OVER OUR DEAD BODIES Port Arthur and Australia’s fight for gun control Simon Chapman Copyright Originally published in 1998 by Pluto Press (Annandale, Australia) This reprint edition published in 2013 by SYDNEY UNIVERSITY PRESS © Simon Chapman 1998, 2013 © Sydney University Press 2013 Reproduction and Communication for other purposes Except as permitted under the Act, no part of this edition may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or communicated in any form or by any means without prior written permission. All requests for reproduction or communication should be made to Sydney University Press at the address below: Sydney University Press Fisher Library F03 University of Sydney NSW 2006 AUSTRALIA Email:
[email protected] National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Author: Chapman, Simon Title: Over our dead bodies : Port Arthur and Australia’s fight for gun control / Simon Chapman. ISBN: 9781743320310 (pbk.) Notes: Includes bibliographical references. Subjects: Gun control--Australia. Firearms ownership--Australia. Dewey Number: 363.330994 Cover design by Dushan Mrva-Montoya iv Contents Copyright iv Foreword to the reprint edition vi Preface and acknowledgments to the 1998 edition viii Introduction xii 1 The massacre 24 2 The case for fewer guns 57 3 The campaign for gun control 78 4 The main reforms 93 5 The gun lobby in Australia 121 6 The gun lobby’s arguments … and the responses 154 7 The future tasks for gun control 197 Other books by Simon Chapman 214 About the author 215 v Foreword to the reprint edition The firearm massacre at a primary school in Sandy Hook, Connecticut on 14 De- cember 2012 in which a lone gunman armed with three semi-automatic firearms killed 20 children, six teachers, his gun-owning mother and then himself, has stimulated unprecedented momentum for meaningful gun controls in the US.