![](\"https:\/\/cdni.rt.com\/files\/2018.03\/thumbnail\/5a9ea56cfc7e9352048b4590.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
In the aftermath of mass shootings in the US, gun control advocates invariably point to Australia as having solved the problem. However, it may not be as simple as copying and pasting legislation to fix the problem.<\/p>\n
The most recent school shooting at the Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in which 17 people were killed and 14 injured, has again kicked off one of the most volatile, emotive and divisive political footballs in US politics. Gun control advocates say \u201cenough is enough,\u201d<\/em> with victims-turned-advocates speaking out in televised town halls, while conservatives and Second Amendment purists call for more \u201cgood guys with guns\u201d<\/em> and deny or deflect that there\u2019s any problem at all. It didn\u2019t take long before Australia’s gun buyback program was once again touted as a potential solution to America’s mass shooting problem.<\/p>\n Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull met US President Donald Trump for talks in Washington in February but refused to offer unsolicited advice regarding the issue of mass shootings. \u201cIt\u2019s a completely different context historically, legally and so forth,\u201d Turnbull told a news conference, as cited by Reuters. \u201cWe certainly don\u2019t presume to provide policy or political advice on that matter here.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Following the Port Arthur massacre in Tasmania in 1996, in which 35 people were killed by a gunman who used a semi-automatic rifle, the federal, territorial and state governments in Australia quickly passed laws which effectively banned semi-automatic rifles and pump-action shotguns. They also extended waiting periods for both licenses and new weapons.<\/p>\n Mandatory gun safety training was instituted as well as restrictions on the amount of ammunition that could be purchased with additional conditions<\/a> regarding \u201ca mental or physical condition which would render the applicant unsuitable for owning, possessing or using a firearm.\u201d The gunman in the Port Arthur massacre lived with mental disability.<\/p>\n The Australian government then initiated a buyback system for the newly-banned weapons. Over 640,000 were bought back between October 1996 and September 1997 while legal weapons were also handed in, bringing the total closer to 700,000 firearms, reducing gun-owning households by half. The law has since been reviewed every six months for any potential updates.<\/p>\n In 2017, Australia held another gun amnesty program, the first in the 20 years since the original, which collected an additional 57,000 firearms, The Washington Post<\/a> reported. Of the 57,000 firearms handed in, 35,000 were rifles and more than 12,000 were shotguns.<\/p>\n Only 2,417 semi-automatic weapons were handed over in 2017, according to the National Firearms Amnesty Report 2017<\/a>. In addition, 4,816 “air rifles” were submitted in the amnesty and 162 \u201cimitation\u201d guns were handed in. However, more than 37,000 of the 57,000 figure were either being sold or were merely being registered officially, not actually being taken out of circulation.<\/p>\n Gun Control Australia<\/a> believes that lawmakers, as well as the general population, are becoming “complacent”<\/em> and worries that compliance has slipped in Australia. While it\u2019s still legal to own a gun in Australia, it\u2019s a complex and stringent process to go through, on paper at least. Owners are legally obliged to store firearms in gun safes and ammunition is to be kept in a separate compartment, all of which is subject to regular police inspection.<\/p>\n An independent report<\/a> by Gun Control Australia found that no state or territory fully complies with the National Firearms Agreement, with the worst offenders being New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia. In addition, the advocacy group claims that “when one jurisdiction erodes its laws the other states tend to follow, significantly weakening the national framework.”<\/em> This is particularly true as it pertains to minors possessing and using firearms, “removal of the \u2018cooling-off\u2019 period when acquiring second rifles or shotguns”<\/em> and “allowing the use of high-powered semi-automatic firearms during 6-month probationary period.”<\/em><\/p>\n “There is no doubt that Australia’s gun laws has saved many lives and prevented an unbearable amount of grief,”<\/em> Samantha Lee, Chair of Gun Control Australia, told RT.com.<\/p>\n The Australian National Firearms Act<\/a> was passed by a bipartisan coalition, effectively ending mass shootings and reducing gun violence throughout the country. Party lines in the US are so entrenched, however, that such consensus is largely inconceivable, regardless of the number of mass shootings, even ones of the magnitude of the Mandalay Bay Casino shooting in October 2017 in which 59 people were killed and more than 500 injured.<\/p>\n Indeed, even in Australia, the debate still rages about the efficacy of the gun control laws, centering around two primary questions: firstly, did the legislation merely accelerate already declining firearm homicide rates? And secondly, has the black market merely taken control of the firearms trade in Australia?<\/p>\n “The rates per 100,000 of total firearm deaths, firearm homicides and firearm suicides all at least doubled their existing rates of decline after the revised gun laws,”<\/em> a study<\/a>, published in the peer-reviewed journal Injury Prevention in 2006 and republished in 2015, concluded. \u201cThe gun laws\u2019 main goal was to stop massacres: 13 in 18 years, then NONE in 22 years. Not rocket science,\u201d<\/em> the study\u2019s lead author Professor S. Chapman of the School of Public Health, University of Sydney told RT.com.<\/p>\n