Australia avoided US gun culture through controls, Howard says

Apr 17, 2007, 8:19 GMT

Sydney - Stricter gun controls enacted after a 1996 shooting massacre are to thank for preventing a US-style gun culture from developing in Australia, Australian Prime Minister John Howard said Tuesday.

The prime minister's comments came in reaction to news that a gunman killed 32 people at Virginia Tech university before shooting himself dead.

Howard made his reputation for firm leadership when he instituted a gun buy-back scheme and tightened gun control laws in the aftermath of the 1996 Port Arthur massacre in Tasmania that cost 35 lives and earned loner Martin Bryant 35 murder convictions.

'You can never guarantee these things won't happen again in our country,' Howard said. 'We had a terrible incident at Port Arthur, but it is the case that 11 years ago we took action to limit the availability of guns and we showed a national resolve that the gun culture that is such a negative in the United States would never become a negative in our country.'

Howard banned the sale of semi-automatics and pump-action shotguns. There was a multimillion-dollar buy-back and amnesty programme that saw the surrendering and destruction of 700,000 firearms.

Research by Sydney University's Simon Chapman shows deaths from firearms have halved since Bryant was locked away in Hobart's Risdon Prison. There have been no mass killings since the buy-back.

'The Australian example provides evidence that removing large numbers of firearms from a community can be associated with a sudden and on-going decline in mass shootings, and accelerating declines in total firearm-related deaths, firearm homicides and firearm suicides,' Chapman said.

Tasmanian Premier Paul Lennon has written to Virginia Governor Tim Kaine and Virginia Tech president Charles Steger offering to share what the community learned from the Port Arthur shootings.

'We know that the road to recovery is long and painful and offer our support and assistance, should there be any way in which Tasmanians can help the Virginia Tech community cope with the aftermath of such a loss,' Lennon said.