Same name, different missions: The National Rifle Association in the US and New Zealand

In New Zealand, the local gun organization will not be among those pushing against the new bans. In fact, the sorts of military-style weapons being targeted are already unwelcome in the New Zealand organization.

Before New Zealand shooting, visitors from India nearly doubled in four years — A makeshift memorial outside the Al Noor Mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, on Thursday. (Reuters)

Written by Jamie Tarabay

They share a name, and both espouse a love of guns, but beyond that, the National Rifle Association in New Zealand has little in common with America’s most powerful gun advocacy group.

The New Zealand organization, which has no formal connection to the NRA in the United States, is the country’s governing body for the sport of long-range target shooting. It does not engage in the sort of political lobbying for which the American group has built such a fierce reputation. And that helps explain why the New Zealand group’s reaction to the massacre at two mosques in Christchurch last week has borne little resemblance to how the U.S. NRA has responded to recent mass shootings in the United States.

On Thursday, six days after the Christchurch attacks, New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, announced a national ban on military-style semi-automatic weapons, on parts that allow guns to be modified into such weapons, and on high-capacity ammunition magazines.

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New Zealand bans sales of assault weapons

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says New Zealand is immediately banning sales of military style semi-automatic guns like the weapons used in the attacks on Christchurch mosques.