U.S. Democrats rally as New Zealand bans semi-automatic firearms

New Zealand moved with relative light-speed political urgency to ban semiautomatic weapons in the wake of Friday’s massacre at two Christchurch mosques, sparking a discussion in Washington: If a ban could happen there, could it also happen here? Democrats looking for a similar path will face different obstacles in a country where gun rights enshrined in the Constitution have been impervious to a row of mass killings. New Zealand has a tradition of hunting and shooting as sport similar to the United States, but there is no legal provision to own weapons for self-defense.