New Zealand's decision to swiftly ban guns in the wake of Christchurch shooting has been drawing praise among Democrats — in the process revealing the Left's chilling authoritarian impulses.

On Thursday, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced the nation would immediately ban the sale of a broadly-defined class of semiautomatic weapons and then offer a brief "amnesty" for those who legally purchased their guns to hand them over to police at a price determined by the government.

On the surface, this has no bearing on the United States, where luckily our gun rights are enshrined in the Constitution and affirmed by the Supreme Court. But it has been absolutely chilling to witness how many American liberals and prominent Democrats cheered the actions of the government of New Zealand. Even as liberals often insist that nobody is talking about taking away guns, many applauded the decision of a government to quickly confiscate weapons from law-abiding citizens without any debate or legal arguments.

Leading 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, who actually has a reputation as one of the Democrats less hostile to gun ownership, tweeted, "This is what real action to stop gun violence looks like. We must follow New Zealand's lead, take on the NRA and ban the sale and distribution of assault weapons in the United States."

This is what real action to stop gun violence looks like. We must follow New Zealand's lead, take on the NRA and ban the sale and distribution of assault weapons in the United States. https://t.co/lSAisDG9Ur — Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) March 21, 2019

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez celebrated by tweeting, "This is what leadership looks like."

Sandy Hook happened 6 years ago and we can’t even get the Senate to hold a vote on universal background checks w/ #HR8.



Christchurch happened, and within days New Zealand acted to get weapons of war out of the consumer market.



This is what leadership looks like ⬇️ https://t.co/TcdR63anBt — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 21, 2019

That is an absolutely frightening mindset. As president, Barack Obama argued in favor of gun control in the wake of various mass shootings. He wasn't any less of a leader than Ardern; he was just stymied because there wasn't enough support in Congress, and the Constitution places limits on what is possible in the U.S. Because we have a system of checks and balances, it's really difficult to do things quickly in the American system of government. And that's a good thing.

We just went through a debate in the U.S. in which Democrats slammed President Trump for taking the step of declaring a national emergency after Congress blocked funding for his border wall. “Donald Trump may not like it, but we are not an authoritarian country," Sanders said. "We have a constitution and separation of powers. There is no ‘national emergency,’ and Trump cannot build his wall without congressional approval."

I strongly criticized Trump's declaration and believe Congress should act to rein in the Emergency Powers Act. Yet it's also worth noting that Trump's action was rebuked by Congress and will have to survive many legal challenges, which will at least delay it significantly, if not ultimately prevent his ability to build a wall. If Trump had the ability to act in a manner equivalent to what just went on in New Zealand, they'd already be constructing the wall.