comment, editorial

Australians have long taken an almost sanctimonious degree of pride in the fact that, unlike America, this country hasn't had a mass shooting since Port Arthur in 1996. This is largely due to the fact that, as a result of that tragedy which claimed 35 lives and left another 23 people wounded, we now have some of the tightest gun laws in the world. We have less cause to be proud of the fact that firearms still feature strongly in cases when parents, predominantly men, choose to murder their own children. This week, for the second time in less than three months, an apparently mentally disturbed man has used guns to kill defenceless children in the wake of a family breakdown, before killing himself. That tragedy, believed to have been committed by 68-year-old financial planner, John Edwards, unfolded on Thursday. Edwards, who has been described by neighbours and acquaintances as "morose" since the breakdown of his marriage, and who had previously talked about suicide, was able to legally acquire and register two powerful handguns earlier this year. This seems remarkable given he was previously known to police, albeit without any recent criminal history, and was apparently suffering mental health issues. There are frightening similarities between Thursday's tragedy, which claimed the life of a 15-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl as well as the shooter, and the Margaret River shooting that took place in May. That was when Peter Miles, a 61-year-old grandfather, is believed to have shot his wife Cynda, their daughter Katrina, and her four children, Taye, 13, Rylan, 12, Arye, 10, and Kadyn, 8. He then took his own life. Katrina had been separated from her husband for some time and the four were living with her parents on their property. Peter Miles, like John Edwards, had access to multiple legally acquired and registered firearms. These were found by the police and emergency services members who were called to the scene after neighbours heard gunshots. While community members told media they had not been aware of Mr Miles having any mental health issues, Aaron Cockman, the father of the murdered children, said his estranged father-in-law had been under a lot of pressure. "He's just gone 'right... I can't live anymore, so this is it for me. But I need to take out everyone with me because that will fix the whole problem'," Mr Cockman said. The three strongest elements linking the two cases - family breakdown, apparently undiagnosed mental illness or disturbance and easy access to firearms - combined to form a lethal cocktail that ultimately claimed 10 lives. While this raises serious questions about how society should tackle these issues one appears relatively simple to fix. Why can't we ensure there is a simple process which would allow an estranged partner, either male or female, to request the temporary confiscation of any firearms held by the other until emotions are no longer running high? We live in a well-policed and well-ordered society. Nobody actually needs to keep a deadly weapon in their home in this country. Any minor inconvenience would be well and truly outweighed by the potential consequences to whole families.