Australian gun amnesty sees some 51,000 firearms collected

Malcolm Turnbull says country’s laws would limit chance of Las Vegas-type mass shooting

Malcolm Turnbull (right) looks with Australian Federal Police commissioner Andrew Colvin and Australian Justice Minister Michael Keenan at firearms on display in Sydney. Photograph: AAP/Joel Carrett/via Reuters
Malcolm Turnbull (right) looks with Australian Federal Police commissioner Andrew Colvin and Australian Justice Minister Michael Keenan at firearms on display in Sydney. Photograph: AAP/Joel Carrett/via Reuters

Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull said about 51,000 illegal firearms, a fifth of all illegal guns in the country, were surrendered in a three-month amnesty ending on Friday.

Mr Turnbull said Australia's tough gun ownership laws, which ban all semi-automatic rifles and semi-automatic shotguns, severely limit the chances of a Las Vegas style mass shooting.

"The killer (in Las Vegas) had a collection of semi-automatic weapons which a person in his position would simply not be able to acquire in Australia, " Mr Turnbull told reporters in Sydney.

American man Stephen Paddock (64) was armed with multiple assault rifles and opened fired on an outdoor country music festival in Las Vegas from a high-rise hotel window on Sunday, killing 58 people before shooting himself in the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history.

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The shooting has focused attention on gun ownership rules in the United States.

Australia’s tough gun ownership laws were introduced after the massacre of 35 people by a lone gunman at the former prison colony of Port Arthur in the island state of Tasmania in 1996.

The country has had no mass shootings since.

The three-month amnesty was the first in 20 years in Australia and the weapons collected will be destroyed.

Among them were 19th century guns, a homemade machine gun, a rocket launcher and a pistol small enough to fit in the palm of a hand, according to a government statement.

Reuters