At the time, the attack was considered the world’s worst mass shooting, with 35 people killed and 23 injured at the historic convict ruins tourist site on the Tasman Peninsula in Tasmania.
It remains Australia’s most deadly massacre.
It was this massacre that prompted an overhaul of Australia’s attitude towards gun control under the prime minister of the day, John Howard.
Laws, the National Firearms Agreement or NFA, were brought in banning rapid-fire guns from civilian ownership, tightening requirements for firearms licensing, registration and safe storage, and establishing a government buyback of semi-automatic and pump-action rifles and shotguns.
More than 650,000 weapons were destroyed, potentially almost halving the number of gun-owning households.
In the 22 years after Port Arthur, there were no mass shootings (defined as shootings in which five or more people – not including the perpetrator – are killed), compared to 11 in the 20 years before Port Arthur. Average annual firearm-related deaths dropped from 3.6 per 100,000 population in the 17 years before Port Arthur to 1.2 per 100,000 in the 17 years after.
Yet this is not a total success story.
More than two-thirds of firearm deaths in Australia are suicides.
The other area of firearm violence that has received little attention is domestic and family violence.
More than two-thirds of firearm deaths in Australia are suicides.
The other area of firearm violence that has received little attention is domestic and family violence.
While the proportion of Australians owning guns has dropped by about half between 1997 and 2020, the number of registered firearms in Australia now exceeds 3.5 million.
International studies show domestic partner homicides are up to 12 times higher when firearms are accessible while suicide rates are up to 19 times higher.
The National Firearms Agreement that contributed to reductions in firearm violence was however never fully implemented and has been chipped away at in various parts of Australia over the past 20 years.
Public complacency has been exploited by powerful pro gun lobby groups which undermines Australia’s successes in gun control.
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