The recent mass shooting in New Zealand has devastated their country. The religiously charged shooting took the lives of around 50 people and injured dozens in two mosques in the city of Christchurch. The response from New Zealand’s government to this heinous attack is unlike anything we have seen in America.
Instead of just discussing the changes that could possibly be made to prevent something like this from happening again, New Zealand’s prime minister has vowed that there will be changes to their gun laws within the next 10 days following her statement regarding the attack.
Mass shootings aren’t something that regularly happen in New Zealand. But in the U.S., they are. Since 1966, there have been 162 mass shootings in America. This information is likely not new to anyone reading it. Mass shootings are one of the biggest issues in America. When we talk about mass shootings, the conversation that directly follows is gun control.
Americans have a different relationship with guns than most countries. In America there is nearly one firearm for every person living in the U.S.– about 270 to 310 million guns. Firearms in the U.S. account for about 30-35 percent of guns in the world, in a country with less than 5 percent of the world population. Around a quarter of Americans are gun owners, ranking us the number one country for gun ownership in the world. Seventy-five percent of Americans are in favor of stricter gun laws, yet still no laws have changed as we as a country struggle to determine what restrictions should be put in place without infringing upon the rights of law-abiding citizens while still protecting the people.
These stats not only help to explain why mass shootings occur, but also why we have such a hard time legislating gun reform.
The American legislative process is molasses levels slow. The opposing opinions of the two sides of our government prevent this kind of immediate change to any laws like we’ll soon see in New Zealand.
But there are reasons beyond the surface as to why government is slow. We have a system designed to make it hard to implement huge changes quickly. For a law to pass it must go through two bodies of legislatures before being signed into action by the president. This is mainly to prevent legislation that may have negative secondary effects that we don’t see right away. So it’s a double-edged sword: Legislation is always scrutinized to make sure it won’t have negative repercussions, but when we are faced with a national crisis such as this one, it’s frustrating to the citizens who are supposed to be protected by the law when they simply aren’t.
What the U.S. government can take away from this example set by New Zealand is that buckling down and focusing on fixing an issue is in fact possible. New Zealand’s Parliament–though a little less complicated than U.S Congress – is at its core very similar to the U.S. legislative branch. Congress has the full capability to act quickly to make changes in our gun laws to protect its people. Probably not “10 days” quick, but more could be done to get past the stalemate we are currently in to find a solution to our mass shooting issue.
This immediate effort by the New Zealand government is a really great example of how quickly change can be made if the government is willing to make that change.
The issue in America sits in how we feel about guns as a whole. Owning a firearm is a fundamental right in this country. People hear “gun control” and what sticks out to them is “control”. Constituents and politicians alike fear that any sort of gun reform will lead us down a slippery slope that will end in the deprivation of our right to bear arms.
Nonetheless, anything more than “Thoughts and prayers” from politicians in hard times will mean something to the American people.
Mikayla Rochelle is a freshman studying journalism at Ohio University. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. What are your thoughts? Tell Mikayla by tweeting her at @mikayla_roch.
