After every massacre, there’s inevitable talk about Australian gun laws post-1996 and how successful they’ve been at reducing gun violence, homicides and suicides. Also a lot of misinformation about ‘bans’ and such.

Here’s what actually happened and what it means today: Australia (like the US) has a long, established history of gun ownership for farmers, sporting shooters and hunters. The 1996 Port Arthur massacre was the catalyst to create uniform legislation across all Australian States and Territories. Summarized: