President Obama, visibly angry and frustrated, made his 15th public statement in response to a mass shooting on Thursday night, saying it’s past time for Americans to stop viewing gun violence as routine and take action. Since the new laws, Australia has experienced no further mass shootings. “So we know there are ways to prevent it”.
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In the stark light of this judgement, it is worth revisiting what laws were introduced in Australia and Great Britain, what worked, and why. Here’s a look at how those nations addressed mass shootings, and whether the same policies could work in the U.S.
On April 28, 1996, Martin Bryant, killed 35 innocents and injured 23 others in a murderous rampage in Port Arthur, Tasmania. The 28-year-old ate lunch before pulling a semi-automatic rifle from his bag & embarking on a killing spree. Following an overnight standoff with police, Bryant set the cottage on fire and ran out.
Shocked by the horrific magnitude of the massacre, Australian lawmakers passed sweeping new gun laws in a matter of days – 12 to be exact.
Comprehensive firearm registration and gun owner licensing.
A firearm “buyback” scheme compensating gun owners for any prohibited firearms surrendered. Ultimately more than 640,000 firearms were either purchased by the Australian government or voluntarily handed in. Likewise, after the Australian government pushed through its ban in 1998, federal officials easily confiscated around 650,000 guns – between one third and one quarter of the total. Before yesterday, Obama has always alluded to Australia in passing. That depends on your definition of “mass shooting“. Martin Bryant pleaded guilty to all 35 murders at Port Arthur.
A few argue that Australia’s homicide rate was already declining before the NFA was implemented in 1996. That study found that in 2012, there were only 259 justifiable homicides, or what is commonly referred to as self-defense, compared to 8,342 criminal firearm homicides.
The query is usually asked within the somber aftermath of a shooting massacre: what number of deaths will it take before America changes its gun laws? On August 19, 1987 Michael Ryan killed 15 people and wounded 15 others in a series of random shootings around Hungerford, Berkshire. But with semi-automatic rifles out of the picture, the police were better able to focus upon the criminal handgun problem. Ryan may have been suffering from schizophrenia, but no motive was ever established. He killed 16 five and six-year-old children, a teacher and then himself.
The national outcry that followed led to the rapid introduction of tight restrictions on firearms, including a ban on nearly all automatic and semiautomatic rifles, as well as shotguns. Bird, who committed suicide, was licensed to carry firearms. But the impact of the new laws was neither simple and direct, nor immediate.
Recorded gun crime in England and Wales.
John Howard, who had only recently become prime minister when the legislation was enacted, said the process was not easy.
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“In the end, we won the battle to change gun laws because there was majority support across Australia for banning certain weapons”, he wrote, adding, “Few Australians would deny that their country is safer today as a effect of gun control“.
