Cavin Staff

The massacre in Port Arthur, Tasmania, in 1996, where 35 civilians were killed and 23 others wounded, represents a dramatic and historic turning point relating to Gun Violence in Australia. Since then, 27 years later following drastic measures by John Howard’s Government to reduce, control and buyback the number of guns in public\ circulation, there have been ZERO massacres or mass shootings which have gained public attention. (A mass killing may be defined as 4 or more victims at one shooting excluding the perpetrator). The relevance of this fact to clinical, orthopaedic, social, political and huge costs to communities and country, is the approach adopted by Australia to prevent the cause, rather than try to cure the results of gun violence. Australia regards this problem as a Public Health Issue! By contrast, the same cannot be said for Gun Violence in the United States, where massacres have increased exponentially. Standout events include Sandy Hook Elementary School, Connecticut, in 2012, where 20 children and 6 teachers were killed, and in Robb Elementary School Uvalde Texas where 19 children and 2 teachers were killed. These are just to mention a few. America has a very strong and robust gun lobby strongly supporting the right of citizens to bear arms. Their approach is regarded as a Criminal Justice Issue as opposed to a Public Health Issue.

Aim or Objective: We aim to quantify the ultimate costs of gun violence relating to direct hospital costs, costs to the Taxpayer, and compare outcomes in USA versus Australia. In the 10 years prior to the introduction of their laws, Australia was on a similar trajectory as the USA towards massacres. There had been at least 12 massacres, including the Hoddle Street massacre, in Melbourne (9th August 1987, with 7 people killed and19 injured), the Queen Street massacre in Melbourne (8th December 1987, with eight deaths and 5 injured), and Strathfield massacre in NSW (17th August 1991 with eight dead and seven injured), culminating in Port Arthur massacre in 1996.
After 1996, following gun control laws, the Australian policy appears to have been monumentally successful.
In 2000, Gun violence cost America an estimated $100 billion per year (Cook, Philip. J: Ludwig, Jens 2000. Gun Violence, the real Costs.) In 2021, Gun violence cost America an estimated $280 billion per year (“The Economic costs of Gun Violence. Everytown Research. Retrieved June 7th, 2021). Our hypothesis intends to quantify by extrapolation, how many deaths and injuries might have resulted and have been avoided; and how much money it would have cost the Public and Health Systems of Australia had John Howard’s policies of gun restriction not taken place. Our analysis estimated that anticipated costs incurred between post gun buy-back scheme 1998 to 2020 if current trends continued could have totalled 8.38 billion dollars.