4 – Port Arthur, Australia
Just two weeks after the horrendous incident at Dunblane Primary School in Scotland, there would be a similarly shocking mass shooting event on the other side of the world. Geographically, it is hard to think of a place that is further away from Scotland than Tasmania, but culturally, the UK and Australia are very similar, which is why the tragedy at Port Arthur was felt so keenly on both sides of the world. Britain’s most deadly mass shooting would be immediately followed by Australia’s.
What shocked many about the Port Arthur massacre was that the perpetrator, a man named Martin Bryant, was well known to be violent and capable of severe violence, but was still allowed to acquire guns legally and simply. He had many of the traits that mark out serial killers: as a child, he tortured animals and was disruptive at school and into his adolescence, he was diagnosed as being intellectually disabled and suffering from several mental illnesses, particularly schizophrenia and Asperger’s Syndrome. On leaving school, he was illiterate, had a well below average IQ and severe behavioural issues that made it unlikely that he could ever work.
Bryant befriended a much older woman, a wealthy heiress, and the pair spent her money wildly. When she died in 1992, he inherited her fortune and his mother petitioned to be able to control it, as Bryant was intellectually unable to deal with such sums. His father died in mysterious circumstances a year later and Martin inherited yet more money, but he lost the only person whom mental health authorities considered capable of containing his potential for violent behaviour.
On the morning of April 28, 1996, Bryant rose at 6 am – he had never been known to get up so early, as he never worked – and left his house just before 10. He sent off for Forcett, where his father had previously tried to buy property. He found the couple, the Martins, who had refused to sell to his father and killed them, before continuing up the coast to Port Arthur. Once there, he spoke to a man outside of a residence that his father had also tried to purchase before entering the town and stopping for lunch. He tried to initiate conversations with fellow diners, but they did not engage him and later said that he was mumbling to himself. On finishing his meal, he walked into the cafe, placed his large bag on the table, took out a Colt AR-15 Carbine and began shooting.
Within 30 seconds, twelve people had been killed and another ten were wounded. Bryant walked from the cafe into the gift shop and shot another ten people dead, continuing to the car park, where he murdered four more, before getting in his car, leaving the area blaring the horn and waving at people. As a young family, a mother and two children under 6, fled the scene, he drove after them. They slowed down, thinking that he was offering help in their escape, only for him to get out of the car and shoot all three dead. He killed another four people in a nearby car, before cutting off another vehicle, containing passengers Zoe Hall and Glenn Pears. He trapped Pears in the boot of his BMW, shot Hall dead in the car and then set off, firing at other cars as he went along the Tasmanian coast. Bryant pulled up at the Martins house, where he had begun his spree, and handcuffed Pears to the stairs.
It was now 2 pm, barely an hour after the spree had started. Bryant holed himself up until the next morning, when he set fire to the house. Later, it was revealed that he had shot Pears at some point before the fire. Martin Bryant was taken in alive and charged with 35 murders, for which he was eventually convicted.
The backlash against guns in Australia was swift. Every subnational jurisdiction banned rifles and shotguns, while also making it far more difficult to acquire any sort of gun. The Australian government initiated a buy-back scheme to remove guns from the hands of individuals. That Bryant, who had a history of mental illness, was able to drive a car without a licence and get a gun without any vetting at all was seen as a damning indictment of Australian law.
It is thought that Martin Bryant was inspired by news coverage of the Dunblane Massacre, and both Port Arthur and Dunblane sent each other commemorations for the memorials that now exist in both towns.