New Zealand banned assault weapons. In US, it's more complicated

WASHINGTON: New Zealand's swift ban on semi-automatic weapons after the Christchurch massacre[1] showed how political courage can spur change, but in gun-obsessed America, lawmakers and activists desperate to curb firearm violence looked on with both admiration - and bitterness."Not thoughts. Not prayers. Action," urged Ted Deutch, a Democratic congressman from Florida where a deadly school shooting last year galvanised a youth gun control movement, but produced no tangible change to federal laws. Advertisement The speed of New Zealand's response - days after a white supremacist slaughtered 50 people at two mosques - stood in stark contrast to the congressional inaction that has followed a string of horrific mass shootings in the United States in recent years.READ: Christchurch shootings: New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern bans assault, semi-automatic rifles[2]Nearly 40,000 people were killed by firearms in the United States in 2017 - two thirds of them suicides - the highest annual toll in five decades, according to government figures.The numbers suggest Americans should be scrambling to clear the hurdles to combatting gun violence. Advertisement Advertisement Why aren't they? It's complicated."The role of guns in our society is very, very different. It goes way back as part of our culture, unfortunately," Democratic congressman John Yarmouth told CNN on Thursday (Mar 21).The United States has more firearms than people. Frontier culture and a form of rugged individualism, forged in the 19th century American settlement westward, persist. Citizens can legally carry firearms in some state capitols.Gun control efforts have always proved divisive, and Republican lawmakers have been highly successful at preventing what they describe as an assault on their right to bear arms under the Second Amendment of the US Constitution.SANDY HOOK ... THEN NOTHINGLittle has been done at the federal level to rein in gun sales, broaden background checks, or prevent people who may pose a threat from

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