The threat to public safety caused by illegal possession of firearms: How should Australia properly manage gun safety?

Student name：Zhunyu Zhang

Student number：530565413

The threat to public safety caused by illegal possession of firearms: How should Australia properly manage gun safety?

Background

The Arthur Street Massacre in 1996 claimed 35 lives. This tragic event directly spurred the subsequent gun control reforms in Australia.

Although the Australian government passed the National Firearms Agreement in 1996 to unify the gun control system in most parts of Australia, nearly 700,000 firearms were still repurchased and destroyed by the government. The new regulations clearly stipulate that firearms can only be used for legal purposes, such as pest control on farms or shooting training. However, public safety crises caused by firearms still occur frequently.

Around 11:20 a.m. on April 13, 2025, a 9-year-old boy in Wendram Village, southern New South Wales, died after being shot in the neck. After the tragic incident, the police cordoned off the scene and launched an investigation. As of now, the source of the involved firearm and the details of the incident have not been made public. On the same day morning, another shooting incident occurred in the center of Melbourne. A man was shot after chatting with others in a black car. The police believe that this incident is a targeted shooting rather than a random indiscriminate attack. Currently, the police are still investigating the case and have not released the investigation results. These incidents have caused great social unease.

Do the frequent shooting incidents indicate that the current gun control regulations might need to be improved?

Article Category

This special topic is inclined to be written in the form of feature reports. It will review and analyze the existing gun control legislation, as well as the gun-related incidents that occurred across Australia from 2023 to 2024, and the subsequent handling of some serious incidents. It will also present the latent safety crisis lurking around every Australian. Feature reports are conducive to comprehensively presenting the gun safety situation in Australian society over the past two years.Meanwhile, the article will also discuss what reasonable countermeasures should be taken when gunshots occur around us, and offer some suggestions to residents on how to protect their own safety.

Audience

The audience of this article is all the residents of Australia. As an emergency security incident, once a shooting incident occurs, it is necessary for residents to react quickly to protect their own and others’ lives and safety. It is necessary to remind all residents of the danger of concealed firearms.Meanwhile, this special article can also serve as a reminder to citizens who already legally possess firearms, as the illegal use of firearms can lead to irreparable tragedies.

Publisher

This feature article is planned to be published on ABC News platform. The audience of this news platform covers all Australians and it has sufficient influence to enable more readers to see this feature report on the impact of firearms on public safety.

 

 

Source of information

ABC NEWS：

Police investigating after man shot in morning attack in Melbourne CBD

How do Australia’s gun ownership laws differ between states and territories?

7 NEWS

Little boy killed in accidental shooting on rural NSW property

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