A fatal shooting in New Zealand has revived debate about the country’s gun laws, after two men were killed and 10 others injured in an attack in Auckland.
On Friday, police said the men killed were aged in their forties and worked at the construction site where the shooting took place. The gunman was identified as 24-year-old Matu Tangi Matua Reid, who also worked at the site and died at the scene.
Reid entered the construction site on Thursday with a pump-action shotgun, and opened fire as he moved through the 22-floor building. Ten people were injured in the attack, including two police officers.
Police were continuing to investigate the incident, interviewing more than 70 witnesses, but there remained no clear motive for the gunman’s actions. Police have not confirmed whether he was shot by an officer or took his own life.
The incident has brought fresh attention to an ongoing debate among political parties and the public about gun legislation.
Speaking to Radio New Zealand, police commissioner Andrew Coster said police had known “for some time that New Zealand’s firearm environment was not where we need it to be.”
The subject was widely discussed in the aftermath of the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings which sparked immediate changes to gun legislation, including the introduction of the recently opened firearms register.
Four months after the mosque shooting, the government launched a gun-buyback scheme. The government bought more than 10,000 firearms in the first month. The scheme followed on the heels of a bill passed by an almost complete parliament majority in April that immediately outlawed most automatic and semi-automatic weapons, and components that modify existing weapons.
As of June, all firearm license owners in New Zealand are required to register any arms and related items on a digital platform designed to track firearms and prevent them being obtained illegally. Licence holders have up to five years to enter their details in the register.
There are nearly a quarter of a million firearms license holders in New Zealand.
Coster said overseas precedent suggested the benefits of a register could take a decade or longer to emerge, but that “too many firearms were circulating in the wrong hands”.
It is not clear whether the firearm used by Reid had been registered. Pump-action shotguns are among the most common firearms in New Zealand, used for duck-hunting and on farms for pest control.
Lobbying group Gun Control New Zealand said that introduction of firearms registration in the European Union had been credited with making it more difficult for criminals to access firearms.
“A gun registry makes firearms owners much more accountable for their guns and less likely to lend a gun to their unlicensed mate or sell guns to organised crime groups,” it said.
The group said pump-action shotguns are “more dangerous than a bolt action rifle”.
“The Australian government only allows farmers to own them and they are limited to only a single shotgun. In New Zealand, anyone with a licence can buy as many pump-action shotguns as they like.”
Reid had a history of family violence and was the subject of a home detention sentence, but had an exemption to work at the building site where the shooting occurred, Coster said. Reid was monitored via an ankle bracelet monitor, and it was reported he had been participating in an anti-violence programme.
The attack has also prompted questions as to why the offender was on home detention on charges relating to violence, and how he was able to obtain a gun.
Prime minister Chris Hipkins said there would be a “full review into the circumstances into the shooter’s home detention.”
“I don’t want to prejudge that or make comment until we know the full context and full facts of the situation. There will be a full review undertaken into whether there were any red flags that could have identified something earlier.”
A postmortem on the victims and detailed scene examination were due to take place over the coming days. A heavy police presence remained at the site on Friday.
