before the massacre. other mass shootings in australia had provoked outrage, but with so many victims from different parts of the country, the port arthur shooting shocked this small nation of 18 million to its core. in politics, you are the political capital for a good cause or you watch it waste away. and i felt that i had to use the authority of my office to change things. a dramatic reduction in the number of automatic and semi-automatic weapons. howard proposed the toughest gun laws in australia s history. a ban on semi-automatic rifles and shotguns and pump action shotguns. mandatory gun registration, requiring a reason for buying a gun, and new rules for storing guns. if they passed, they would represent one of the most dramatic changes to a country s gun laws the world has ever seen. it wasn t going to be easy.
but with so many victims from different parts of the country, the port arthur shooting shocked this small nation of 18 million to its core. in politics, you are the political capital for a good cause or you watch it waste away. and i felt that i had to use the authority of my office to change things. a dramatic reduction in the number of automatic and semi-automatic weapons. howard proposed the toughest gun laws in australia s history. a ban on semi-automatic rifles and shotguns and pump action shotguns. mandatory gun registration, requiring a reason for buying a gun, and new rules for storing guns. if they passed, they would represent one of the most dramatic changes to a country s gun laws the world has ever seen. it wasn t going to be easy. howard was a conservative and many of his supporters were rural gun owners who were dead