Story highlights Australia introduced nationwide gun law reform in 1996 following a massacre

There has been no gun massacre in Australia since then

(CNN) It doesn't have to be this way, President Barack Obama said.

"At some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this kind of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries. It doesn't happen in other places with this kind of frequency. It is in our power to do something about it."

The U.S. has been shaken by multiple high-profile mass shootings in the past few years -- an elementary school in Connecticut, a movie theater in Colorado, two separate incidents at Fort Hood, Texas, and now the church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina.

But can something be done? Australia, a country that in some ways shares the United States' frontier mentality and history as part of the British empire, implemented sweeping gun-control measures that have been successful for nearly two decades. So, theoretically it's possible, but "the power to do something about it" in the U.S. is limited by factors that are deeply rooted in its culture and baked into its founding document.

Any change to the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution ("...the right to bear arms shall not be infringed") ultimately would require the approval of three-fourths (38) of the states -- forgetting the political hurdle of Congress' even proposing such a measure. The National Rifle Association, with more than 5 million members and a powerful lobbying arm in Washington, reflects a vast interest group in a nation where there are nearly as many firearms (more than 300 million) as there are people.

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