Port Arthur Massacre And Subsequent Gun Control

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Recommended: Public policy on gun control

Since Martin Bryant’s massacre on Port Arthur, the legal system in Australia is amended and reformed gun laws to create a more effective legislation. Gun-related deaths have since been drawn to more efficient attention in Australian psyche, whilst the issue of gun-laws on a global level still remains as a conspiracy in many countries. The massacre left the Australian nation in shock, with a heavily involved attitude on behalf of local and national police, and thousands devastated at the aftermath. The legislation of gun-laws and amendments continues to be controversial, with punishments including Bryant’s being one of popular debate, and the general ownership and use of guns causing conflict within the interrelationship of the legal system and society.

On Sunday April 28, 1996, Martin Bryant ambushed the Tasmanian tourist destination Port Arthur and heightened the Australian death toll for a single person massacre to a ravaging 35 people. The day had good, calm weather, attracting numerous abundances of tourists to the small Broad Arrow Cafe of Port Arthur in the early morning. By 1.00 pm, an estimate of over 500 visitors were at Port Arthur, although the number died down to about 60 people remaining just before Bryant’s initiation of attack. In his first few seconds, Bryant had managed to claim three young victims, an asian couple and the girlfriend of Mick Sargent, who escaped death with a grazed scalp. Using an AR15 semi-automatic rifle, Martin Bryant’s shots were clean, fast, and unanticipated - causing people to run and hide for their lives. Many males were killed in heroic attempts to shelter their wives and children from the gunfire, with some killed instantly and many left to bleed to death at a slower, more painful ra...

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...rship, there are many highly advanced countries which still refused to ratify similar laws, such as America. The interrelationship between society and the law creates a barrier in such reforms, as even after the Port Arthur Massacre, and many others, including the Norway Massacre, societal norms incline people to want, feel the need to, and therefore fight for, their right to own fire-arms.

Works Cited

- Bellamy, Patrick, “A Killer In Profile” Turner Entertainment Digital

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/mass/bryant/profile_2.html

- McGregor, Dale “Massacre, Murder, Mayhem” Lulu.com Publishing Inc 2007

- Unknown Author, “Politics and Economy - Gun Land” Public Affairs Television 2002

http://www.pbs.org/now/politics/internatgun.html

- Writer, Larry “The Australia Book Of True Crime” Pier 9 Publishing 2008

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