The challenge
A run of mass shootings, ending in 35 deaths at Port Arthur in 1996.
The case
Twelve days after the April 1996 Port Arthur massacre, Australia's federal, state and territory governments agreed the National Firearms Agreement. It banned semi-automatic and pump-action rifles and shotguns, required licences with a genuine reason to own a gun, set up registration and waiting periods, and paid owners to hand in banned guns. More than 650,000 firearms were bought back and destroyed. Australia had 13 fatal mass shootings in the 18 years before the reforms and none in the following two decades. Firearm deaths, already falling, fell faster, especially firearm suicides. Studies disagree on how much of the drop in firearm homicide was caused by the law.
Why it worked
A fast, nationally uniform package that removed the most dangerous guns and controlled access sharply cut mass shootings and gun suicides; the effect on homicide is less certain.
Sources
- Chapman, S., Alpers, P., & Jones, M. (2016). Association between gun law reforms and intentional firearm deaths in Australia, 1979–2013. JAMA.
- Leigh, A., & Neill, C. (2010). Do gun buybacks save lives? Evidence from panel data. American Law and Economics Review.
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