New Zealand has seen this kind of gang crime before and people should be wary of politicians promising action, expert Jarrod Gilbert says.
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A rivalry between the Tribesmen and Killer Beez gangs has spurred an increase in shootings, up to eight in a single night in Auckland.
National Party leader Christopher Luxon has described the violence as unprecedented, and out of control. Police Spokesperson Mark Mitchell this afternoon said laws like those seen in Australia - bans on gang gatherings and insignia - were being considered.
They would form part of a full review of policies aimed at solving the problem, the results of which would be announced ahead of next year's election.
Mitchell said the government had been soft on crime.
"Four years ago, National announced that we'd stand up a dedicated gang taskforce and the reason for that was because we could see clearly that we were going to have a growth in gang numbers, that we had the 501s were introducing a new level of sophistication, funding and violence.
"You've got a soft-on-crime government that's allowed the situation to get out of control and now as a country we're experiencing drive-by shootings almost on a daily basis."
If National was elected, the public would see a much tougher approach, he said, and repeated the party's calls for a dedicated gang taskforce, a firearms prohibitions order allowing police to search without a warrant and seize illegal weapons.
ACT leader David Seymour instead urged a focus on tackling illegal drugs and illegal guns.
"We need to go to the heart of the problem which is they make money out of selling illegal drugs. ACT has a bill that would declare open season on the assets of gang members who deal illegal drugs with illegal guns."
That Bill - in the name of ACT's Justice Spokesperson Nicole McKee - was voted down by the government last month.
"The way to do that is to declare open season on their assets," Seymour said.
"If you're on the national gang list, dealing illegal drugs, with illegal guns, it's open season on everything you own. You've got to make it less profitable or they'll keep doing it.
"We've got to start getting tough on their taxes, get tough on their assets, start taking away what they have."
The government was also piling on the bandwagon, with Police Minister Poto Williams this morning confirming the government was looking at further legislative measures to curb gang crime.
She highlighted the firearms register set to be established next June, but said more options were being considered and she would not rule out the insignia and gathering bans suggested by National, though it would need to be tailored to New Zealand.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern this afternoon acknowledged gang violence was escalating, and said the government had asked police for ideas on how to tackle it.
She extended that request to the opposition, but with the proviso: "let's talk about the things that make a difference".
"We've already put forward, of course, changes to those firearms that are able to be in circulation in New Zealand. We've got the gun register, we've got the firearm prevention orders, we've also got the firearms unit, and we're working on extra measures around the seizure of assets for organised crime.
"If the opposition have other options that they wish to discuss with us, we're open to that, but simply the charge that because we are in office there is a problem with gangs, I reject."
Mitchell said the government's moves on the issue were a kneejerk reaction showing the pressure from the media, the public and politically.
However, sociologist and gangs researcher Jarrod Gilbert turned the firehose on all the suggestions, warning legislative change was unlikely to make much of a difference.
"I just analysed the last biggest swathe of gang laws that were put through in 1996 and they failed utterly, miserably," he said.
"I sound a bit tired and cynical - and the reason for that is, I am. These types of ideas are brilliant on the hustings but when the rubber hits the road, politicians find that it's much more complex and much more difficult than they anticipated."
He warned against listening to such politicians promising to lay down the law, particularly when in opposition.
"Often they don't really have any idea what they're talking about. Furthermore, examples of this are so common ... 1972 Norman Kirk promised to take the bikes off the bikies, what did he do when he was elected? Absolutely nothing.
"John Banks in the 1980s, again in opposition, said that he would bring in commandos to control gang violence - we don't even have commandos in this country, sure as heck he didn't bring in the army.
"In the 1990s Labour MPs - Mike Moore in particular - beat the drum so hard they ... forced the government, the National government then, to bring in all this legislation. What happened out of that? Absolutely nothing."
He said solutions needed to target specific problems, rather than targeting the gangs.
"What is the actual problem that we're attempting to address? If it's the acute violence that we're currently seeing between two specific groups in Auckland and that upper North Island region, then the answers there don't ... necessarily require legislative change, they require strong policing on the ground.
"If it's organised crime, for example if we're talking about drug dealing, that's going require a different response. If we're talking about other elements that may be of concern by the gangs that's gonna require soemthing else altogether as well."
The problem was not unprecedented, he said, with a 1978 riot in Moerewa the worst single incident of New Zealand gang violence, and rivalries between gangs leading to sporadic violence throughout the '80s and '90s.
"Give it a year and people will have forgotten about the Tribesmen and the Killer Beez warring right now, and then it'll bounce back again at another stage and we'll call it unprecedented then too ... I'm not saying for one second this isn't an issue - and a concerning issue - the trick is how do we tackle that."
One response which had been successful after a flare-up in 1990s was increasing police resources, and intensifying the policing of gangs, he said.
"Timaru had about three months of terrible gang warfare between the Road Knights and the Devil's Henchmen when bombs were planted, shots were fired straight down the main street, terrible injuries.
"They picked them up for even the smallest infringements, they reopened old cases just to blanket and make their lives miserable ... what did that do? It quelled it."
It was not a permanent solution to gangs, but a fix targeted at quelling gang warfare. Gilbert urged people not to be swayed by political rhetoric.
"After a while you would think that we as a voting public might get a little bit smarter to this but we kind of buy it every time. Why? Because it sounds nice and easy."