A spokesman for the Bruce Rifle Club, near Milton, confirmed Tarrant was a club member.
"We are assisting [police] with their investigation," the man said.
"He seemed a reasonably normal sort of dude."
So how did he get hold of the semi-automatic?
Where did he get it from?
Conflicting "Fact Checks"
:
While the styles of weapons used by the Christchurch terrorist are more regulated by law, other types of rifles could be modified into a military-style semiautomatic weapon with the addition of larger-capacity magazines and other unregulated parts.
There have also been calls to arm New Zealand police, who don’t routinely carry firearms and must rely on backup from specialist squads.
After watching the video of alleged mosque gunman Brenton Tarrant,
a former armed offenders’ unit member told a New Zealand news outlet that the man’s weapons could be purchased with “a normal firearms license”, despite being similar to what police and military use.
“He would have been shooting somewhere practising,” said the 16-year police veteran, who wished to remain unidentified. “It’s not the first time he’s ever fired those types of weapons. He’s fired them before.”
A spokesman for the Bruce Rifle Club, near Milton, confirmed Tarrant was a club member and practised shooting at its range.
“We are all … a bit stunned and shocked,” the spokesman toldThe Otago Daily Times.
He added that Tarrant seemed “as normal as anyone else” and had “certainly” never mentioned anything about his beliefs about Muslimshttps://www.news.com.au/world/pacific/how-the-christchurch-shooter-obtained-powe...