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Aust'n gun laws should be "strengthened": former PM

Xinhua, October 23, 2016 Adjust font size:

Amidst calls for Australia's gun laws to be relaxed, the nation's second longest-serving prime minister said the restrictions should instead be strengthened.

John Howard, who served as PM from 1996 to 2007, said that current PM Malcolm Turnbull, also from the Liberal National Party (LNP) that Howard served, should not entertain relaxing the laws to legalize a controversial shotgun.

Farming and shooting activists, including Turnbull's deputy PM Barnaby Joyce, have called for the Adler shotgun, a 'lever-action' shotgun that can fire up to eight rounds in eight seconds, to be re-classified, with farmers claiming they need the weapon to protect their property from 'invasive species.'

Howard's gun laws which he introduced in 1996, including banning semi-automatic rifles and making firearms harder to access, have been used as an example worldwide as an example of effective gun control.

"My position as you might expect on gun laws is I don't want to see any weakening of any kind in the prohibitions that I introduced and which may have been added since 1996," Howard told Fairfax Media in comments published on Sunday.

"Now, as to how the government of the day deals with the current issues that's a matter for the government of the day but my principle as everybody would accept and expect is I don't want to see any weakening of our gun laws."

"They are respected around the world as being very effective. They have made Australia a much safer country and I just don't want to see any weakening and, where the opportunity might arise, they could even be strengthened."

Michael Keenan, Australia's Justice Minister, announced on Friday that the import ban on the guns would remain in place for the time being after justice representatives from Australia's six states and two territories were unable to reach a unanimous agreement on how the gun should be classified.

Keenan also announced Australia would have its second ever gun amnesty, whereby citizens are able to hand in illegal firearms without penalty, after Howard's 'buyback' amnesty in 1996 claimed one million guns. Endit