You may find it interesting to know, while it generally takes some months to obtain a firearms licence, the Christchurch shooter (a foreign national) obtained one in a record 5 weeks.
Police failed to do the required background checks, never contacted next of kin, and his referees were from some online forum who had never met him!
Other than obviously the shooter himself, the police were squarely to blame for this by not following their own process.
However this has largely been covered up, and I'm not holding my breath the royal commission enquiry will enlighten the public either.
It is indeed a sad state of affairs, the shooter stated that he chose firearms over a bomb or other means of mass killing as he wanted to create maximum societal discord, something he has achieved in spades.
I do not understand why it is so hard for those in power to see the problem is the person, not the tool.
No amount of ill conceived laws impinging on the rights of the law abiding will make us any safer, when the true criminals are laughing all the way to their next crime.

GDU