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Below: On December 18, 2012, United States Free Speech TV ran a detailed report on the Port Arthur massacre and the change in Australian gun laws which followed. It makes extensive comparisons with the Newtown shootings in the United States.




Below: On December 30, 2012, Sky News Sydney ran a report giving information on Australia’s 1996 gun buyback and including the recommendations of a number of anti-gun spokespeople that the United States could learn from the Australian experience.




Below: On January 3, 2013, the following segment was telecast in support of the United States gun lobby. It presents a negative view of Australia’s gun laws and the effect of the gun buyback. Please note, the statistics given suggesting an increase in gun-related crime following the buyback are widely disputed.




Below: On February 18, 2013, CNN ran an interview with former Australian Prime Minister, John Howard. Howard explains the rationale for his government’s decision to strengthen gun laws after the Port Arthur massacre.





Web links, documents


On March 2, 2013, ABC News ran a report detailing new legislation allowing hunting in New South Wales national parks. The report included the view of the anti gun lobby that such legislation represents 'part of a creeping campaign to ingrain a US-style community acceptance of gun culture'.
The full text of this report can be accessed at http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-03-02/fears-australia-to-mirror-us-gun-culture/4549274?section=nsw

On February 8, 2013, The Arizona Daily Star published an opinion piece by Michael Brown. Michael Brown is a senior lecturer at Monash University and an Australian astronomer who lived in Tucson from 2000 to 2004. This article is based on an essay written for The Conversation.
Brown claims that many of the figures used to suggest that Australia's gun laws have not been successful have been distorted.
The full text of this comment can be accessed at http://azstarnet.com/news/opinion/guest-column-claims-that-gun-laws-have-increased-crime-in/article_b04fb7b0-6936-5931-b606-a2d613575485.html

On January 21, 2013, The Conversation published an opinion piece by Michael J. I. Brown, ARC Future Fellow and Senior Lecturer at Monash University.
Brown's essay is titled 'Faking waves: how the NRA and pro-gun Americans abuse Australian crime stats' Brown details how American opponents of stricter gun laws have misused Australian statistics.
The full text of this comment can be accessed at http://theconversation.edu.au/faking-waves-how-the-nra-and-pro-gun-americans-abuse-australian-crime-stats-11678

On January 16, 2013, The New York Times published an opinion piece by former Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, in which he argues that the gun control legislation he introduced in Australia could also succeed in the United States.
The piece is titled 'I Went After Guns. Obama Can, Too.'
The full text of this comment can be accessed at http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/17/opinion/australia-banned-assault-weapons-america-can-too.html?hp&_r=1&

On January 16, 2013, The Conversation published an opinion piece by Shandon Harris-Hogan, a Researcher at the Global Terrorism Research Centre at Monash University. The piece is titled 'Gun control could help the fight against home-grown terrorism'.
The full text of this comment can be accessed at http://theconversation.edu.au/gun-control-could-help-the-fight-against-homegrown-terrorism-11611

On January 15, 2013, The Sydney Morning Herald ran an opinion piece by Andrew Leigh, the federal member for Fraser, and a former professor of economics at the Australian National University.
Leigh argues that the rise in the number of guns in Australia since 1997 is more than matched by our population growth.
The comment, titled 'Guns policy saving lives', can be accessed at http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/guns-policy-saving-lives-20130114-2cpny.html

On January 14, 2013, Adjunct Associate Professor Philip Alpers, from the University of Sydney's School of Public Health, released a survey of data indicating that gun ownership in Australia has again reached the levels attained immediately prior to the gun buyback that followed the Port Arthur massacre.
The full text of a University of Sydney news report detailing these findings can be found at http://sydney.edu.au/news/84.html?newsstoryid=10824
A graph demonstrating the University of Sydney findings can be found at http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/compareyears/10/firearm_imports_number
A graph from Professor Alpers comparing Australia's gun homicide rate with that of other countries can be found at http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/compare/10/rate_of_gun_homicide/31,66,69,87,91,128,178,192,194

On January 14, 2013, The Sydney Morning Herald ran a news report titled 'Australia reloads as gun amnesties fail to cut arms'.
The report details the University of Sydney findings that Australians own as many guns now as they did at the time of the Port Arthur massacre, despite more than 1 million firearms being handed in and destroyed.
The full text of this report can be accessed at http://www.smh.com.au/national/australia-reloads-as-gun-amnesties-fail-to-cut-arms-20130113-2cnnq.html

In 2013 an article by Adjunct Associate Professor Philip Alpers, from the University's School of Public Health, was published. The article is titled 'The Big Melt: How One Democracy Changed After Scrapping a Third of its Firearms'. The article analyses available data to demonstrate that gun-related deaths, injuries and crimes declined after the gun buyback and changed gun laws.
The full text of this article can be accessed at http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/cp/australia

On December 26, 2012, The Wall Street Journal published a comment by Joyce Lee Malcolm, a professor of law at George Mason University Law School and the author of several books including 'Guns and Violence: The English Experience.' The piece is titled 'Two Cautionary Tales of Gun Control'.
In this comment Professor Malcolm uses British and Australian data to argue that stricter gun controls have not resulted in safer communities.
The full text of this argument can be accessed at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323777204578195470446855466.html

On December 19, 2012, the American Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) published a background piece by Nick Shifrin titled 'Will Lessons From Down Under Stem the Undertaker Here?'
The piece considers arguments for and against gun laws such as those introduced in Australia being effective in the United States.
The full text of this article can be accessed at http://abcnews.go.com/International/australia-model-successful-gun-control-laws/story?id=18007055

On December 15, 2012, the United States news aggregation site breitbart.com published a comment by Awr Hawkins titled 'The Aussie Lesson: Less Guns, More Crime'.
The piece claims that the rate of gun-related assaults and murders rose in Australia after the gun buyback. (Please note that these claims are widely disputed.)
The full text of this comment can be accessed at http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/12/15/The-Aussie-Lesson-Less-Guns-More-Crime

On September 7, 2012, the Australian anti-gun lobby, Gun Control Australia, issued a press release supplying graphs which showed the decline in gun related crime since the introduction of Australia's stricter gun laws. The media release directly challenges some of the claims made by the pro-gun lobby.
The text of this media release can be accessed at http://guncontrol.org.au/2012/09/our-strict-gun-laws-have-saved-thousands-of-australian-lives/

On November 13, 2011, ABC Radio National ran a Background Briefing segment titled 'Guns are Back'. The analysis looks at the growing membership of gun clubs across Australia and the increasing political influence of the gun lobby in this country.
The implication of the program is that there has been a significant shift in popular attitudes toward guns since the Port Arthur massacre.
A full transcript of this program can be accessed at http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/backgroundbriefing/guns-are-back/3653154#transcript

On January 19, 2011, The Daily Caller published an opinion piece by Ben-Peter Terpstra titled 'America, don't repeat Australia's gun control mistake'.
Terpstra is a freelance writer based in regional Victoria. He has lived and worked in the Northern Territory, Melbourne, Kyoto and London. He argues that Australia's strict gun laws have not been a success.
The full text of this comment can be found at http://dailycaller.com/2011/01/19/america-dont-repeat-australias-gun-control-mistake/

On August 24, 2010, the Sporting Shooters' Association of Australia (SSAA) published an opinion piece titled 'Claims by anti-gun activists shrill and ignorant'. The piece argues that Australia's stricter gun control laws have not resulted in a greater personal safety for law-abiding members of the public and have concentrated gun-ownership in the hands of criminals.
The full text of this comment can be found at http://www.ssaa.org.au/press-releases/2010-08-24_claims-by-anti-gun-activists-shrill-and-ignorant.html

In 2010 a study by Andrew Leigh, of the Research School of Economics, Australian National University and Christine Neill, of the Department of Economics, Wilfrid Laurier University was published. The piece is titled 'Do Gun Buybacks Save Lives? Evidence from Panel Data'
The analysis scrutinises available data to suggest that the gun buyback has resulted in a reduction in gun-related crime, violence and deaths.
The full text of this 49-page analysis can be accessed at http://andrewleigh.org/pdf/GunBuyback_Panel.pdf

On April 19, 2005, the Sporting Shooters' Association of Australia (SSAA) published an opinion piece titled 'Gun Prohibitionists Off Target'. The piece focuses on metropolitan gun violence perpetrated by unregistered gun owners.
The full text of the comment can be found at http://www.ssaa.org.au/press-releases/2005-04-19_gun-prohibitionists-off-target.html

On April 26, 2001, the Sporting Shooters' Association of Australia (SSAA) published an opinion piece titled 'Put crosshairs on crims - not the public'. The piece argues that gun control regulations only alter the behaviour of law-abiding gun owners, leaving weapons in the hands of criminals.
The full text of this comment can be found at http://www.ssaa.org.au/press-releases/2001-04-26_put-crosshairs-on-crims-not-the-public.html