'Like a Ferrari, you don't need it': New Zealanders set to turn in guns

The first general elections in Independent India were conducted between October 25, 1951, to February 21, 1952.

The polls were conducted under the provisions of the Indian Constitution which was adopted on November 26, 1949.

Since its adoption, the Constituent Assembly was considered as the interim parliament, with the interim cabinet headed by Pt Jawaharlal Nehru.

Following the elections, Jawaharlal Nehru was elected as the first democratically elected Prime Minister of the country after his party Indian National Congress emerged victoriously.

For 14 years Womersley has worked at "home kill", shooting beasts for small farmers and cutting them up, but tough new gun laws to be adopted after the nation's worst mass murder by a lone gunman will require him to surrender another of his guns.

"Guns are a way of life for me, really," says Womersley, 48, who received his first firearm, a .22-calibre rifle, for his 12th birthday, and now hunts with his 15-year-old daughter.

"It's pretty much what I live and breathe. I (shoot) on the weekends for fun and then I do it during the week for a job."

As the first beast slumps, he rapidly draws back and pushes forward his rifle bolt, firing again and then a third time. In seconds, three cattle are dead on the damp ground. He gathers his knives and begins to cut them up.

"I shoot animals, I don't shoot targets. I shoot food," says Womersley.

Wearing black overalls and gumboots for protection against the gore, he pushes the cattle on their sides, removes heads and hide and uses a hoist to load the carcasses on his refrigerated truck.

Fifty people were killed and scores wounded, prompting an outpouring of support for the nation's bereaved Muslim community, and a swift crackdown on guns. 

The semi-automatics used in the attack will be banned, with exemptions for working hunters, and tougher licensing rules are on the drawing board. 

A wide swathe of New Zealand's quarter-million gun owners, who account for about 1.5 million weapons, say they accept there must be change after the tragedy.

"I think the gun laws were too slack...the laws gave this bad man a gun," says Womersley, who owns eight or nine guns, stored in a safe in the garage of a home decorated with game heads. "He ruined it for everyone. Not everyone is like that."As part of a new national firearm buyback scheme, he expects to hand in one military-style AR-15 assault rifle, a type of weapon used in the Christchurch massacre.

"I don't think we need military-style weapons in our society. I definitely don't need them in my job," he says. "It's like driving around in a Ferrari, you don't need it."

Firearms and accessories are displayed at Gun City gunshop in Christchurch, New Zealand.