Injury Prevention 2006;12:365-72, doi: 10.1136/ip.2006.013714
After a 1996 mass shooting in Tasmania, all Australian states passed new gun laws. In all, over 600 000 semiautomatic and pump action rifles were compulsorily purchased and destroyed, and tens of thousands more were voluntarily surrendered. In the succeeding 10 years there have been no mass shootings (compared with 13 in the previous 18 years), and the annual rate of firearm homicides and suicides has about halved. The authors believe that the country's response (of grief and revulsion) towards the 1996 mass shooting reflected a national change in attitude to gun owners and their firearms.