New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has received world-wide praise for her response to the Christchurch massacres, including the introduction of new gun control laws. The new laws will include bans on military style semi-automatics and assault rifles, the kind of weapons used by the Christchurch gun man.
The call for a tougher approach on gun ownership and possession has been likened to the Australian response following the Port Arthur massacre in 1996, when Martin Bryant went on a shooting rampage killing 35 people.
New Zealand has chosen to adopt many of the reforms made by Australian governments. But in recent years, gun ownership in Australia has been on the rise.
A new report has found that more than one million firearms are registered in the New South Wales, an increase of 9.5 per cent from two years ago.
So what’s Australia done about gun reform?Following the Port Arthur massacre then Prime Minister John Howard and the state and territory leaders signed up to the National Firearms Agreement.
Along with a national gun amnesty and buyback programme, this involved all of the states and territories enacting their own laws in relation to gun ownership, sales and licensing. The Commonwealth introduced new laws around the importation of firearms.
In 2002, two students were killed at Melbourne’s Monash University after being shot by a gun man wielding a semi-automatic handgun. This prompted Australian governments to sign up to new restrictions on semi-automatic handguns including, limits on maximum calibre, magazine capacity and minimum barrel lengths for all handguns. There was also a national hand gun buy back scheme.
In 2017 the Council of Australian Governments re-affirmed their commitment to gun control in 2017 and there was a further firearms amnesty in 2017.
How do gun laws in Australia work?
Since each of the states and territories has their own legislation in relation to the ownership and use of guns, there is no uniform national gun law in Australia. This means the strength of Australia’s gun laws varies from state to state. In NSW, firearms laws are contained in the Firearms Act 1996 which deals with possession, permits, licensing, registration, dealing, supplying and acquisition of guns.
While much of the state and territory law is very similar when it comes to automatic and semi-automatic weapons there have been other changes which water down some of the restrictions.
In 2017 study commissioned by Gun Control Australia found that no state or territory fully complies with the National Firearms Agreement.
For example, the states and territories have introduced a number of exceptions to the hand gun restrictions, which allow greater access to semi-automatic handguns.
Along with showing the number of registered guns in NSW rising to more than one million, the latest report for Gun Control Australia details the changes that have watered down Australian gun laws. You can read the full report here.