As The U.S. Looks To Australia For Hope On Guns, Its Laws Are Being Quietly Pulled Back

In the wake of several mass shootings in the United States, including last week’s massacre of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, gun control advocates often point to Australia as an example of how a country can implement strong firearm laws to try to stop such carnage.

But while Australia has virtually eliminated mass shootings since the landmark 1996 firearms laws were enacted days after the Port Arthur massacre in Tasmania ― in which 35 people were killed by a gunman wielding AR-15 and L1A1 rifles in what remains the worst single mass attack in modern Australian history ― gun control advocates say politicians and the general public have become “complacent,” allowing the gun lobby to push for a weakening of several important planks of protection as compliance with the laws has slipped across the nation.

“While Australians strongly support gun laws, many are of the view that everything was set in stone in 1996, but it wasn’t. Firearms laws are a political hot potato, and the Australian public isn’t aware gun laws are in trouble,” Sam Lee, head of Gun Control Australia, told HuffPost.

Following the Port Arthur massacre, the federal government swiftly passed new laws and state governments signed up to a new National Firearms Agreement, which all but banned semiautomatic weapons and pump-action shotguns.

Other parts of the legislation instituted far stricter rules governing storage of weapons and obligated people applying for guns licenses to demonstrate a “genuine need” to own a firearm ― self-defense was not permitted as a reason ― and to undertake a safety course. Also instituted was a new 28-day waiting period for licenses and new weapons, restrictions on the amount of ammunition that could be purchased and new conditions around “a mental or physical condition which would render the applicant unsuitable for owning, possessing or using a firearm.”

Source: huffingtonpost