New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern will visit Christchurch Friday and is set to release the second tranche of gun legislation and more funding for mental healthcare, ahead of the six-month anniversary of the mosque shootings.
In an attack broadcast live on Facebook, a lone gunman armed with semi-automatic weapons targeted Muslims attending Friday prayers on march 15th, killing 51 worshipers and injuring dozens of people.
The gunman faces a total of 51 charges of murder and 40 of attempted murder, as well as engaging in a terrorist act, which is a first under New Zealand’s terrorism suppression legislation introduced after the September 11th attacks in the U.S.
New Zealand’s worst peacetime mass shooting shook the country to its core and prompted the government to quickly tighten gun laws.
