Perspective: 'I gave up my gun after the New Zealand mosque shootings. Why are Americans mad at me for it?'
A military-style rifle is displayed at the Firing-Line indoor range and gun shop in Aurora, Colo. By John Hart John Hart is a farmer in Masterton, New Zealand. March 27 at 6:00 AM After the mosque shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand, some 310 miles from my home, I decided to give up my semiautomatic rifle. When mass shootings occurred in other countries, they’d always seemed like terrible abstractions to us, so it was incredibly jarring to see them happen here.
Until that Friday, I had always considered my weapon nothing more than a tool. Everything changed once I saw how devastating it can be in the wrong hands. How could I argue that this efficient killer was the only way to take care of my land? When I weighed its potential for harm against its convenience, the choice was obvious. I didn’t need an assault weapon.
Then Americans started seeing it, and they weren’t happy. Gun advocates in the United States bombarded my social media accounts, expressing shock and outrage that I had turned in my gun. They reacted as if I had surrendered some fundamental right or betrayed some important cause. “So you gave up the ability to defend your FAMILY and yourself because your thinking is all screwed up!” one commenter said. Another congratulated me on being “a future victim.
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