Learning from Australia's Experience with Mass Shootings
Kevin Rudd on Meet the Press
Asia Society Policy Institute President Kevin Rudd appeared on “Meet the Press” on February 27 and spoke to Chuck Todd about what the United States can learn from Australia’s strict gun laws, which were implemented following a school shooting in 1996.
Rudd explains that former Australian Prime Minister John Howard had “national consensus behind him” when he legislated the ban on all automatic and semi-automatic weapons from sale in and importation to Australia. The Australian government also funded a national gun buyback program, which “took out about one fifth of the entire gun stock out of the country.” According to Rudd, Australians saw the ability of automatic and semi-automatic weapons to “cause mass carnage within a few seconds” and chose to act.
Recalling his childhood in rural Australia, Rudd says that while rifles were needed for self-defense against wild animals, the average farmer or sporting shooter would think it “nuts” that one needs a semi-automatic weapon. Rudd asserts that U.S. gun laws can be changed and denying the possibility of change is part of a “national learned helplessness syndrome.” Americans, like Australians, have the power to change their laws, reminds Rudd. (7 min., 36 sec.)