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Towie...from wilipedia.

The Port Arthur massacre and its consequencesThe Port Arthur massacre in 1996 transformed gun control legislation in Australia. Thirty five people were killed and 21 wounded when Martin Bryant opened fire on shop owners and tourists with two semi-automatic rifles: an AR-15 and an L1A1 SLR. Six weeks after the Dunblane massacre in Scotland,[9] this mass killing at the notorious former convict prison at Port Arthur horrified the Australian public.

Bryant said he obtained these firearms from a gun dealer without holding the required firearms licence.[14] In response to the massacre, Prime Minister John Howard, then newly elected, immediately took the gun law proposals developed from the report of the 1988 National Committee on Violence[15] and urged the states to adopt them under a National Firearms Agreement. This was necessary because the Australian Constitution does not give the Commonwealth power to enact gun laws.

The proposals included a ban on all semi-automatic rifles and all semi-automatic and pump-action shotguns, and a tightly restrictive system of licensing and ownership controls. Some discussion of measures to allow owners to undertake modifications to reduce the capacity of magazine-fed shotguns occurred, but the Government decided not to permit this.

Public feeling after the Port Arthur shootings overwhelmed the opposition from gun owners' organisations and the Commonwealth cooperated with all states to agree to their proposals without change.

The Government planned a series of public meetings with farmers and sporting shooters to explain the proposed changes. Many sporting shooters viewed the proposed changes as a hasty 'knee-jerk' reaction by the Government that lacked a serious discussion of the issue beforehand. In the first meeting, on the advice of his security team, Mr. Howard wore a bullet-resistant vest, which was visible under his jacket. This was perceived as a deeply offensive act by the shooters, and their outrage was interpreted by many of the media and the public to show that ordinary shooters were dangerous and contemptible.[16][17][18]

Some shooters applied to join the Liberal Party of Australia in an attempt to influence the Government, but the Liberal Party barred them from membership.[19][20] A court action by 500 shooters seeking admission to membership failed in the Supreme Court of South Australia.[21]

Because the Australian Constitution prevents the taking of property without just compensation the Federal Government introduced the Medicare Levy Amendment Act 1996 that provided the revenue for the National Firearms Program through a one-off 0.2% increase in the Medicare levy. Known as the gun buy-back scheme, it started across the country on the 1 October 1996 and concluded on the 30 September 1997 [22] to purchase and destroy all semi-automatic rifles including .22 rimfires, semi-automatic shotguns and pump-action shotguns. The buyback was predicted to cost $A500 million and had wide community support.

[edit] Monash University shootingsMain article: Monash University shooting
In 2002, an international student killed two fellow students at Monash University in Victoria with pistols he had acquired as a member of a shooting club. As in 1996, the federal government urged state governments to review handgun laws, and, as a result, amended legislation was adopted in all states and territories. Changes included a 10-round magazine capacity limit, a calibre limit of not more than .38 inches (9.65 mm), a barrel length limit of not less than 120 mm (4.72 inches) for semi-automatic pistols and 100 mm (3.94 inches) for revolvers, and even stricter probation and attendance requirements for sporting target shooters.[citation needed] Whilst handguns for sporting shooters are nominally restricted to .38 inches as a maximum calibre, it is possible to obtain an endorsement allowing calibres up to .45 inches (11.43 mm) to be used for Metallic Silhouette or Single Action Shooting matches. These new laws were opposed not only by sporting shooters groups but also by gun control supporters, who saw it as paying for shooters to upgrade to new guns. In the state of Victoria $A21 million compensation was paid for confiscating 18,124 target pistols, and 15,184 replacement pistols were imported.[citation needed] .

One government policy was to compensate shooters for giving up the sport. Approximately 25% of pistol shooters took this offer, and relinquished their licences and their right to own pistols for sport for five years.[citation needed]