The New Zealand Mosque Shootings
Last month, two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, were targeted by a terrorist attack. A white supremacist armed with different assault rifles killed fifty Muslim worshippers.
While mass shootings like this rarely happen in New Zealand, these kinds of tragedies are actually comparatively common in the United States. Last year, the United States had 307 shootings. On the other hand, New Zealand’s last major shooting was the Raurimu massacre in 1997, which killed six and injured four others.
The two countries have very different gun laws, which could explain the difference. And three days after this most recent tragedy, New Zealand strengthened their gun laws even further, banning military-style assault weapons. Is it time the United States consider a similar law?
Eastside student Brandon Nichols thinks so. “I think the government should make this a consideration,” he says. “It could lessen the fatalities and shootings in the US.”
Eastside freshman Jeremy Avila agrees. “If the US were to take up the same laws as New Zealand, the US would probably have half the shootings. That would be great.”
