Australia's Howard decries US "gun culture"
(Reuters)Updated: 2007-04-17 15:41
SYDNEY - Australian Prime Minister John Howard on Tuesday decried the negative "gun culture" in America after the deadly shooting spree at a US university, holding up tough gun laws in his own country as the answer.
 Australian Prime Minister John Howard answers a question in his Sydney offices in this April 13, 2006 file photo. [AP]  |
Howard introduced strict gun ownership laws after the shooting massacre of 35 people in the southern island state of Tasmania in 1996.
"We had a terrible incident at Port Arthur, but it is the case that 11 years ago we took action to limit the availability of guns," said Howard, who extended his sympathies to the families of the 32 people killed at Virginia Tech university on Monday at the hands of what he described as "a crazed gunman."
"We showed a national resolve that the gun culture that is such a negative in the United States would never become a negative in our country."
In 1996 a gunman with a semi-automatic rifle killed 35 people at Port Arthur in Australia's worst modern-day shooting massacre.
The horror of that massacre prompted Howard to confront Australia's gun lobby and imposed laws banning almost all types of semi-automatic weapons.
The government spent A$300 million ($250 million) buying more than 600,000 weapons from farmers, hunters and other members of the public before the new laws took affect.
But Howard told reporters: "You can never guarantee these things won't happen again in our country."
More than 30,000 people die from gunshot wounds in the United States every year and there are more guns in private hands than in any other country. But a powerful gun lobby and support for gun ownership rights have largely thwarted attempts to tighten controls.
Australia's small Greens party called on Tuesday for a further review of the nation's gun control laws, saying the latest US shooting involved a multiple-shot pistol and there were an estimated 250,000 handguns in Australia.
"We really need to go back and look at the laws in Australia which permit handguns to be available, and that includes handguns with up to 10 bullets in the magazine," Greens Senator Bob Brown told reporters.
"We Greens are saying let's remove the potential, as far as we can, for a repeat massacre by somebody wielding a multiple-shot handgun," he said.
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