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Australia offers to help US with gun reform
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Police form a perimeter around the road leading to the Mandalay Hotel (background) after a gunman killed at least 50 people and wounded more than 200 others when he opened fire on a country music concert in Las Vegas, Nevada on Oct. 2, 2017. Police said the gunman, a 64-year-old local resident named as Stephen Paddock, had been killed after a SWAT team responded to reports of multiple gunfire from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay, a hotel-casino next to the concert venue. (Agence France -Presse/Mark Ralston)
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ustralia offered to help the United States reform its gun laws Tuesday after a successful two-decade clampdown on firearms in the wake of its own worst mass shooting.
The US is reeling after at least 59 people were killed and more than 500 injured when retired accountant Stephen Paddock opened fire on thousands of concertgoers in Las Vegas before killing himself.
The shocking tragedy has sparked renewed calls for weapons control, a sensitive subject in a country where the pro-gun lobby -- the National Rifle Association -- is a powerful political force.
"What we can offer is our experience," Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said Tuesday, pointing to a 1996 gun buyback and ban on semi-automatic and automatic weapons.
"But at the end of the day it's going to be up to the United States legislators and lawmakers, and the United States public, to change the laws to ensure this type of incident doesn't happen again."
Australia was rocked in 1996 when gunman Martin Bryant went on the rampage armed with semi-automatic weapons at the historic Tasmanian colonial convict site of Port Arthur.
Thirty-five people died in the massacre, a turning point for a nation that traditionally had a high rate of gun ownership.
Then centre-right Liberal prime minister John Howard swiftly enacted tougher gun laws, including bans on certain weapons, a minimum ownership age, and licences.
More than 600,000 weapons were destroyed in the aftermath and while controversial at the time, gun control measures now have strong public support.
In the first national amnesty since then, which started in June and ended last weekend, more than 26,000 guns were surrendered.
While gun violence has not disappeared, there have been no further mass shootings, in contrast to the United States where they remain common.
A survey published in 2016, which examined intentional firearm death rates from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, found gun-related deaths and suicides had declined since 1997.
