New Zealand’s swift change to gun laws highlights 25 years of US inaction | World news

New Zealand’s sweeping new ban on a range of semi-automatic rifles and large ammunition magazines[1], which came just six days after a mass shooting in Christchurch, has been hailed as the “fastest response ever by a government after a tragedy”. In the US, where conservative politicians have blocked even moderate gun control for 25 years, New Zealand’s swift action was greeted as a powerful inspiration – and a reminder of how far behind the country is. “Sandy Hook happened six years ago and we can’t even get the Senate to hold a vote on universal background checks,” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the New York congresswoman, wrote on Twitter, referring to the 2012 shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, that left 20 children and six educators dead. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) Sandy Hook happened 6 years ago and we can’t even get the Senate to hold a vote on universal background checks w/ #HR8[2].Christchurch happened, and within days New Zealand acted to get weapons of war out of the consumer market.This is what leadership looks like ⬇️ https://t.co/TcdR63anBt[3] March 21, 2019[4] “This is what leadership looks like,” David Hogg, one of the students from Parkland, Florida, who founded the March for Our Lives movement for gun control after a shooting at their school[5] last February, tweeted, sharing a video of the announcement by New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern. Some Democratic presidential candidates have already pledged to support a ban on assault weapons – though one that would probably be much more limited that New Zealand’s. “We must follow New Zealand’s lead, take on the NRA and ban the sale and distribution of assault weapons in the United States,” tweeted the Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate who has been attacked for his mixed record on gun control in the past. “We had an

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