Prime Minister of New Zealand pledges to strengthen arms control after massacre in mosques

New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern promised on Saturday that the country would tighten arms access legislation after killing 49 people in two mosques in the city of Christchurch.

A few hours after the mbadacre that took place on Friday, Ardern revealed that the responsible He had legally purchased five heavy weapons, including two semi-automatic rifles.

New Zealand's access to arms regulation is more flexible than that of its neighbor, Australia, which has adopted a strict arms control regime after a similar mbadacre in 1996. According to Ardern, the government Australian Brenton Tarrant was licensed in November 2017 this allowed him to legally buy the heavy weapons that he used for the murder of both mosques.

"The mere fact that this person has obtained a license and acquired weapons with this power clearly incites people to seek change, and I am committed to it."said the official at a press conference" I can tell you one thing now: our gun laws will change", a point

Tarrant has been charged with murder, "but we will obviously make others," said the prime minister. "His intention was to continue these attacks" during his arrest, he added.

According to Ardern, neither Tarrant nor the other two people who remain under arrest have been the object of particular attention by intelligence agencies. "I asked our agencies this morning to work quickly to find out if there was an activity on social networks that could have triggered an answer, this work has already begun," he said.

New Zealand Police Association Chief Chris Cahill applauded Ardern's comments and recalled that previous attempts to adopt arms control have been rejected.

"I think a lot of people in our country must have been surprised to see that someone can get this arsenalhe said in a statement.

According to preliminary information, one of the weapons used by Tarrant was an AR-15 rifle, the same model that was used during several mbadacres in the United States, including that of the Sandy Hook School, in 2012.

New Zealand had adjusted its legislation on access to semi-automatic rifles in 1992, two years after a man with mental disorders shot dead 13 people in Aramoana, in the south of the country. However, efforts to enforce this law, including the ban on semi-automatic weapons, have been stalled in Parliament.

(With information from AFP and EFE)