The Christchurch Mosque shooting of March 15, 2019 catalyzed New Zealand’s gun law reform and increased scrutiny surrounding the use of social media as a primary source of information following this tragic event. As Alnsour describes in a recount of the events, White supremacist Brenton Harrison Tarrant began his attack on Al Noor Mosque, shooting at about 190 worshippers before driving to the Linwood Mosque to continue his rampage on another 100 worshippers. Tarrant killed 51 people with the use of 5 different guns, all of which he had legally purchased before he was arrested by the police.
Alnsour discusses the epidemiological aspects of this attack through a mixed-method study conducted on the community of Christchurch Muslims to assess the long-term psychosocial impacts of the shooting. A sample of 200 individuals was recruited through both self-reporting measures and diagnostic interviews conducted by clinicians. The study faced limitations around accurate representation within the sample as researchers found victims to be reluctant to participate due to the traumatic nature of the event. They also faced a roadblock within the cultural stigma surrounding mental health within the community. While the first phase of the study was conducted with a longitudinal design, Alnsour explains that this limitation in representation was combatted in the analysis by the use of logistic regression to predict the mental disorder against a series of behavioral variables pre- and post-event.
Media was utilized as a broadcasting platform to allow the events of the shooting to reach larger audiences including the immediate communities surrounding the Mosques as well as worldwide in the chance that this shooting was part of a larger terrorist attack. While media has often been used as a positive tool in the spread of awareness and information, in the case of this shooting the events were live-streamed via Facebook which led to a discussion on the glorification of the shooting and the disrespect of the victims and their families. New Zealand did ban and criminalize sharing of the video.
Overall, the management of response to the shooting was handled appropriately with first responders acting in a fast and efficient manner. Some issues arose primarily in cultural awareness and competencies which also encompassed religious burial practices of the Muslim victims of the shooting. Alnsour makes a very strong argument that despite the rapid response time of the police and the efficiency in treating the injured and identifying the victims, the real issue is the “negligence in the gun laws that allowed for such unfit a person to be able to obtain so many guns.” Since this fatal event, New Zealand has moved to enforce stricter gun laws and banned the selling of military-style assault rifles.
Read the case study here.