Pro-gun groups protested against limiting rights for responsible owners who used firearms for pest-control, hunting or sports. All this is within your power and the public demands nothing less. Your responsibility is to make it illegal to own these guns, illegal to be in possession of them, illegal to obtain the bullets they fire. Those in favour of gun safety advocated for tighter and uniform legislation across the country.Īnonymous, ‘35 reasons why our leaders must act’, Daily Telegraph (Sydney), : In Tasmania, 35 people are dead because a killer was able to arm himself with a semi-automatic rifle. Many Australians across the media, politics and community vehemently disagreed over gun safety during the aftermath of the massacre. Tasmania had the weakest guns laws in the country.

In some parts of early 1990s Australia, any person with a regular shooters licence could legally hold any number of rapid-fire weapons and ammunition. Some state politicians advanced aspects of gun safety but they were often defeated by powerful pro-gun lobby groups. By the mid-20th century, gun regulation across the country was powerfully influenced by growing groups of recreational shooters and wildlife preservationists.Īlthough the Commonwealth government had banned the import of military-style, rapid-firing weapons in 1991, many remained in circulation, unregistered or unsafely stored. Government control over the purchase and use of weapons increased during the early decades of the 20th century, in response to outbreaks of criminal activity in larger cities. Many thousands of people from First Nations communities were killed by armed colonists in frontier conflicts. When firearms became more commonly used – for hunting, protection and keeping pests away from crops and livestock – instances of criminal misuse increased, for example by bushrangers and among some violent mining communities.

During the earliest phases of colonialisation, access to guns was limited to settlers, police and military personnel overseeing convicts.

In November 1996 the perpetrator was sentenced to imprisonment with no eligibility for parole on 73 charges, including 35 life sentences for murder.īefore 1996, Australia’s states and territories had differing laws relating to gun ownership.Ĭolonial gun laws were inherited from British common law, with very few changes made to develop local licensing provisions. The endorsement offered by Coalition partner and Nationals leader Tim Fischer, and Labor’s Kim Beazley, leader of the Opposition, was crucial to achieving the reforms. Within weeks of the tragedy, Australian Prime Minister John Howard implemented critical changes to gun safety legislation with bipartisan state, territory and Commonwealth support. The massacre provoked national debate about private ownership of guns, especially automatic weapons. The young Hobart man later murdered a hostage at the guesthouse, before he was captured by police as he fled the building. On 28 April 1996, 35 people were killed and many more injured in a mass shooting at the historic Port Arthur tourist precinct in south-east Tasmania.Īrmed with three high-powered firearms, the perpetrator murdered the owners of a nearby guesthouse before driving to Port Arthur where he shot multiple visitors and staff in and around the site.

Recent shootings in australia