Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand on Thursday announced a national ban on all military-style semiautomatic weapons, all high-capacity ammunition magazines and all parts that allow weapons to be modified [the way the Las Vegas shooting did to carry out his massacre]. …
Ms. Ardern is expected to encounter little resistance to the weapons ban in Parliament; the largest opposition party quickly said it supported the measures.
(The New York Times, March 21, 2019)
It is notable that New Zealand’s equivalent of America’s NRA fully backs this legislation. More to the point, this shows how easily politicians can enact sensible gun-control legislation if they value saving lives above selling guns.
This is why it speaks volumes that, even though gun massacres are now commonplace in America, politicians here refuse to enact legislation that merely requires background checks before purchasing assault weapons. This, despite polls showing that over 80 percent of Americans support such legislation.
Many marvel at the cult-like influence President Trump wields over congressional Republicans. But the NRA was wielding similar influence long before Mr. Trump came to Washington. Because the NRA realized long ago that, if it could credibly threaten to unseat a member of Congress, it could get that member to support anything.
And, for its special interest, that means getting that member to support the unfettered sale of weapons of war to civilians. This, despite the all too foreseeable prospect of madmen using those weapons to kill innocent people, including school children.
Alas, members of Congress have demonstrated time and again that they really are just venal stooges. Even worse, they’ve demonstrated that they couldn’t care less about the consequences of their failure to enact legislation to ensure the general welfare of the American people. (Besides gun-control, think of their failure to enact legislation to control budget deficits, reduce the national debt, and combat climate change.)
Given that, only God knows what it’s going to take for the United States to emulate Australia and New Zealand by banning weapons of war for civilian use.
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