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Ambulance staff take a man from outside a mosque in central Christchurch, New Zealand, Friday, March 15, 2019. A witness says many people have been killed in a mass shooting at a mosque in the New Zealand city of Christchurch. (AP Photo/Mark Baker) Mass shootings here and around the world, spark strong emotions about guns and gun control. Parisima Taeb, once a candidate for state representative, said ban them all. “Elected officials need to take leadership in order to get these guns of war off our streets to keep our community safe,” Taeb said. But gun expert Aaron Forum said that is not the solution. “We need to focus on other methods to prevent active shootings, mental health,” Forum said. “It’s much more complicated than just banning the tool that’s been used in these events.” In New Zealand, days after the mass shooting in a mosque that left 50 people dead, it announced a total ban on assault weapons and high capacity magazines. It will likely be ratified next month. “A lot harder to do something like that in the United States [then] like a country like New Zealand,” Forum said. That is because our nation’s constitution protects the right to gun ownership. In New Zealand, owning a gun is a privilege. New Zealand plans to spend up to $200 million to buy back all assault weapons for its people. Anyone who does not sell back their assault weapon will automatically become a criminal subject to arrest. Forum said that could never happen here. Parisima shares those same fears, but said that is no reason not to try. She is a doctor and said she has seen the devastation high powered weapons do to a person. “It has a higher velocity,” Parisima said. “It’s much more powerful. It truly dissolves your organs and disintegrates your bones basically.”