51,000 Illegal Firearms Surrendered in National Gun Amnesty
Over 51,000 unregistered firearms were surrendered to the Federal Government during the three-month amnesty period to reduce the number of guns in Australia.
The amnesty, which began on July 1, was a continuation of former Prime Minister John Howard’s gun control laws, implemented after the massacre of Port Arthur in 1996. They allowed all those with illegal firearms to hand them over without fear of prosecution.
ABC reported a majority of the firearms in the 2017 amnesty were collected from NSW and Queensland, with one of the items surrendered being a rocket launcher.
The amnesty results, which represented about a fifth of the estimated 260,000 unregistered firearms in circulation, followed the fierce debate around gun control legislation in the United States.
“We have seen the shocking tragedy in Las Vegas,” Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said.
“The killer there had a collection of semi-automatic weapons which a person in his position would simply not be able to acquire in Australia. We have strict gun control laws, but we don’t take anything for granted, we’re not complacent about it.” Credit: Malcolm Turnbull via Storyful
