there is no violence then heaven is the place, until then blame the snake in the garden of eden
no, blame MAN for being rebellious enough to listen to the snake rather than the God who made both.
When we finally decide to handle these matters like grown-up and responsible adults and begin to prosecute these guns for all the crime they are committing we will soon be on the right track. Now, I did throw a LOT of sarcasm in that statement, however, if the left keeps blaming the guns, then the state is going to have to start presenting these guns to grand juries for indictments and prosecutions alike. Only THEN will these chuckleheads figure out that they are all talking out their ass.
Seeing how the sheep in new zealand allowed their government to treat them during covid, it tells me that they are all ignorant.
Were you trying to make a joke? New Zealand is noted for its sheep farming where wool is one of New Zealand’s major exports! Good on ‘ya, mate!