Some of Hollywood’s biggest stars took to social media en masse to praise the gun ban New Zealand enacted after the tragic Christchurch shooting.
Breitbart News reported that Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced a ban on “military-style” semiautomatic rifles and “high-capacity” magazines. The ban also covers certain gun parts. New Zealand’s Arms (Military Style Semi-automatic Firearms) Order 2019 explains that the banned weapons consist of:
A semi-automatic firearm that is capable of being used in combination with a detachable magazine (other than one designed to hold 0.22-inch or less rimfire cartridges) that is capable of holding more than 5 cartridges.
A semi-automatic firearm that is a shotgun and that is capable of being used in combination with a detachable magazine that is capable of holding more than 5 cartridges.
Hollywood’s pro-gun control advocates were ecstatic.
Alyssa Milano tweeted:
Actress and Everytown for Gun Safety gun control proponent Julianne Moore said, This is what a leader does. #NewZealandStrong.”
Debra Messing used an Instagram post to praise Prime Minister Ardern, saying, “THIS is what Leadership looks like. Thank you for being a model for the world.”
Michael Moore used a tweet to laud Ardern as well, writing, “What a true world leader looks like. The prime minister of New Zealand put on a hijab, said ‘They are us,’ announced the gun laws we’re going to change and called out white supremacists, haters and Donald Trump. She’s 38. SHE.”
Mia Farrow tweeted:
Susan Sarandon tweeted: “Ms. Ardern’s plan for immediate gun policy changes, announced six days after a mass shooting, stands in stark contrast to the stalemate and resistance to change that has stymied similar calls for restrictions on firearms in the United States.”
Bette Midler opined:
Michael Kelly tweeted about having a crush on Prime Minister, writing:
Missing from any of these social media posts is a sliver of evidence that banning a certain category of guns will make people safer, especially when the guns banned are not the most popular guns for killers to use.
Our nation had an “assault weapons” ban at one time and 2004 Department of Justice National Institute of Justice (NIJ) study showed the ban could not be credited with any reduction in crime. The NIJ noted that one of the reasons the ban was ineffectual was because “assault weapons” were not actually a weapon of choice for criminals when the ban took effect.
And in January 2019 the DOJ released a study showing handguns are the weapons of choice for criminals. The study looked at roughly 300,000 federal and state inmates, finding that 18 percent of them used handguns in the commission of their crimes while only 1.4 percent used rifles of any kind. The percentage of “assault weapons” used would have necessarily been even lower than 1.4 because rifles of any kind includes bolt-action, breech action, pump action, and semi-action. Only the later category would contain guns falling under the category of “assault weapons.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.