April 28, 1996, is a day when the quiet town of Tasmania, Port Arthur, was torn apart by a lone gunman, Martin Bryant, on a rampage with semi-automatic guns, killing 35 people and wounding 28 others. This tragic event is now referred to as the Port Arthur massacre and was the defining moment in Australian history, after which the whole country would revise its gun laws.
In the immediate aftermath, newly elected Australian Prime Minister John Howard led in framing the National Firearms Agreement. The latter banned automatic and semi-automatic rifles and shotguns, introduced much more stringent firearms licensing, and a compulsory buyback of such banned weapons. Also, the NFA established uniform regulations on sales, security, and storage of firearms across the Commonwealth, states, and territories.
These reforms made a very profound impact. One-third of the country’s stockpile of firearms was reduced, and mass public shootings stopped. Evaluation in 2010 showed that the reforms were averting at least 200 deaths every year and saving in the range of $500 million annually. What was impressive was the reduction in deaths by firearms, mostly suicide by firearm. Where total homicides had been trending downwards since 1969, the rate of decline for gun deaths, homicides, and suicides doubled post-reform.
The success of the NFA in gun violence reduction has been noted around the world, most notably in the United States, a country where gun control is very controversial. In the wake of recent mass shootings, US gun control proponents, such as former President Barack Obama, have pointed to the Australian model as a solution.
But the relationship between mental illness and gun violence is complex and debated. Research evidence has established some, albeit small, correlation between the presence of mental illness and violence toward community members, especially in psychoses, personality disorders, and substance misuse. However, the vast majority of violent individuals do not have mental illness, and the overwhelming majority of people with mental illnesses are not violent. Media coverage portraying violence perpetrated by someone with a mental illness often reinforces public perceptions about dangerousness, further stigmatizing and endangering them.
A most obvious extension of that is in the area of mass shootings. Australia had 13 mass shootings in the 15 years before the NFA. Since the NFA, there have been no mass shootings. This dramatic difference so patently favors the effect and value of comprehensive gun control.
While the NFA has been fantastically successful, complacency and hostile activity from pro-gun lobbyists have seen some of those gains wound back. The national weapons stockpile is once again approaching pre-1996 levels, and there have been efforts to weaken gun regulations. For example, the pro-gun lobby was able to weaken the regulation of pistol clubs in New South Wales, which arguably precipitated at least one homicide.
The NFA did not ban all semi-automatic handguns, which are still legally available to members of pistol clubs. There have been arguments considering their danger of misuse and how existing laws need revision and tightening up in provisions for more effective restrictions on possessing, importing, and selling handguns and other firearms.
In summary, the Port Arthur massacre and subsequent NFA clearly have the potential for assertive national firearms regulation to prevent firearm mortality and injuries. The Australian experience teaches us much about the control of guns in countries plagued by gun violence, particularly the lesson that to be most effective, gun control must be both comprehensive and sustained.