Jan. 31, 2026

"SUNDAY AFTERNOON IN TASMANIA: THE PORT ARTHUR MASSACRE - PART 1"

"SUNDAY AFTERNOON IN TASMANIA: THE PORT ARTHUR MASSACRE - PART 1"

Reid Carter continues the Australia Day coverage with the deadliest mass shooting in modern Australian history. April 28, 1996: A gunman enters the Broad Arrow Café at Port Arthur's historic site. In ninety seconds, twenty people are dead. He moves to the car park, the tollbooth, executes a mother shielding her two daughters aged six and three. Hijacks a BMW after killing its occupants. Takes a hostage. Returns to a guesthouse where he'd already murdered the owners that morning. Eighteen-hour standoff. Thirty-five dead. Twenty-three wounded. Australia will never be the same. Tomorrow: How one nation chose to act.

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WEBVTT

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Before we begin, a warning. Today's episode contains detailed descriptions

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of mass violence, including the deaths of children. We're covering

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one of the deadliest mass shootings in modern history. If

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you need to skip this one, I understand the events

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we're discussing are horrific. We name the perpetrator only when

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historically necessary. Our focus is on the victims, the survivors,

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and what happened next. This is difficult content. Listener discretion

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is strongly advised. Calarugashark Media, Good morning, I'm read Carter, Saturday,

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January thirty first, twenty twenty six. Last weekend, Australians celebrated

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Australia Day, flags flying families gathering, a nation honoring its history.

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But every nation has darker chapters, moments that test its character,

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tragedies that force hard questions about who a country really is.

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Last weekend we explored one of those chapters. Azaria Chamberlain,

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a mother wrongfully convicted junk science thirty two years to

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get the truth on a death certificate. A story about

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justice failing then slowly correcting itself. This weekend we cover

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Port Arthur, a very different kind of Australian tragedy. One

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that didn't expose the justice system's failures, one that exposed

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the nation's gun laws, and one that showed what a

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country can do when it decides thirty five dead bodies

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are enough. April twenty eighth, nineteen ninety six a Sunday,

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beautiful autumn day in Tasmania, the island state off Australia's

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southeast coast. Clear skies, mild temperatures, perfect weather for tourists.

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Port Arthur is a historic site on the Tasman Peninsula,

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about an hour's drive from Hobart. In the nineteenth century,

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it was one of the harshest convict prisons in the

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British Empire. Thousands of transported prisoners suffered and died there.

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The ruins remain preserved, a memorial to a brutal past,

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and now a popular tourist destination. On that Sunday, about

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five hundred visitors were exploring the site, families, couples, tour

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groups from around the world, Australians enjoying a day out.

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Around sixty people were having lunch in the Broad Arrow Cafe,

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a small restaurant at the site. Stone Walls, Wooden Beams

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gift shop attached the smell of coffee and grilled food.

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At approximately one thirty PM, a twenty eight year old

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man with long blonde hair finished his meal on the

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outdoor deck. He'd been eating alone, smiling at passers by

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making small talk about the weather. Then he stood up,

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walked inside, reached into his sports bag and pulled out

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a Colt R fifteen semi automatic rifle. In the next

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ninety seconds, twenty people would be dead. By the time

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it ended eighteen hours later, thirty five people would be murdered,

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twenty three more wounded, children among them, families destroyed. It

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remains the deadliest mass shooting by a single gunman in

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modern Australian history. I'm reed, Carter. This is Celebrity Trials Today,

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Part one. April twenty eighth, nineteen ninety six. What happened

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at Port Arthur, The victims, the horror, the eighteen hour

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standoff Tomorrow Part two. How Australia responded twelve days that

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changed the nation's gun laws forever. The lesson America refuses

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to learn this is Port Arthur. Before we get to

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April twenty eighth, you need to understand something about Australia's

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gun laws in nineteen ninety six, so there weren't any.

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Not really, not in any unified sense. Australia has six

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states and two territories. Each had its own firearms regulations,

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some stricter than others, but there was no national standard,

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no consistent approach. Tasmania, the island state where Port Arthur

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is located, had the weakest gun laws in the country.

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In nineteen ninety one, Tasmania passed a law requiring a

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license to purchase firearms. Sounds reasonable, but enforcement was limited.

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You could buy guns with cash, dealers didn't always check

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if buyers actually had licenses. The law existed on paper,

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but not in practice. Throughout the early nineteen nineties, police

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ministers from across Australia tried to create a national firearms

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agreement uniform laws, consistent standards, registration, licensing, restrictions on the

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most dangerous weapons. Tasmania blocked it. Every time a meeting

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of police ministers in Launceston, Tasmania, they presented a comprehensive

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redesign of national gun laws. Tasmania rejected it. Here's where

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it gets eerie. Nine years before Port Arthur, the premiere

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of New South Wales, Barry Unsworth was frustrated two mass

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shootings had just occurred in Melbourne. He wanted national gun reform.

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Tasmania was resisting. Unsworth made a prediction, a warning, a

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prophecy that would prove horrifyingly accurate. It will take a

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massacre in Tasmania before we get gun reform in Australia.

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Nine years later, almost to the month, he was proven right.

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The gunman who would commit that massacre was already stockpiling weapons,

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using the inheritance from a dead friend, buying rifles and

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ammunition with cash, no license required, no questions asked. Tasmania's

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weak gun laws made it easy, made it possible, made

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it inevitable. April twenty eighth, nineteen ninety six, the massacre

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Tasmania's resistance had been building toward. I'm going to give

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you some background on the perpetrator, not to humanize him,

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not to explain or excuse what he did, but because

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understanding how warning signs were missed is part of understanding

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how this happened. Martin Bryant was born May seventh, nineteen

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sixty seven, in Hobart, Tasmania, the first child of Maurice

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and Carlene Bryant. From early childhood, something was wrong. His

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mother later described him as annoying and different. He frequently

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broke his toys, tormented other children, showed cruelty to animals.

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A psychiatrist who examined him as a child told the

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family he would never be capable of holding down a job.

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His IQ was tested around sixty six. Intellectually disabled, unable

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to function normally in society. Neighbors remembered disturbing incidents. One

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recalled the day a young Bryant shot every parrot in

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the neighborhood. Dead animals appeared on the Bryant property with

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no natural explanation. He left school early, couldn't hold employed,

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eventually received a disability pension based on psychiatric evaluation. In

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nineteen eighty seven, when Bryant was twenty, he began working

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as a handyman for a woman named Helen Harvey. She

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was a lottery heiress, wealthy, lonely, living alone in a

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large house. Bryant and Harvey became close an unusual friendship.

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She was in her fifties, he was barely an adult

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with the mind of a child. They traveled together, spent

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time together. She became, in some ways, the only real

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friend he ever had. October nineteen ninety two, Helen Harvey

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died in a car accident. Bryant was a passenger. He

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survived with injuries she did not. Some have speculated that

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Bryant caused the crash. He was known to grab the

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steering wheel while others were driving. He denied any wrongdoing.

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No charges were ever filed. But here's what matters. Helen

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Harvey left her entire estate to Martin Bryant, approximately five

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hundhundred and seventy thousand dollars in property and assets, a

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fortune for a young man who had never worked a

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real job in his life. Bryant's father, Maurice, had struggled

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with depression, failed business ventures. In nineteen ninety three, he

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committed suicide. After his father's death, Bryant began traveling extensively,

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visited countries around the world, and began stockpiling guns. He

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bought a cult Ar fifteen semi automatic rifle, a point

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three zero eight SLR semi automatic rifle, a Dawu twelve

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gage semi automatic shotgun, ammunition lots of it. He had

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no firearms license didn't need one. Tasmania's weak laws meant

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dealers could sell to anyone with cash. The weapons that

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would kill thirty five people were purchased legally from licensed

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dealers by a man who was intellectually disabled, socially isolated,

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recently bereaved, and showing clear signs of deterioration. Nobody stopped him.

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Nobody could stop him. The system wasn't designed to stop him.

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By April nineteen ninety six, Bryant had the means, the weapons,

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the ammunition. What he didn't have and never provided, was

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a reason. He has never explained why he did it,

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never given a motive that made sense. In interviews after

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his arrest, he offered confused, contradictory accounts, something about his

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father's failed attempt to buy a property near Port Arthur

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years earlier, but nothing coherent, Nothing that explains why he

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decided to murder thirty five strangers. Some people are just evil.

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The morning of April twenty eighth, nineteen ninety six, Bryant

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drove from his home in Newtown, a suburb of Hobart,

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toward the Tasman Peninsula. His first stop the Seascape Cottage,

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a bed and breakfast near Port Arthur, owned by David

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Martin sixty three and his wife Noah Lene Martin sixty six.

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Bryant knew the Martins, or rather his father had known them.

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Years earlier, Maurice Bryant had tried to buy the Seascape property.

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The deal fell through, the Martins bought it instead. Some

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have theorized this was Bryant's motive, revenge for his father's disappointment.

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But Maurice Bryant had been dead for three years, and

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the Martins had done nothing wrong. They'd simply purchased a

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property that was for sale. Some time that morning, Bryant

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arrived at Seascape. What exactly happened inside isn't entirely clear,

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but at some point before noon he murdered David and

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Noaeline Martin, first victims shot dead in their own home.

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A couple who had built a business together, who welcomed

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guests who had done nothing to deserve what happened to them.

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Bryant took their weapons stored at the property and locked

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up the building. He would return later. Around twelve thirty

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five p m. A couple stopped at Seascape. They wanted

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to look at the accommodation. Bryant met them outside told

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them they couldn't come in. His parents were away. His

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girlfriend was inside. The couple found him rude, felt uneasy.

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They left. Bryant got in his yellow Volvo and drove

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toward Port Arthur. On the way, he stopped to chat

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with a man whose car had overheated. Suggested the man

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come to the Port Arthur cafe for coffee. Later, normal

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interactions pleasant, even nobody suspected anything. Around one ten pm,

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Bryant paid the entry fee at the Port Arthur Historic Site,

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drove in parked near the Broad Arrow Cafe. A security

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manager told him to move his car. That area was

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reserved for camper vans. Bryant moved it, then moved it back,

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parked where he wanted. He walked toward the cafe, carrying

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a sports bag and a video camera, went inside, purchased

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a meal, took it out to the deck, sat down,

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ate lunch, smiled at people walking by, tried to make

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conversation about the lack of wasps, about there being fewer

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Japanese tourists than usual. Witnesses later described him as nervous,

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frequently looking back toward the car, park back toward the

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cafe interior. He finished his meal, stood up, walked inside,

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reached into his bag, one thirty pm. Approximately sixty people

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inside the Broad Arrow Cafe, Families eating lunch, tour groups

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taking a break, locals grabbing coffee, the normal hum of

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a busy restaurant on a Sunday afternoon. Bryant walked in

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from the deck, moved toward a table near the entrance,

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set down his bag, pulled out the colt AAR fifteen.

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He fired his first shot. What happened next took approximately

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ninety seconds. I'm going to walk you through it because

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the speed and efficiency of the killing is part of

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what made it so devas dating and part of what

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made Australia decide that weapons like this should never be

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available to civilians. Bryant's first victim was mix sergeant's girlfriend,

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Kate Elizabeth Scott, twenty one years old, shot in the head.

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Sergeant himself was wounded, survived. Bryant moved through the cafe methodically,

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not rushing, not panicking, firing at anyone in his path.

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He shot Mervin Howard fifty five. The bullet passed through

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Howard and through a window, then shot Mervin's wife Mary

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fifty seven. Anthony Nightingale forty four, stood up after hearing

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the first shots no, not here, he yelled. Bryant shot

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him through the neck and spine. Walter Bennett sixty six,

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Raymond Sharp sixty seven, Kevin Sharp sixty eight, Raymond's brother,

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shot in rapid succession. One bullet passed through Bennett and

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killed Raymond Sharp behind him. A twenty eight year old

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New Zealand winemaker named Jason Winter was helping the cafe

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staff when the shooting started. When Bryant turned toward Winter's wife,

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Joe Ann, and their fifteen month old son, Mitchell, Winter

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through a serving tray at Bryant, trying to distract him.

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By time, Joanne's father pushed her and the baby to

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the floor under a table. They survived. Jason Winter did not.

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Twelve people killed in the first fifteen seconds, ten more wounded,

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seventeen shots fired. Bryant moved toward the gift shop area

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attached to the cafe. People were hiding under tables behind displays,

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hoping he wouldn't see them. He found them. Nicole Burgess,

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seventeen years old, local girl worked at the gift shop,

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shot in the head. Elizabeth Howard, twenty six years old,

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also worked at the gift shop, shot in the arm

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and chest, two young women starting their careers killed at

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their workplace. Bryant walked back toward the cafe, saw a

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movement near the front door, fired at a table, hit

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Peter Crosswell, who was hiding underneath in the buttock. Crosswell survived.

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Jason Winter's body was in the gift shop, but Bryant

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saw movement nearby. Winter had thought Bryant had left, started

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to stand up, said something to others hiding with him. No, no,

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Winter said, just before Bryant shot him again, fatally, this

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time in the head. Bryant returned to the gift shop,

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found more people hiding. Ronald Jerry seventy one, Peter Nash

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thirty two, Pauline Masters forty nine, all shot dead. In total,

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twenty people killed inside the Broad Arrow Cafe in approximately

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ninety seconds. The cafe fell, silent, bodies everywhere, blood pooling

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on the stone floor, Survivors hiding under tables, playing dead.

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Too terrified to move, Bryant walked outside. He wasn't finished.

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Outside the cafe, Bryant moved toward his car. He'd left

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another weapon there, the SLR semi automatic point three eight rifle,

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more powerful than the AR. Fifteen people in the car

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park were confused. Some had heard the shots but didn't

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understand what was happening, thought it might be a historical

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reenactment part of the tourist experience. It wasn't. Bryant shot

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and killed the drivers of two tour buses, Royce Thompson

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fifty nine, Robert Salzman fifty seven, then passengers Helene Salzman

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fifty others were wounded. At the gift shop exit, Elva

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Gaillard forty eight and Jeannette Quinn fifty tried to flee.

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Both were shot dead. Gordon and Mary Nixon, tourists from Melbourne.

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Gordon was wounded, Mary sixty was killed. Some survivors described

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Bryan as calm, almost cheerful, like he was enjoying himself.

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He got into his Volvo, drove toward the site exit

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the toll booth. At the toll booth, he encountered a family.

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Nanette mcatch thirty two years old, walking with her two daughters,

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Alana six years old Madeleine three years old. Nannette saw Bryant,

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saw the gun, tried to shield her girls, reportedly pleaded

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with him, asked him to spare them. Bryant shot Nnette first,

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then the children Alana, six years old Madeleine, three years old,

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executed with their mother on the side of a road.

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I want you to sit with that for a moment.

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A mother trying to protect her children with her own body,

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Children who had done nothing wrong, who were just visiting

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a historic site on a Sunday afternoon with their family.

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Some people are just evil. Some things cannot be explained,

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cannot be understood, can only be mourned. Near the toll booth,

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Bryant encountered a gold BMW, four people inside. He ordered

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them out, shot all four dead, Glenn Pears, Russell Piggott,

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Royce Thompson who had just been in the car, and others. Wait,

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I need to correct that. Let me be precise about

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the BMW. Bran stopped a BMW at the toll booth,

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shot and killed the occupants, Mary Rose Nixon, Royce Thompson,

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Gordon Francis Nixon, who was wounded but survived. He then

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hijacked another BMW, killed its driver and passengers, and forced

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Glenn Pears into the boot as a hostage. The details matter.

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These were real people, real deaths. I won't blur them together.

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Bryant drove the stolen BMW away from Port Arthur. Glenn Pears,

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thirty five years old, was locked in the boot a hostage.

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Bryant stopped at a service station on the way back

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towards Seascape, shot and killed Zoe Hall, twenty eight, who

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was refueling her car. Then he drove to the Seascape Cottage,

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where the Martin's bodies still lay, where this whole nightmare

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had begun that morning. He went inside the standoff was

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about to begin. We'll be right back with the eighteen

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hour standoff, the fire, the capture, and the question that

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still haunts Australia. Could this have been prevented tomorrow? How

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Australia chose to act? Twelve days that changed a nation forever.

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By mid afternoon on April twenty eighth, police were responding

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to multiple reports of shootings across the Tasman Peninsula. The

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scale was incomprehensible, dozens of victims, multiple crime scenes, and

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a gunman who had disappeared. They tracked him to the

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Seascape Cottage. Tasmania's Special Operations Group surrounded the building. Negotiators

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attempted to make contact. Bryant fired at anyone who approached.

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Glenn Pears was still inside a hostage alive. Presumably the

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hope was that negotiation might secure his release. The standoff

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lasted through the night through the following morning, eighteen hours

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of tense waiting. During that time, Bryant spoke occasionally with

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negotiators by phone. His comments were rambling incoherent. At times,

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he complained about not having food, asked about media coverage,

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seemed disconnected from the horror he had caused. At some

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point during the night, Bryant killed Glen Pears, shot him

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dead inside the cottage, the hostage they'd been trying to save.

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Gone Pears was the thirty fifth victim, the last person

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Martin Bryant would murder. By dawn on April twenty ninth,

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smoke was rising from the Seascape Cottage. Bryant had set

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the building on fire. Whether deliberately or accidentally, nobody knows

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for certain. As the flame spread, Bryant ran outside. His

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clothes were burning, he was screaming. Police tackled him, subdued him,

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placed him under arrest. Martin Bryant was taken to Royal

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Hobart Hospital to be treated for burns. He was placed

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under heavy guard. The hospital was soon vandalized. Staff received

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death threats. Tasmanians wanted to get to Bryant, wanted justice,

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wanted revenge. Some applied for jobs as security guards specifically

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to get access to him. The community's rage was understandable.

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Thirty five people were dead, among them children, families, elderly couples,

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young people at the start of their lives, and the

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man who killed them was alive, receiving medical treatment, protected

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by the police from the mob that wanted to tear

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him apart. That's how justice works, even for monsters. They

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get trials, they get lawyers, they get the protection of

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the law they violated so catastrophically Martin Bryant would face

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that justice soon enough. In the days after the massacre,

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Australia went into shock. This was before social media, before

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twenty four hour cable news, but the coverage was relentless.

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Every newspaper, every Tell Division bulletin, the faces of the victims,

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the stories of the survivors, the images of the Broad

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Arrow Cafe, now a crime scene. Port Arthur had been

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a place of historical suffering, a convict prison where thousands

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had been brutalized. Now it had witnessed modern suffering on

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a scale Australia had never experienced the death toll. Thirty

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five murdered, twenty three wounded, hundreds more traumatized, families destroyed,

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a community shattered, and the nation asked, how did this happen?

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How was a man like Bryant able to acquire military

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style weapons, Why did Tasmania's gun laws make this possible?

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What could be done to ensure it never happened again?

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John Howard had been Prime Minister for only seven weeks.

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A Conservative leader member of the Liberal Party coalition government

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with the rural focused National Party, gun owners were a

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significant part of his political base, rural voters, armours, hunters,

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people who used firearms for pest control, for sport, for

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protection in the isolated outback. Taking on gun reform meant

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taking on his own supporters, risking political capital, potentially fracturing

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his coalition. Howard did it anyway. Within days of the massacre,

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he announced that Australia would have new gun laws, strict laws,

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national laws, the kind of laws Tasmania had blocked for years.

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The National Firearms Agreement would ban semi automatic rifles, ban

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semi automatic shotguns, ban pump action shotguns, require licensing for

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all gun owners, create a national registry, impose waiting periods,

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launch a mandatory buyback of newly prohibited weapons. It would

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be the most significant gun reform in Australian history, accomplished

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in twelve days. But that's tomorrow's episode. Today we stay

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with the victims, with the community, with the weight of

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what happened on April twenty eighth, nineteen ninety six. The

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trial came later that year. Bryant initially pleaded not guilty.

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His lawyer John Avery eventually convinced him to change his

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plea November twenty second, nineteen ninety six, Hobart's Supreme Court,

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Martin Bryant pleaded guilty to all charges, all thirty five murders,

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all twenty attempted murders, wounding, arson everything. Justice William Coxe

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sentenced him to thirty five life terms without parole, plus

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one thousand, six hundred fifty two years for the other charges,

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all to be served. Concurrently, Bryant would never leave prison,

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would never be eligible for release, would die behind bars.

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He's still there Risden Prison Complex in Hobart, now fifty

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eight years old, has attempted suicide multiple times, remains in

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protective custody. For his own safety. Prisoners, even in Australia,

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have their own hierarchy. Child killers don't fare well. He

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has never provided a Cohen explanation for what he did,

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never shown genuine remorse, never given the families the why

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that might bring some small measure of understanding. Some people

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are just evil. Some questions have no answers. Thirty five

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people were murdered at Port Arthur and Seascape on April

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twenty eighth and twenty ninth, nineteen ninety six. Thirty five lives,

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thirty five futures that will never be. The youngest was three,

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Madeline Micatch. Should have started school the next year, should

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have grown up, should have had a life. The oldest

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were in their seventies. Couples who had spent decades together

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ended in a cafe on a Sunday afternoon. Sarah Lawton

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was fifteen, a teenager still figuring out who she was,

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what she wanted to be. Nicole Burgess was seventeen, working

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at the gift shop, probably saving money for university, for travel,

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for all the things young people dream about. Jason Winter

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was twenty eight, a father. His fifteen month old son, Mitchell,

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was in that cafe when the shooting started. Mitchell survived,

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grew up without his father. These weren't statistics. They were people,

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sons and daughters, husbands and wives, parents and grandparents, friends

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and neighbors. They went to see a historic site on

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a beautiful autumn day. They didn't come home. Someone has

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to say their names. That's part one of our Port

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Arthur coverage. April twenty eighth, nineteen ninety six. A gunman

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walked into the Broad Arrow Cafe and killed twenty people

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in ninety seconds, then killed fifteen more across the historic site,

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at the toll booth, at a service station, took a hostage,

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barricaded himself in a guesthouse where he'd already murdered the owners.

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That morning, thirty five dead, twenty three wounded, the deadliest

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mass shooting in modern Australian history. The gunman is serving

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thirty five life sentences, will die in prison. Explained why

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tomorrow Part two. What happened next? John Howard, seven weeks

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into his job as Prime Minister, decided that Australia would

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never let this happen again. Twelve days after the massacre,

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Australia had new gun laws, the National Firearms Agreement a

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ban on semi automatic weapons, a national registry, a buyback

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that removed six hundred fifty thousand guns from circulation. America

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has had Sandy Hook, Parkland, Uvalde, Las Vegas, Orlando, dozens more, hundreds,

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more thousands of dead children and shoppers and concertgoers and worshippers.

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America has chosen not to act. That's the lesson of

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Port Arthur, not just the horror of what happened, but

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the proof that a nation can choose differently, can decide

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that thirty five deaths are enough, can change its laws,

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can save lives. Australia did it in twelve days. Tomorrow,

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I'll tell you how the thirty five who died at

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Port Arthur didn't die in vain. Their deaths changed their country. Forever,

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someone has to say their names. I'm reed, Carter, see

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you tomorrow for part two. This is Celebrity Trials