New Zealand's parliament has voted overwhelmingly to amend gun laws following the Christchurch mass shootings. The move comes less than a month after the mosque attacks that left 50 people dead.
The vote landed Wednesday at 119 to 1 in favor of an outright ban on military-style semi-automatic weapons, per a CNN report. As far as a timeline for when the move would affect citizens legally, that could go down as soon as this Friday if the bill is given royal assent by the governor-general.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern also confirmed Wednesday that a buyback initiative would be put into place.
Brenton Tarrant is due to again appear in court June 14 and faces multiple charges in connection with allegedly carrying out the attacks. Earlier this month, 28-year-old Tarrant—who is charged with 50 counts of murder and 39 counts of attempted murder—was ordered by a New Zealand judge to undergo two mental health exams to determine trial competency.
An estimated 17 minutes of the first attack are alleged to have been livestreamed by Tarrant on Facebook. "It seems he don't care what has been done," Tofazzal Alam, who was worshipping at one of the mosques during the attack, said of Tarrant's previous court appearance. "He has no emotion. He looks all right." Per CBS News, several survivors and victims' family members attended the hearing, where Tarrant appeared via video stream.
Controversy erupted last month when, in a statement on the attacks, Australian senator Fraser Anning blamed "Muslim immigration and violence." The comments were widely derided by other political leaders in the region.
