/ 28 April 2021

Remembering a dark day in Port Arthur

It’s the 25th anniversary of the Port Arthur massacre – the worst single mass shooting by a lone gunman in Australia’s history and a tragedy that left 35 people dead. On this day in 1996, Martin Bryant went on a shooting rampage using semi-automatic weapons that he’d brought without a licence. It quickly saw Australia, led by PM John Howard’s newly elected government, to cement the National Firearms Agreement that tightened the nation’s gun laws. And it worked… The incidence of mass shootings and intentional firearm deaths declined – and we became the shining international example of strict gun control laws. But it’s no time to rest on our laurels, advocates say, with exposed failings in gun ownership laws. And Howard recently called on Australia’s leaders to uphold gun control laws and said “we mustn’t allow it to get fritted away”. To mark the terrible but important day, we’ve pulled it all together in this week’s #SquizShortcut.

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