After the gang attacks of the past few days, arrests have already been made and the public should absolutely expect a drop in gun crime in the city, the high-ranking officer said.
There were seven attacks on Tuesday, and two other shootings on Wednesday night, all linked to tensions among gangs.
Williams announced that the police will allocate six million dollars from the Crime Proceeds Fund to take actions that impact the removal of unregistered firearms from the streets.
I can’t say how many shootings could be expected in the coming days and weeks, but I am confident that the police have the resources to solve the problem, aided by government efforts to increase gun control measures after the terrorist attacks in the Christchurch mosques in 2019, she stated.
The police chief said that after these events, the security forces have removed 10,000 weapons from the streets in three years.
Gun control has been a hot topic for the administration of New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who is in the United States as part of a trade delegation.
Her visit to the US coincided with another shooting at a school in that country, this time in the town of Uvalde in the state of Texas; it has been the deadliest such an attack in a decade, in which 19 elementary school children and two teachers were shot dead.
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