Authorities say nearly 3,000 guns made lawful under new scheme, as expiry to hand over firearms ended at midnight on Friday
New Zealand police have confirmed that more than 56,000 guns were handed in as part of the buyback and have praised gun owners for their response to the scheme, which ended at midnight.
“As of midnight, 20 December 2019, 56,240 firearms and 194, 245 parts have been handed in,” said deputy police commissioner, Mike Clement.
Continue reading...New Zealanders who refuse to hand in their now illegal weapons may alienate the community and expose themselves to prosecution
The New Zealand gun buy back ends today. The very fact that semi-automatic weapons are now prohibited and the buyback took place is a success. Politicians, supported by 70% of the public, are changing the direction of travel for New Zealand gun culture. This country had climbed to an estimated 17th highest number of guns per capita in the world. Three decades of plaintive warnings about the need to ban semi-assault rifles before another massacre took place, had no effect.
The primary aim of the buyback is prevention of future mass killings by taking these guns out of society and compensating the previous owners. Prevention is a poor servant and a hard master.
Continue reading...Police admit that at least one person had been able to access other firearm owners’ personal information online
New Zealand’s high profile gun buyback scheme, enacted by the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, after the Christchurch mosque attacks, has been thrown into disarray after police admitted that at least one person had been able to access other firearm owners’ personal information online.
The error became public on Monday when a gun lobby group said it had spoken to 15 people who were able to access information on a website where firearms owners registered weapons to be relinquished. It included their names, addresses, dates of birth, firearms licence numbers and bank account details, the group said.
Continue reading...The mosque attacks rocked New Zealand but good deeds and generosity will help keep us together
The day of 15 March 2019 will stay with me forever. I was working in my bedroom, listening to radio and drawing. The on-air chat and music was interrupted as news of a shooting at a mosque in Christchurch began to filter through. How could this possibly be happening in our quiet little island tucked away at the bottom of the world?
I brushed it off as some sort of mistake, until news of a shooting at a second mosque emerged minutes later. While witnesses and locals reported the horror that had just unfolded, I scrolled online looking for some sort of explanation, a way to make sense of it – and found everyone was lost for words as I was.
Continue reading...Extreme rightwing groups in Australia will remain an ‘enduring threat’, according to annual report from Australia’s spy agency
The threat from extreme rightwing terrorism in Australia has increased in recent years and will remain an “enduring threat”, according to Australia’s spy agency.
The Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation issued the warning in its latest annual report, adding that “extreme rightwing groups in Australia are more cohesive and organised than they have been in previous years”.
Continue reading...Trial of man accused of killing 51 people at two mosques set to begin in June next year
The man accused of killing 51 people at two mosques in New Zealand in March has withdrawn an application to have the trial moved away from Christchurch, the city where the attacks occurred.
The decision was announced at the high court in Christchurch, where the accused man, Australian Brenton Tarrant, appeared via a video link from a high-security prison in Auckland.
Continue reading...Centre-right MPs say the policy must be part of any coalition agreement after September’s elections
Austria’s centre-right People’s party has said it will insist on the banning of the far-right Identitarian Movement as a condition of any coalition after parliamentary elections next month.
Such a ban “must be in the next coalition agreement,” the People’s party (OeVP) parliamentary group leader August Woeginger said in a statement released to Austrian media.
Continue reading...New Zealand government admits prisoner’s mail ‘should have been withheld’
The alleged gunman in the Christchurch mosque attacks that killed 51 people has been exchanging letters with white supremacists from his maximum security jail cell at Auckland’s Paremoremo prison, the New Zealand government has confirmed.
A letter from Brenton Tarrant was sent to a supporter in early July and experts say it can be read as a “call to arms” for white supremacists worldwide. The letter was posted to the anonymous message board 4chan, which has become notorious as a place for white supremacists to post their views.
Continue reading...Fresh atrocities in El Paso and Norway bring back the pain of New Zealand’s worst mass-shooting
It’s just gone lunch time at al Noor mosque in central Christchurch and a handful of men gather to pray. They bend down on a thick blue carpet, newly installed, and sit up to face walls gleaming with fresh plaster and paint. In the corner, one young man appears to be quietly crying.
“We’ve replaced everything, everything,” says worshipper Murray Stirling, 52, gesturing around the main prayer room, now serene and bathed in winter sunshine. “There’s no physical trace left of what he did to us.”
Continue reading...Police praise response after thousands of now-banned guns taken out of circulation in less than a month
More than 10,000 firearms have been bought by New Zealand’s government in less than a month as part of its gun buyback scheme following the Christchurch mosque shootings in March.
Following the killing of 51 people in two inner-city Christchurch mosques by an Australian white supremacist, prime minister Jacinda Ardern’s government rushed through legislation to ban military-style semi-automatic weapons and set aside NZ$150m to buy firearms that were now illegal.
Continue reading...Australian prime minister convinces world leaders to take action following the Christchurch massacre
The world’s leaders have pushed social media giants to root out terrorism and violent extremist content on the internet.
The Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, earned a victory at the G20 summit by convincing all leaders of the world’s major economies to agree to take action, inspired by the live-streamed Christchurch massacre.
Continue reading...Investigation widens to include Martin Sellner’s fiancee Brittany Pettibone following her contact with Australian far-right figure Blair Cottrell
The Austrian identitarian leader, Martin Sellner, has been subjected to further searches by Austrian police in connection with the Christchurch shooter, according to Austrian media reports and videos on Sellner’s own YouTube channel.
The investigation has also reportedly widened to include Sellner’s US-based fiancee, Brittany Pettibone, and her own alleged connections with Australian far-right figure Blair Cottrell.
Continue reading...Trial to be held in May 2020 for Australian man who faces 51 murder charges, 40 of attempted murder and one terrorism charge
Australian Brenton Tarrant has pleaded not guilty to all charges in relation to the Christchurch mosque shootings in New Zealand.
Tarrant, 28, is facing 51 charges of murder, 40 of attempted murder and one of engaging in a terrorist act. The trial, estimated to take six weeks, will go ahead on 4 May, 2020.
Continue reading...Jacinda Ardern and Emmanuel Macron met companies and G7 nations in Paris for Christchurch Call summit
World leaders and heads of global technology companies have pledged at a Paris summit to tackle terrorist and extremist violence online in what they described as an “unprecedented agreement”.
Wednesday’s event, organised two months to the day since the Christchurch massacre in New Zealand, drew up a “plan of action” to be adopted by countries and companies to prevent extreme material going viral on the internet.
Continue reading...New Zealand prime minister says laws changed after massacres in her country and in Australia
New Zealand’s prime minister has said she cannot understand America’s failure to ban automatic and semi-automatic guns, despite dozens of mass shootings.
Jacinda Ardern told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in unusually blunt language: “Australia experienced a massacre and changed its laws. New Zealand has had its experience and changed its laws. To be honest with you, I don’t understand the United States.”
Continue reading...New Zealand PM will reportedly urge nations to enforce laws banning extremist material and set rules for reporting on terrorism
Details have emerged of a plan by New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern and French president Emmanuel Macron to eliminate terrorist and violent content online.
Ardern and Macron will meet in Paris this week on the sidelines of a meeting of digital ministers from the Group of 7 nations to discuss the plan – named the “Christchurch Call” – and urge other leaders to sign up.
Continue reading...Reporting guidelines devised and signed by five major news organisations
New Zealand media organisations have taken the unprecedented step of agreeing to censor their reporting of the trial of the man accused of the Christchurch mosque massacre in an attempt to contain the dissemination of his white supremacist beliefs.
On 15 March a shooter killed 50 people in two Christchurch mosques, the largest mass shooting in New Zealand’s modern history.
Continue reading...Antisemitic screed says 19-year-old was motivated by New Zealand mosque massacres and Pittsburgh synagogue shooting
• Full report: one dead and three injured in synagogue shooting
The 19-year-old California man detained by police after a hate-motivated shooting at a synagogue near San Diego claimed to have been motivated by the deadly attack on two mosques in New Zealand last month.
Police in the US said the gunman, named as John T Earnest, opened fire inside the synagogue in Poway, about 30 kilometres north of San Diego, killing one person and injuring three others including a rabbi.
Continue reading...Duke of Cambridge and Jacinda Ardern press noses as part of hongi during visit to honour those affected by the Christchurch attacks
Prince William has joined Jacinda Ardern at Anzac commemorations in New Zealand in the wake of the Christchurch mosque attacks.
The pair shared an intimate hongi [Māori nose press] and espoused the values of freedom, democracy, and peace where they attended a service in Auckland before travelling to Christchurch to meet with survivors.
Continue reading...John Edwards calls out social media giant after Christchurch attack for refusing to accept responsibility for harm
New Zealand’s privacy commissioner has lashed out at social media giant Facebook in the wake of the Christchurch attacks, calling the company “morally bankrupt pathological liars”.
The commissioner used his personal Twitter page to lambast the social network, which has also drawn the ire of prime minister Jacinda Ardern for hosting a livestream of the attacks that left 50 dead, which was then copied and shared all over the internet.
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