![]() “It was a big cultural change for Australia,” Fischer told Guardian Australia in 2016, three years before his death. The political support from Coalition partner the Nationals, and its leader Tim Fischer, is seen as a crucial part of achieving the reforms. Howard wearing a bulletproof vest under his suit while addressing an anti-gun-control rally in Sale, regional Victoria, became a symbol of the tension. “It’s hard to communicate how scary it was,” Peters says. 303 up your c-t and pulled the trigger,” is one voicemail she recalls from the time. She also received death and rape threats. For Peters, a brick was thrown through the window of her Sydney home, forcing her move. To achieve that, Peters remembers a “frantic” 12-day period travelling back and forth between Canberra and Sydney, between premier and opposition leader offices in the New South Wales parliament and TV studios, as well as to a makeshift headquarters for the Coalition that had popped up in a Sydney university basement, where the group’s core of about eight people were joined by new volunteers “and people coming by just wanting to talk about what had happened”.Īfter the agreement was signed, the backlash from the gun community began. Over the 12 days following the massacre, as a country came to grips with the enormity of the tragedy, Howard – who had become prime minister in March – worked to bring the states’ police ministers together for what would be the NFA, which would shape the sweeping reforms adopted in unison by all Australian jurisdictions. The story of how the agreement came into law is the stuff of John Howard legend. In the years since Port Arthur, however, the people credited with lowering Australia’s gun-death rate are warning of systemic issues that have bolstered the position of Australia’s gun lobby and slowly eroded aspects of the national firearms agreement (NFA) from 1996. The Australian gun safety experts who endured violent physical threats as they worked with governments to flesh out a national agreement for tighter measures ultimately went on to advise the United Nations and politicians around the world, and became frequent fixtures on American television following mass shootings in the United States. ![]() It was a moment that positioned Australia’s tightened gun laws as a model standard held up in the aftermath of mass shootings around the world. On 28 April it is a quarter of a century since Australia’s deadliest gun massacre at Port Arthur. ![]() After the gun agreement came the backlash The gunman had used two semi-automatic weapons. Meanwhile, the final death toll was tallied. “It was amazing, the next day the media was focusing on the three things that needed changing.” It took so long, she was unable to receive any calls to answer journalists’ questions. She unplugged her phone line, plugged in her fax machine and sent out the briefing to various news outlets. “It had the three things that needed to be changed: rego for all guns, a ban on semi-automatics, and requiring a proof of reason for needing a gun.” As the grim reality of what was unfolding at the Tasmanian tourist attraction took hold that day, Peters’ years of experience and knowledge kicked into gear – she prepared a media briefing with key points about the flaws in current gun rules.
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