Staring down a construction site full of workers, a crazed gunman attacked people indiscriminately in Auckland, New Zealand, early on July 20th, just hours before New Zealand was set to open the 2023 Women’s World Cup. Found dead, the gunman is said to have been upset over his former work at the construction site.
New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins condemned the attack and announced that this was indeed an isolated incident and that the games would proceed as scheduled. With even tighter security in place, the game took place with Hipkins showing his support at the game. Yet the crowd was still visibly jarred. With attacks like these so rare in the country, many did not know how to react.
In a sign of solidarity with the victims, a moment of silence was held, and they honored the victims, including a police officer and four civilians who were injured in the attack.
According to Police Commissioner Andrew Coster, the shooter was a 24-year-old who had a history of family violence. He has been serving a period of home arrest but had been granted an exemption to work at the building site, and they connected the shooting to his work there.
Armed with a shotgun, the man moved around the unfinished building, firing as people fled and hid. At one point, he found himself looking to hide, and he found an elevator shaft to barricade himself in. That’s when the Auckland version of SWAT moved in. According to Coster, “The offender fired at police, injuring an officer. Shots were exchanged, and the offender was later found deceased.”
During his appearance with the media, Coster was unable to say definitively if the shooter had taken his own life or if the SWAT officers had taken it for him. He did say that the man lacked a gun license and, as such, should not have been able to possess a firearm, even though the shotgun he had was not a banned firearm.
PM Hipkins was quick to praise the officers. Their response came in just minutes, and their decision to rush towards the gunfire is something many of the law enforcement in this country could take a lesson or two from. Occurring in the vicinity of the hotels where the teams for the Women’s World Cup have been staying, it’s not too shocking that the police have such an incredible response time.
With armed officers responding, Auckland’s downtown was quickly placed on lockdown, including the incredibly popular downtown ferry terminal. Police ordered crowds to disperse and put offices on strict lockdowns and shelter in place.
Following the county’s worst mass shooting ever back in 2019, Prime Minister Jacinda Arden banned most semiautomatic firearms within a month. Only a single member of Parliament was against the ban, and their subsequent gun buyback program saw 50,000 of the newly banned weapons turned over for cash.
This is the liberal dream for gun control. Except, as any map can show, New Zealand is an island and rather segregated. While still close-ish to Australia, they are both islands. Meanwhile, the US is in the middle of Canada and Mexico and has direct connections to Central and South America. Guns flow into and out of the US like the water that rolls up on our shores, and that’s just the ones we hear of.
The US can never do what New Zealand did. We simply are not capable of it, and it’s a damn good thing. The corruption that is ever-present in our political system has encouraged the liberals to increase their illicit activities and manipulate the system in ways that greatly benefit them and their supporters. Keeping our Second Amendment intact is the only way to ensure we prevent them from crossing over to true corruption.
Much like door locks keep honest people honest, the Second Amendment keeps corrupt politicians from becoming true tyrants.
