And while many other countries — most notably the United States — have experienced high rates of gun homicides, New Zealand has been largely immune. Friday’s mass shooting at two mosques, claiming the lives of at least 49 people, could change all that. The rate of gun violence in New Zealand is lower than any one single state in the United States, according to statistics from GunPolicy.org. Neighboring Australia also had a long history of gun ownership. That changed after a series of mass shootings in the 1990s, capping with a massacre at Port Arthur in Tasmania where 35 people were killed in that nation’s deadliest mass shooting.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer March 16, 2019 02:26 UTC