Port Arthur survivor Ursula Wright urges Liberals to resist changing gun laws

PORT Arthur massacre survivor Ursula Wright has urged the state’s Liberal Government to resist making changes to gun laws.

ONLOOKERS shouted at Ursula Wright to “get down” as she walked towards Port Arthur’s ruins.

“He’s shooting at you,” they yelled.

A single bullet flew so close she heard it and felt the air move next to her cheek.

The 96-year-old has for the first time spoken of how she survived the Port Arthur massacre, in the hope of convincing the state’s Liberal Government not to pursue planned changes to Tasmania’s gun laws.

Mrs Wright has written to Premier Will Hodgman and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to express her horror at the proposed changes, which would give farmers and sporting shooters greater access to Category C firearms, such as semiautomatic rifles, self-loading rifles and pump-action shotguns, and to double some licences from five to 10 years.

MORE: HODGMAN TO SNUB HOWARD ON GUN LAWS

Mrs Wright, her husband Douglas and their friends Roy and Helen decided “by purest chance” to visit Port Arthur that Sunday.

They picnicked by the water, arguing over forgotten pate.

Later, they walked toward the ruins.

“We started across and then we heard shots,” Mrs Wright said yesterday.

“People started calling out ‘get down, he’s shooting at you’.”

Then she saw people running from the Broad Arrow Cafe.

“Suddenly, I felt the slightest breath past my cheek. I knew quite well what it was.”

Mrs Wright pushed Helen into a ditch and rolled on top of her. They hid, waiting until it went quiet.

Port Arthur massacre survivor Ursula Wright, 96, of Lindisfarne, is not happy about the possibility of gun laws being watered down. Picture: SAM ROSEWARNE

Then they moved to the nearby information centre, where they stayed until evening.

Martin Bryant used a semiautomatic rifle on April 28, 1996, as he killed 35 people and wounded 23 more. Afterwards, she remembers a woman sobbing, holding a baby.

Mrs Wright believed the woman had become separated from her husband during the massacre, but she had been crying too hard to explain.

The following weekend Mrs Wright and her husband went back to Port Arthur, thinking that otherwise they may never return.

“It was most strange, the place was deserted,” she said.

“We sat at the table where we sat when we had a slight argument about the pate and it was covered in dried blood.

“It has impressed on me ever since the danger of guns and of neglecting the proliferation of guns.”

On Sunday, Mrs Wright hand-wrote a letter to Mr Hodgman and Mr Turnbull, telling them she was horrified by the proposed changes to Tasmania’s gun legislation.

“What possible justification can there be for this?” she wrote.

“Twenty-two years ago my husband and I with two friends were shot at by the gunman at Port Arthur using weapons which shortly afterwards were outlawed by the Howard Liberal Government.

“I appeal to you not to weaken but to strengthen these laws. Commonsense and humanity requires it of you and your governments.”

The State Government has said none of the proposed changes would breach the National Firearms Agreement, signed in the wake of the 1996 massacre.

But others have said the proposal is clearly inconsistent with the agreement.

Police Minister Michael Ferguson has backed a move by independent Legislative Councillor Ivan Dean for an Upper House inquiry into the proposed changes.

The policy was revealed in the media the day before the state election.