Lessons From Australia On Curbing Mass Shootings

In 1996, a mass shooting in an Australian picnic area became a catalyst for the enactment of sweeping gun laws in the country.

These laws include a mandatory national buyback of guns, as well as restrictions on semi-automatics and a 28-day waiting period to get a license to own a gun.

The Australian deputy prime minister at the time, Tim Fischer, helped pass the gun control laws.

Fischer, a gun owner himself, tells Here & Now's Jeremy Hobson the Australian laws show a country "can have a sensible policy on guns and reduce the number of people being killed by guns and the gun massacres.”

In the wake of another mass shooting in the United States, we revisit our conversation with Fischer.