Consequences and Significance
The memorial for the victims of David Gray at Aramoana.
Three days after the massacre, David Gray’s house on Muri Street was set on fire and burnt down to ashes under the watch of the Port Chalmers Fire Brigade, and also approximately fifty citizens of Aramoana watched the house burn. The police were contacted by David Gray’s relatives and asked to stop any investigation of arson. The massacre however did not only set David Gray’s house alight, it also sparked political reforms revolving around gun controls, in particular Semi-Automatic weapons, which Gray had used throughout the massacre. Two years later, in 1992, an amendment to New Zealand firearms was put in place, which generally tightened gun controls and created a new category of firearms, the Millitary-Style Semi-Automatic weapons. This amendment caused it to be harder to acquire weapons and to require a higher ranked licence to be able to obtain and use the new category, Millitary-Style Semi-Automatic weapons, such as the Norinco AK47 look alike that David Gray had used during his massacre. Many of the police officers that were actively involved with trying to find and stop David Gray were awarded gallantry awards, including Sergeant Guthrie, the last person to fall to Gray and the victims of the massacre were honoured with a memorial. This event significantly impacted upon New Zealand as it gripped the nation, being the largest massacre in New Zealand history, as it was not just at the scene, but in the media and on the news. The massacre was not quiet and controlled by the police, but everywhere throughout New Zealand, although journalists were kept well back by the police cordon, the massacre still carried the impact of shock and horror through the televisions in New Zealanders homes, through the radios. The event was significant because it was unique, because it was and still is unchallenged in New Zealands history and the most ruthless and horrific massacres in modern times, because it is one of the only massacres to take place in modern day New Zealand.