New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Monday that the country will have new gun control proposals “within 10 days” following last week’s mass shootings at two mosques that killed at least 50 people.
“Within 10 days of this horrific act of terrorism we will have announced reforms which will, I believe, make our community safer,” Ardern said at a weekly Cabinet meeting, according to CNN.
{mosads}She also said that the “worst act of terrorism on our shores” had exposed flaws in the current gun control framework and that ministers had agreed “in principle” to reform.
The primary suspect, an Australian citizen who has been charged with murder, obtained a gun license in November 2017 and legally purchased the weapons reportedly used in the massacre.
It’s not immediately clear what new restrictions will be implemented, but Ardern has mentioned that two semi-automatic weapons were used in the shooting.
Ardern acknowledged that the short timeline for reforms might worry some gun owners, but said that they would be on board.
“I strongly believe that the vast majority of gun owners in New Zealand will agree with the sentiment that change needs to occur,” she explained.
The country’s most deadly shooting before Friday’s came in 1990, when a gunman killed 13 people in Aramoana.
Following that incident, New Zealand passed an amendment regulating military-style semi-automatic firearms.