As America mourns the victims of the Orlando shootings, Australia’s decision two decades ago to outlaw rapid-fire weapons and introduce tough gun laws has kept the number of mass shootings at zero, a landmark report has found.

Mass shootings in Australia have stopped and the rate of suicide related fire-arm deaths has dropped in the two decades since the Australian parliament’s bi-partisan vote in favour of strict gun laws, a report into Australia’s gun law reforms has revealed.

Before the 1996 gun ban Australia was witness to 13 mass shootings in 18 years, the report, released today, said.

The worst of these was at the hands of lone gunman Martin Bryant who tore out the heart of the nation when he took the lives of 35 people during a shooting spree at Port Arthur in Tasmania in 1996.

“Massacres were happening in Australia every 1.4 years before Port Arthur,” University of Sydney Professor Simon Chapman told ninemsn.

He said following the Port Arthur bloodshed, public opinion was “so united in the need for gun laws” politicians at the time “read that mood”.

“It only took 12 days after Port Arthur for the gun laws to be signed,” he said.

In the 20 years since the ban, no mass shootings have occurred in Australia and 750,000 weapons have been removed from the community, the report found.

Professor Chapman, the lead author on the report, said as well as no fatal mass shootings in the years since the ban, there was also a significant change to total firearm deaths in Australia.

“The good news is that our research found that the rate of the killings per 100,000 has gone down at an accelerated rate… it’s not just massacres that have been stopped,” he said.

Families and friends gather around the memorial at Port Arthur for a minute's silence at a service in memory of the 35 people killed, on the first anniversary in 1997. (AAP) (AAP)

In the 17 years following the new gun laws, the rate of firearm deaths declined to 0.20 per 100,000 persons, the report said.

This month the US witnessed its estimated 82 nd mass death by firearm when Omar Mateen opened fire on the packed Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

Orlando shooter Omar Mateen pictured with his family.

It was the deadliest in US history with 49 people murdered and more than 50 injured. The shooter’s weapon of choice was a high-powered assault rifle. One similar to that used by Australia’s mass killer, Bryant.

Last week, a little known US senator became the unlikely hero of America’s gun control debate after holding a 15 hour filibuster urging the US Senate to vote to keep assault rifles out of the hands of terrorists.

Democrat senator Chris Murphy, who represents Connecticut, where a mass shooter killed 20 children and six adults at a school in 2012, held the floor of the US Senate until 2.11am.

“I’m at my wits end. I’ve had enough. I’ve had enough of the ongoing slaughter of innocence, I’ve had enough of inaction in this body,” he said.

“Ever shooting is different. There are a different set of facts around every single shooting.

“But what unites these shootings, from Littleton to Aurora to Newtown, to Blacksburg to Orlando is that the weapon of choice in every case is a gun.

“Often a very powerful gun, an AR-15 or AR-15-style gun that was designed for the military, for law enforcement to kill as many people as quickly as possible.”