I don't think John Howard would be anyone's choice as the best Prime Minister ever but to his credit he acted quickly after the Port Arthur massacre to enact gun control legislation. None of this "thoughts and prayers" cop out

We're extremely grateful for gun control. Thank goodness our politicians were less influenced by the yanks back then than they are now.

So, this year my girls' school had their first drill for an active shooter. I don't think there are adequate words to describe that these drills are not just for the school, but for the entire community. It involved officers and first responder people from 3 cities, blocking off roads, changing traffic flow for others, having all residences and businesses go into lockdown. I just pray my girls never have to do the real thing because itl it IS scary (myself having experienced a bomb going off at my high school the last day of freshman year).

Americans carry on as though we not allowed to own firearms at all.

It’s a shame that only a few of my fellow Americans think it’s normal to have to worry about being shot by some random stranger with a military style weapon. The majority of Americans want them banned.

1996, and one lunatic kills 35 people, wounds 23. The government of the day said 'this is bull****, we're doing something about it'. And the vast majority of Australians said 'yeah, it IS bull****, let's get it done'. And it was. Just about the only good thing that particular govt did, but at least they did that.

This scot never wants her kids to experience the b******t that's just a regular Tuesday. No thank

us Aussies are fine mate.. the twats down here that carry guns illegally only target each other.. 99.99% of our streets are safe 😁🥳

American here and I would like to be completely offended and tell you how wrong you are but...

Can someone begin to explain to me how they live in the USA and send their kids to school and manage not to worry themselves sick every second of the school day? Genuine question. I know I’m great at worrying, but that level of anxiety… What do you tell yourselves?

onya Robert!! Indeed we dont want to be like 'Murica...

I wish I could vote this more than once. America, and Americans in general (but definitely not all of them) need to understand that their time as the country the whole world wants to be, the country the whole world wants to visit and be country the whole world wants to emulate is long, long gone. You literally kill children in school EVERY WEEK of the school year, but instead of DOING SOMETHING, you allow your leaders and politicians (they are NOT the same thing) to do nothing but “offer thoughts and prayers”. What a ridiculous, no, not ridiculous, offensive is the word, what an offensive insult toward the children you swore to protect, to love and to serve. And then next week, it happens again. And on the days you aren’t slaughtering your children in schools, your mismanagement of your mentally ill and unbalanced allows THEM to walk into public places like shopping malls, cinemas, nightclubs or just the street corner and THEY shoot dead more people. We do NOT want to be you.

We don't want to be us, either.

Huh that's funny cuz I sure as s**t don't want to be an American...... Pretty bad coming from someone who lives here.... uuuggghhhhhh

I’m British. I’m in my 60s. I’ve never actually seen a real gun.

You know you are in a death cult when...

I wish America could do this

I could never imagine being a parent, waiting on your child to return home from school, waiting, thinking they're late. You turn on the TV and you see the news. Your heart just shatters. This should not be a scenario in a first world country that calls itself "land of the free". Those children were not free to live their lives and explore their futures, because you had to have your "freedoms" to own a gun. I think the freedom of children is far more important.

Yeah, I really like all the hoops people in Germany have to jump through to own a gun.

You know you dont live in the US when you sit for a while confused about why Aussies was being amputated..Had to read the second comment to get a grip.

I went my entire young adult life never knowing that the school shooting rates haven't increased much since I was in school. Media coverage had though. It's only been since around 2018 that they have significantly increased. When I was younger, I was taught that journalists intentionally did not sensationalize terrorist style events because of copy cat problems. Looks like we have forgotten that since columbine

Ever go through bomb drills during the cold War? My parents did, I did (class of 1983) but differently.

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I wish I knew why these are sadly necessary these days, but I don't think it's weapons. When I went through school (HS graduating 2002, University 2005) nobody had ever heard about such a thing, and there were plenty of firearms around. And we've all heard about ~80's and earlier it was very common for kids in high school to keep their hunting rifles in their vehicles parked at school in rural areas. I know this won't be popular here, so don't nuke me for wondering what has changed.

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I got my first gun (12 guage shorgun) at age 5. I took it to tirkey shoots. I have never killed anyone and am 63 years old.

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I know that this will probably be downvoted a bunch, but most of the time a gun ban is not helpful. Most criminals do not obtain guns legally so taking away one of the best self defense weapons from citizens isn’t really a good idea. And all the accidental deaths from children shooting themselves are all due to idiots who don’t keep their guns in a safe place. Banning guns is not a good idea, and we can look at Venezuela as an example.