Christchurch City Councillor Has No Doubt Gun Laws Will Change After Terror Attack

16 March 2019, 11:33 | Updated: 16 March 2019, 12:21

A city councillor tells Matt Frei he expects New Zealand gun laws to change following an attack on a mosque in Christchurch.

Jamie Gough said that the attack has left him feeling "in disbelief" and hoping it was a nightmare.

"It almost feels as if you've been sucker-punched," he said.

"You walk around just in disbelief. I woke up this morning hoping that yesterday was a nightmare. It seems so surreal, but no most certainly real."

The attack has raised questions about the regulation of social media platforms, but also about gun legislation in New Zealand.

When Matt Frei asked how the attacker was able to get his hands on his weapons, Mr Gough said: "I think these are questions that everyone's asking, but right now we're not getting into probably the detail of it but instead supporting the families and getting by.

"But I think these are inevitable questions and I think they're in the back of everyone's mind.

He added: "The fact of the matter is that we have a Prime Minister who is saying the gun laws are just going to have to change, we're not quite like the United States, but obviously they're not good enough.

"People bang their heads against the wall when they see what happens in America with tragedies, and politicians just don't move and it seems like everyone else in the world is thinking what's wrong with you.

"I would certainly hope that New Zealand doesn't fall into that trap."

Mr Gough also said that he thought New Zealand sat in a "cocoon of naivety" in thinking terror atrocities don't happen there.

"I think we naively thought in New Zealand that this doesn't happen over here, and I think we sit here in some sort of cocoon of naivety.

"And then all of the sudden yesterday it most certainly did - this attacker picked Christchurch and it's absolutely horrifying.

"Evil doesn't discriminate and these people exist, I don't think it's indicative of New Zealand or any other part of the world necessarily, it just happened to have occurred here, it's unbelievable.

"What needs to define us is not the violence and the terror that occurred yesterday, I think it needs to be that we rise above that, that we are better than that. 

"We are community of kindness, respect, diversity, and tolerance, we're showing it today and I think we need to continue to show that so Christchurch's response to this horrific act of horror is kindness, and I think that that is the way we need to go."