Australian Firearm Regulation at 25 —
Successes, Ongoing Challenges,
and Lessons for the World

New England Journal of Medicine, 29 April 2021
By Joel Negin, Philip Alpers, Natasha Nassar and David Hemenway

Twenty-five years ago, on Sunday, April 28, 1996, a 28-year-old man used a Colt AR-15 semiautomatic rifle to kill 35 people in the quiet tourist town of Port Arthur, tucked away in the southeast corner of Tasmania, a small island off mainland Australia. The events of that day launched one of the world’s most powerful natural experiments in firearm-injury prevention.