New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is calling for change following the country's deadliest mass shooting ever.
On Friday morning, at least one shooter opened fire at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, leaving at least 49 dead and dozens more injured. Ardern qualified the shootings as a "terrorist attack" in a morning news conference, saying this will remain "one of New Zealand's darkest days."
Ardern revealed more details about the shooter in a news conference later in the day, saying the "primary perpetrator" used five guns in their attacks. They had a gun license to carry the "two semiautomatic weapons and two shotguns," and they got that license in November 2017, Ardern continued. So given that fact — and that there had been three failed "attempts" to change gun laws in the past — Ardern pledged "our gun laws will change."
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Friday's shooting tallied more homicides in one day than the 48 New Zealand saw in all of 2017. When homicides do rarely occur in the country, they largely do not involve firearms, Vox notes.
Three people were taken into custody following the shooting, and at least one of them has been charged with murder. One man who claimed responsibility for the attacks posted links to a white-nationalist, anti-immigrant manifesto on social media and identified himself as a racist. The victims were quite possibly migrants and refugees, Ardern said.
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