Former prime minister John Howard calls on nation’s leaders to uphold gun control laws

Former prime minister John Howard has called on the nation’s leaders to preserve his legacy and uphold gun control laws.

A quarter of a century after his world-leading gun control laws were introduced, former prime minister John Howard has warned state and territory leaders against any attempt to water them down.

The National Firearms Agreement has been softened several times since it was introduced, despite evidence it contributed to a lower homicide and suicide rate, and virtually ended mass shootings. However, semiautomatic firearms remained banned.

“We mustn’t allow it to get frittered away; we mustn’t,’’ Mr Howard told News Corp, in an interview to mark the 25-year anniversary of the Port Arthur massacre in Tasmania which claimed the lives of 35 people.

“My view is that we achieved an historic – tragically necessary but historic – change and under no circumstance should we allow it to be frittered away.

“I know there’s been some changes but I’m persuaded that they’re not too serious.

“I just hope the common sense of the various state governments will keep the laws as they are.’’

Former Prime Minister John Howard ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Port Arthur massacre in 1996 when he was Prime Minister. Picture: Toby Zerna

Now aged 81, and usually staying out of the media, Mr Howard agreed to discuss the National Firearms Agreement as part of his lasting commitment to keeping guns out of the broader community in Australia.

He again recalled getting the phone call from his press officer Tony O’Leary on Sunday, April 28, 1996, advising him there was a major incident occurring at the former convict settlement of Port Arthur in Tasmania.

“Tony rang me and he said ‘look, you’ve got to flick on the television. Somebody’s gone mad with semiautomatic weapons killing people in Port Arthur.

“The day unfolded and it was all pretty terrible and it just grabbed everyone’s attention because very quickly it became obvious it was by far the greatest mass shooting in Australian history. And perhaps, best you can measure these things, in world history.

“It was one of those things, the whole country couldn’t believe something as big as that, as random as that, could happen in Australia … in remote Tasmania.’’

A shooting victim arrives in Hobart by helicopter after gunman Martin Bryant went on rampage on April 28, 1996 at Port Arthur in Tasmania.

Mr Howard was not long in the nation’s top job, having led the Coalition to victory over Paul Keating’s Labor government less than two months earlier, on March 2.

As he worked the phones from Kirribilli House in Sydney, and as the extent of the carnage at Port Arthur became clear, he decided he needed to act.

“I felt very strongly we should do something about it and I knew that gun laws were a matter for the states but I also knew this was a national issue and the public wanted something done about it.

“I took the view quite early that I’d just been elected with a massive majority and I was in a very strong position, notwithstanding the fact the Commonwealth didn’t have the power to impose a direct ban on the sale and possession of guns, although we had control over the importation.’’

Mr Howard, along with his deputy prime minister, Nationals MP Tim Fischer, wrangled the state and territory leaders, dangled the possibility of a referendum if the states didn’t fall into line, and fronted up at a rally of furious recreational shooters at Sale in regional Victoria, where photographs captured the fact he was wearing a bullet-proof vest under his suit, a decision he says he has “regretted ever after.’’

Prime Minister John Howard wears a bullet-proof vest under his suit in June 1996 at a gun rally at Sale in Victoria, something he now regrets.

The states and territories were supportive, and twelve days after the Port Arthur massacre, an agreement was signed across Australia banning automatic and semiautomatic weapons from the general community, and introducing other restrictions such as making it more difficult to get a gun license, requiring all firearms to be registered, and banning silencers. More than 640,000 firearms were surrendered to authorities under an amnesty and buy-back scheme.

The National Firearms Agreement is often described as Mr Howard’s greatest legacy of his time in office, and came at considerable political cost, as many law-abiding rural people who used guns were Coalition voters who felt betrayed by the party they supported.

Mr Howard accepts the anger from voters, but remains firm in his belief it was the right decision to make.

A shooting victim is carried to a helicopter at Port Arthur in Tasmania after a massacre in which 35 people were killed and 20 wounded on April 28, 1996.

“It was just a horrendous event, as the stories began to emerge about the individual cases. Some lingered on in my memory for years like Walter Mikac and wife and two little girls,’’ he said, referring to the Mikac family, including wife Nanette and daughters Alannah, 6, and Madeline, 3, who were shot dead by the gunman Martin Bryant.

“But I am very proud of what was done. It was the right thing, it crossed the party political divide. It made Australia a safer country in which to live and surely the first obligation of a Government is the safety of the country’s citizens.’’

Originally published as Former prime minister John Howard calls on nation’s leaders to uphold gun control laws