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Since Friday's deadly attack at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, gun owners have been turning up at local police stations seeking to have their own semiautomatic rifles—the weapon believed to have been used in the shootings—destroyed.

In the days since the attacks, which saw 50 people killed and dozens more injured, a number of gun owners in New Zealand have gone on social media to encourage others to follow in their footsteps. They want them to hand over their weapons and prevent another attack like Friday's from happening again.

"Until today, I was one of the New Zealanders who owned a semiautomatic rifle," one gun owner, farmer John Hart, wrote on Twitter. "On the farm they are a useful tool in some circumstances, but my convenience doesn't outweigh the risk of misuse.

"We don't need these in our country," he added, sharing an image of a police form registering his weapon for "destruction." "We have make sure it's #NeverAgain."