On this day in 1996, the most terrible massacre in Australian History Post Federation occured.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Arthur_massacre

The murder spree began on the morning of April 28, 1996 at the Seascape guesthouse north of Port Arthur, where Bryant murdered the elderly couple who owned the business. It is believed that Bryant's late father had earlier made several offers to purchase this guesthouse. After Bryant's father committed suicide, Martin Bryant seemed to believe that this refusal had caused his father to become depressed.
After leaving the guesthouse, Bryant drove to another property and enquired after the owner, a Mrs Larner. She had also earlier declined to sell her farm to Bryant senior. Fortunately for Mrs Larner she was away when Bryant called. He then travelled to the nearby Port Arthur historic site where he paid for entry, and parked his car near the Broad Arrow café where he purchased a meal. He ate on a deck area outside the café.
At around 1:30 PM Bryant re-entered the "Broad Arrow Cafe" and removed an AR15 rifle from his bag and commenced firing. Bryant rapidly fired 29 rounds, killing 22 people, 19 from head shots. Bryant then moved to the car park and fired at random people, killing several. He shot and killed the driver of one of the several tour buses parked side by side in the car park and three passengers, as well as several others who were taking cover in and around the buses. At some point Bryant swapped his AR15 for a FN FAL military rifle, kept in the boot of his car, where he also stored a magazine-fed shotgun. Bryant eventually drove his Volvo out of the carpark towards the park entrance. Along the way he left the car and, at point blank range, murdered a mother, Nanette Mikac and her two small children Alannah, 6, and Madeline, 3, who were trying to escape.
Bryant then went to the tollbooth at the entrance to the historic site, held up the driver of a BMW at gunpoint, murdered the four occupants and drove the car towards the Seascape guesthouse. At a petrol station along the way he saw a Toyota with two occupants, a man and a woman. Bryant forced the man at gunpoint into the boot of the BMW, then shot the woman dead. He then drove the BMW on to the guesthouse, arriving a few minutes before 2:00 PM.
Here he shot at several passing vehicles, injuring two more people. Bryant then released the man from the boot of the BMW, handcuffed him to a railing inside the guesthouse, and set the BMW on fire. Two policemen had approached the guesthouse within two hours but were pinned down in a roadside ditch for several hours. Six hours later a team from the Tasmanian Police Special Operations Group had arrived, and an 18-hour standoff ensued.
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Capture and prosecution

Bryant was captured the following morning when he set fire to the guesthouse and ran outside, his clothes on fire. It came to light that the man who was thought to be his hostage had been shot dead during or before the standoff.
Bryant initially pleaded not guilty to the 35 murders but after the prosecution began presenting evidence, changed his plea to guilty. He is now serving a sentence of life imprisonment in Hobart's Risdon Prison without possibility of parole. In Australian terms his prison papers are marked "Never to be Released".
Australians reacted to the event with widespread shock and horror, and the political effects were significant and long-lasting. Both federal and state governments, some of which (notably Tasmania itself and Queensland) were opposed to firearm control, quickly took action to restrict the availability of firearms. Under federal government co-ordination all States and territories of Australia banned and heavily restricted the legal ownership and use of self-loading rifles, self-loading shotguns and pump-action shotguns together with a considerable tightening of other gun laws. Family members of victims, notably Walter Mikac (who lost his wife and two children) spoke out in favour of the changes.
Much discussion has occurred as to the level of Bryant's mental health. It is generally accepted that he has a sub-normal IQ (estimated at 66, and in the lowest 2 % of his age group: [1]) and at the time of the offences was in receipt of a Disability Support Pension on the basis of being mentally handicapped. Bryant had never been diagnosed with schizophrenia, nor any major depressive disorder ([2]). Reports that Bryant was schizophrenic were based on his mother's misinterpretation of psychiatric advice. Media reports also detailed his odd behaviour as a child. However, he was able to drive a car (ref: [3]), and also able to obtain a gun, despite lacking a gun licence. This was a matter which, in the public debate that followed, was widely regarded as a telling demonstration of the inadequacy of the nation's gun laws. Bryant was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome by a psychiatrist appointed by the Crown (prosecution), Dr Sale, but this diagnosis was disputed by Prof Mullen, a forensic psychiatrist working with Bryant's defence team ([4]).
Bryant was assessed as fit to stand trial as a mentally competent adult. There were no indications that he could be regarded as criminally insane at the time of the offences; as he clearly knew what he was doing (of his own free will), and that it was wrong. See the M'Naghten Rules.
After Bryant's imprisonment, several other prisoners boasted of their intention to murder him in jail. For his own safety, Bryant was held in near-solitary confinement in a specially built cell from his sentencing in November 1996 until July 1997. His motivation for the massacre remains largely unknown ([5]) except to his lawyer, who is bound not to reveal confidences without his client's consent.
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Aftermath and analysis

The Port Arthur tourist site reopened a few weeks later, and since then a new restaurant has been built. The former Broad Arrow Cafe has been converted into a "place for quiet reflection", and the surrounding grounds converted into a memorial garden.
The massacre at Port Arthur created a tragic kinship with the Scottish town of Dunblane, which had suffered a similarly horrific event only weeks previously. The two communities exchanged items to place at their respective memorials. The defense psychiatrist in the case has revealed that the Dunblane massacre was a trigger in Bryant's mind for the Port Arthur Massacre.[6]

Bloody hell, now that is what I truly call a psycho! I was just starting to alter my views on gun-control, but this is always a risk. How are the rules overthere Bory?
Well, at least he serves life, regardless of his IQ. I reckon it is all about repeating the crimes and this guy sounds like a ticking time bomb. Chances re he'd do it again.... so put him away for the rest of his days.

The true aftermath as I understand it is the legacy of Australia's gun control laws.

Yeah I knew the story. Unbelievable.

Horrible story.

one seriously messed up sicko.
from what iv read he is pretty much rotting away in jail, he doesn't do anything, he doesn't interact with anyone, he barely leaves his cell. and, its what he deservces. the death penalty would have been a cheap way out.



some quotes from an article in The Age

No more. Attitudes to firearms and gun laws changed almost overnight. After a decade of very public gun massacres - Queen and Hoddle streets in Melbourne and at Strathfield Plaza - people had overwhelmingly had enough of anyone with a grudge gaining easy, mostly legal access to weapons designed expressly to kill a lot of people in a very short time

So, 10 years later, can we see a difference? Resoundingly, yes. The results are in: Australia's tightened gun controls have been followed by remarkable reductions in gun deaths.
In the decade up to and including the Port Arthur event, Australia experienced 11 mass shootings, which are defined as taking five or more victims. One hundred people were shot dead and another 52 wounded. In the 10 years since Port Arthur and the new gun laws, not one mass shooting has occurred in Australia. For this reason alone Australia is a safer place.

Even before Port Arthur, gun-related deaths - suicides, homicides and unintentional shootings - were declining slowly. But the rate of decline accelerated markedly after the tragedy. From 1979 to 1996, 11,110 Australians died by gunshot, with an annual average of 617. In the seven years after new gun laws were announced (1997-2003), the yearly average almost halved, to 331.
With firearm homicide - the gun deaths that attract the most attention - the downward trend has been even more dramatic. In the same two periods, the average annual number of gun homicides fell from 93 to 56. But it was the acceleration in the rate of this decline which proved most remarkable: it fell 70 times faster after the new gun laws, than befor

that's good news,Locke.