“It just seemed a failure of society’s laws and rules that should happen. And I was determined at a Federal level to do everything I could and to use the authority of my office to bring it about.”

In 1996, Australia implemented a nationwide gun buyback scheme following a mass shooting in Port Arthur, Tasmania that resulted in the deaths of 35 people. The buyback scheme was part of a package of gun control measures, which included stricter licensing and registration requirements for gun owners and firearms dealers, a ban on the sale, possession and importation of certain types of firearms, and an amnesty period for people to surrender illegal firearms.

Under the buyback scheme, the Australian government offered to purchase firearms from citizens at a market price, with no questions asked. Over the course of the buyback, which ran from July 1, 1996 to September 30, 1997, approximately 640,000 firearms were surrendered and destroyed. The government spent over $350 million AUD on the buyback, which was funded by a one-time increase in the Medicare levy.

The gun buyback scheme and other gun control measures have been credited with reducing firearm-related deaths and injuries in Australia. A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2016 found that the implementation of the National Firearms Agreement, which included the buyback scheme, was associated with a significant reduction in firearm deaths and suicides in Australia.

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