On an overcast day, I travelled on a bus for two hours to see Port Arthur, a World Heritage site and major tourist attraction outside of Hobart. It has an outsized presence in Australian history as the prison for the worst of the convicts who were “transported” from England, a prison known for its misery. Still, when I arrived, I didn’t yet realize what a dark day this would be.

I hadn't fully realized I'd be standing on the site of a modern massacre today, one that raises the ghosts of the constant mass shootings at home in the U.S., and the utter inability of our political system to do anything the protect its citizens.

Port Arthur has a complex, multi-layered history since 1830, mainly of institutional uses, mostly of incarceration. This 100-acre compound hosted a prison for the most incorrigible of the criminals, together with its guards, as well as a church and chapels meant to assist in reform by applying the fear of God. Over time, an asylum for the criminally insane was added, and after incarceration ceased on site, the buildings were reused-as a poor house, a home for wayward boys, or a hotel.

These uses took advantage of the setting, an island connected to the rest of Tasmania by a tiny land bridge, the kind of area is meant for secure segregation from society. Within the ruins, the broken remains of stone buildings and ramparts built for punishment and control, there is an atmosphere recalling decades upon decades of chronic unhappiness and despair, one that seemingly toppled the buildings that housed the misery.

More recent history adds to that despair, exponentially. Early in my touring, I ran into a woman who travelled on the same bus I did, from Hobart. She mentioned that the mass shooting happened here, at this World Heritage, historic tourist site. A shooting that changed Australia seemingly overnight, according to friends here. "It didn't happen at a town center nearby?" I asked, which is what my imagination came up with when I'd first heard the story. "No, it was right here.”

This event is less-than-noticeably presented at the Port Arthur site, in contrast to how strongly it features in the memories of Australian adults. It is an "I remember where I was when..." moment, both for the event and the resulting massive community decision within Australia.

The event: a mass shooting on the 28th of April, 1996 in which 35 people lost their lives, and another 23 were injured. Most of those lost were at a cafe on site, taking refreshment in a day of touring. The day I visited, the grounds were filled with multigenerational family groups, and it would have been similar that day.

The shooter, Martin Bryant, was a young man who’d grown up nearby, with a long history of mental illness and anti-social behavior. He responded to an ad in the paper and bought an AR-15 from a local dealer without a license. He himself said that if he hadn't seen the ad and been able to purchase the gun, the deaths would not have happened. The access to a weapon makes the difference, and my guess is that would correlate with large numbers of the mass shooting incidents in the U.S.

What drew Bryant to the Port Arthur site to shoot people? One report said that he'd worked at the cafe and been fired for stealing petty cash; the infamous "disgruntled employee" story. Maybe it was a combination of access to happy, innocent family groups on a site with a complicated history. His actions that day have expanded the historical stain on this location to a massive degree.

So now to arrive at a nation’s response to this heinous crime, the massive community decision reached by Australia: passage within 12 days - 12 DAYS!- of a federal gun control law that unified the disparate state laws. It includes a waiting period for a gun purchase, a gun registry, licensing based on demonstrated need, and the ban of automatic and assault rifle sales. It authorized funding, a final tally of $230M spent, to buy back approximately 650K weapons. Weapons that Australians lined up to turn in.

Hard for this American to grasp. It makes us look ridiculous. And, we are.

A U.S. friend said to me, “Didn’t we all think that it was going to get done after Sandy Hook?” Didn’t we think that the murders of those little children would create the needed level of outrage to get the necessary legislation passed? We did, we all did I think, and it didn’t.

A question I've gotten from several Australians is, "what is going on the in the U.S. that these shootings and murders are allowed to continue?" How do I explain to them the lunatic minority’s control of our policy? How do I explain why Americans don’t rise up? I can't understand it myself.

We in the U.S., citizens and lawmakers alike, even have the example set by Australia of nearly 30 years ago, by their version of a conservative government no less. Why don't U.S. conservatives consider preservation of life a no-brainer like their Australian counterparts?

There is, for now, still a solid foundation in Australian culture of taking care of each other. Of community. This plays out in volunteerism, group participation, and “mateship” that acknowledge that we’re all in it together, so we may as well help each other out. We’ve lost so much of that in the States. It’s why being here in Australia feels so nostalgic to me, because they still have what we’ve lost - genuine caring for fellow citizens.

Little is said of the remarkable change in Australia’s national policy that resulted from the tragedy. The memorial seems like a small representation. When I recall the scale of memorials erected in the U.S., at Oklahoma City, or at Columbine or the one planned in Parkland, Florida, they are so much more.

So far in 2023, 194 days, the US has seen 376 mass shootings. Australia, zero.

We in the U.S. are fairly effective at building memorials. Just not at valuing lives.