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.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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