Gun ban has paid off: study

AUSTRALIA: A government buyback of military-style assault rifles and a ban has prevented an estimated 16 mass shootings over two decades in Australia, a study says.

Researchers say the actions taken after a 1996 massacre of 35 people in Port Arthur, Tasmania are responsible for the fact that there have not been any mass shootings since.

In the 18 years before Martin Bryant opened fire with a semiautomatic rifle at the tourist site, there were 12 mass shootings in Australia. There have been none since. A mass shooting is defined as one in which there are five or more victims.

The Port Arthur massacre stunned Australians, most of whom supported tougher gun controls announced soon afterwards by then prime minister John Howard. Australia banned semiautomatic rifles and pump-action shotguns and launched its first gun buyback scheme. There have been two such schemes and 26 uncompensated amnesties, with more than a million firearms being surrendered.

Simon Chapman from Sydney University, the lead author of the study, published in the Annals of

Internal Medicine, and a former member of the Australian Coalition for Gun Control, modelled what might have been expected without the 1996 law changes. Before the Port Arthur massacre, there were an average of three mass shootings every four years. ‘‘Had they continued at this rate, approximately 16 would have been expected by March 2018,’’ the study said.

During Australia’s latest gun amnesty, between July and September last year, 57,324 firearms were handed in. Among them were about 2500 illegal fully automatic or semiautomatic guns, and 2900 handguns.