On april 28th 1996 at a cafe in Port Arthur Tasmania Australia 28 year old martin Bryant began shooting his semi automatic AR-15 and semi-automatic .308 FN rifle at the civilians in the cafe within half an hour he had killed 35 people and injured another 23, this was Australia’s most deadly mass shooting. Compared to United states mass shootings there were only two with more casualties, Orlando in June 2016 and Las Legas in October 2017.
After this tragedy Australia passed strict gun laws banning semi automatic fire arms and shot guns, established a 28 day waiting period for the remaining allowed guns, and destroyed over 600,000 guns that were turned in by civilians. Since these laws were passed the gun related homicide and suicide rates in Australia have each decreased over 50% each and in the 21 years since then there has not been another mass shooting in Australia .
In the wake of the recent vegas shooting many writers are asking for the United States to act in a similar way to the Australians in aspects of gun control often mentioning the fact that Australia was strongly conservative and believed that guns were an important part of Australian culture. I do agree that the United States should take the same approach that Australia has but although it will be much harder to pass in the U.S.. Supreme court Justice Antonin Scalia, states: “Like most rights, the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited…”. It is “…not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose.” I believe that one of these limits to the second amendment should be the AR-15 and that the United States should ban the AR-15.
The AR-15 is one of t most popular guns in the United States with over 8 million owned ,this was also the gun used in the Sandy Hook, orlando, Port Arthur, las vegas, and Sutherland Springs shootings all of which each killed over 25 people. This has been the gun of choice for the majority of mass shooters. The primary reason the AR-15 is so deadly is because it was derived from the M 16 models used by the United States armed forces , this gun was designed with the sole purpose of killing people quickly and efficiently. The only major difference between the two guns are that the M 16 can fire fully automatic while the AR can only shoot semi-auto, however in the military soldiers are trained to primarily use semi automatic firing increase accuracy and save ammunition. The AR-15 should not be allowed for civilian use even under the second amendment.
21st Century Citizenship 