The United States has had several tragedies occur in which a person takes a gun into a public place, starts shooting, and murders innocent people. What can be done that will prevent this from happening again? The answer can be found in the results Australia got after changing their gun laws.
The Port Arthur Massacre happened in 1996. A 28-year-old man named Martin Bryant entered a cafe that was located at the site of a historic penal colony at Port Arthur, Tasmania, Australia.
Martin Bryant had lunch in the cafe. After that, he pulled a semi-automatic rifle from his bag and used it in what has been described as a “killing spree”. He killed 35 people and wounded an additional 23 people by the time he was apprehended the next morning.
Martin Bryant was imprisoned for life. He won’t be able to do this ever again. During the investigation, a test revealed that he had the IQ of an 11-year-old. He told investigators that he paid cash for a firearm at a local gun dealer. Australia then took some steps to prevent tragedies like the one committed by Martin Bryant from ever happening again.
Australia introduced the National Firearms Agreement. It was a law that outlawed automatic and semi-automatic rifles. It also outlawed pump-action shotguns. The Australian government created a gun buyback scheme in which a person could hand over a weapon to the government and receive some money for it. A total of 640,000 weapons were turned into the authorities as a result of this law.
Another tragedy occurred in October of 2002 at Monash University, which is located in Melbourne, Victoria. Huan Yun Xiang was a 36-year-old honors student at the University. He went to a final tutorial, stood up on his desk, raised one of several handguns that he brought into the classroom, and started shooting.
He fired 16 rounds from a semi-automatic hand gun, killed two people, and injured five additional people. After being apprehended, he was found to have a “mental impairment”, and placed in a high security hospital for 25 years. Xiang was a licensed pistol owner and member of a Sporting Shooters Association.
The Australian government responded by prohibiting handguns (that were greater than a certain caliber, that exceeded a certain barrel length, and that had a shot capacity that exceeded 10 rounds.) Another buyback took place.
The result? The University of Sydney reported in 2006 that there was a decline in gun deaths. The risk of dying by gunshot had been cut in half since the laws were put in place and a total of 700,000 firearms were collected and destroyed.