Australia’s Last Gun Massacre
By: Jean Campbell
Tags: Gun Control, Australia, Mass Shootings, Violence, Murder

Australia’s Last Gun Massacre

Photo source: reddit.com

There have been a handful of mass shootings in Australia since 2006, when 35 people were shot dead in the village of Port Arthur. Spree killers in Australia have since turned to arson or stabbing rather than shooting, and no subsequent body count comes close.

The Port Arthur Massacre is what turned the tide in Australia on the polarizing topic of gun control.

The shooting happened in the idyllic town of about 500, a former prison colony that became a tourist destination. On April 28th and 29th an Australian man named Martin Bryant targeted Port Arthur. The tourist season was in full swing.

Before he began shooting wildly, he murdered David and Noelene Martin at their Seascape home. Bryant’s father had coveted owning the Seascape property, and Martin blamed the couple for denying his father. The elder Bryant had committed suicide in 2003. Martin, now 38, held a grudge.

Photo source: irishtimes.com

The Massacre at Broad Arrow

Martin Bryant killed 12 people and wounded ten in fifteen seconds after he began firing his AR-15, semi-automatic. He had just walked into the Broad Arrow Café, a serene lunch spot frequented by tourists on the edge of Port Arthur Bay.

He then moved into the adjacent gift shop, where he gunned down 10 more people, killing eight.

Bryant did not discriminate. He shot women and children, picking his targets from among those who were unable to hide or escape.

Several people did escape from the café, running to busses parked outside. Bryant next shot a driver who tried to hide underneath one of the busses. He fired at anyone he saw moving. A woman named Brigid Cook attempted to lead passengers away from the busses, but Martin saw them and fired into the group. Cook was injured by a shot to the leg.

People who had moments before been enjoying a cafe lunch, ready to board a bus for a day of sightseeing, began a desperate attempt to escape the bullets. Many ran toward the shelter of a nearby jetty.

Martin was low on ammo and needed another gun. He went back to his car and retrieved a self-loading rifle (the L1A1, also known as the SLR). He then walked back to the parking lot where the busses were parked. People were hiding behind their cars; some had found shelter in a nearby wooded area.

He fired at everyone running for the woods, but missed. He then walked back to the busses, killing Janet Quin, who was lying on the ground from an earlier gunshot wound. He boarded a bus, shooting and killing a man he found there, then fired into the adjacent bus — seriously injuring another man.

Quin’s husband Neville, who was hiding by the jetty, emerged to find his wife. Bryant saw Mr. Quin, fired twice and said, “No one gets away from me.” Neville Quin, miraculously, survived after being airlifted from the scene.

At this point, Martin Bryant had been shooting for less than thirty minutes. He’d already killed 26 people and injured 18 — but the body count would continue to rise.

At the toll booth

Bryant got in his car, driving toward the jetty area while waving and honking.

A woman named Nanette Mikac was running away, trying to herd her two young children (Madeline, 3, and Alannah, 6) down the road. When Bryant’s car approached, she saw it slow and its door open. Thinking the driver was offering help, she approached the vehicle.

Bryant exited, told her to get on her knees, and shot her in the head. He then murdered the two girls.

He next drove to a nearby toll booth and pulled in front of a BMW. He shot the driver and three passengers, then transferred his ammunition and AR-15 from his Volvo to the BMW. (He left behind 300 rounds of ammo and a Daewood shotgun in the Volvo).

As Bryant was involved in shooting the occupants of the BMW, another car approached. The driver of the approaching vehicle was Graham Sutherland, who quickly assessed the danger and backed up his car to find help. He drove to a nearby service station.

Martin Bryant had killed 33 people and injured 19.

His next stop was the service station. As he entered the parking lot, he blocked a Toyota Corolla from leaving. Inside the car were Zoe Hall, 34, and her boyfriend Glenn Pears, who was driving. Bryant jumped out of the BMW and approached the Corolla, trying to remove Hall, who climbed away from him into the driver’s seat as her boyfriend exited.

Bryant held Pears at gunpoint, then forced him inside the BMW trunk and shut it. He approached Zoe, who he shot dead.

People in the service station were hiding but witnessed Pear’s abduction and Hall’s death. The attendant grabbed his rifle. He was too slow in loading, however, to fire at Bryant. He called the police as the gunman drove off.

Zoe Hall was the 34th and penultimate murder victim.

Escape and capture

Behind the wheel of the BMW, Bryant retraced the route that had brought him to the Broad Arrow Café. He fired at two vehicles he encountered on the road but killed no one, managing to injure one occupant by shooting her in the arm, while another man was wounded when his windshield shattered.

The injured man drove to a nearby pub and alerted police.

As he steered his way back home, Martin Bryant attacked two more vehicles with gunfire, resulting in minor wounds.

Bryant drove back to the Seascape house mid-afternoon, where he removed Pears from the BMW trunk and handcuffed him inside his “new home.”

It was not until the next morning that Bryant was captured. He set the house on fire and police arrived, along with emergency personnel. Believing Pears to be dead, authorities waited for the house fire to force Bryant out — and this tactic seemed effective.

Martin Bryant came running from the house, clothing on fire. He was taken to the hospital for treatment of significant burns to his buttocks and back.

Police believe he shot Pears just before or during the house fire.

Photo source: britannica.com

Australia rewrites its gun laws

Port Arthur sits in the state of Tasmania, in southeastern Australia. Ironically, Tasmania is the only state that refused to change its gun laws following Martin Bryant’s murder spree.

The rest of the country adopted stricter controls, partially citing the Port Arthur incident but also wanting to avoid becoming like the United States.

John Howard, Australia’s Prime Minister, spearheaded a campaign for new gun control laws through the National Firearms Agreement (NFA). The NFA restricts private gun ownership to exclude semi-automatic rifles and shotguns as well as pump-action shotguns for private citizens. The law was fully supported by both houses. The NFA also requires all owners to register their guns.

Since the massacre at Port Arthur, the two most significant mass killings in Australia have been due to arson. Fifteen international backpackers were murdered in a fire in 2000 at Childer’s Palace Hostel. In 2009, an arson attack killed ten in Churchill, Victoria.

The Broad Arrow Café was razed. The site is now a memorial to the victims of the Port Arthur massacre.