Al Jazeera, South Carolina :
Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton has drawn the ire of the influential National Rifle Association (NRA) by saying that the United States should consider a gun buyback scheme, similar to that introduced in Australia in the late 1990s.
Clinton was asked a question about why the US did not consider a buyback scheme, as she addressed a town hall meeting in Keene, New Hampshire, on Friday.
“Recently, Australia managed to get away, or take away tens of thousands, millions of handguns. In one year, they were all gone. Can we do that? If we can’t, why can’t we?” a man asked Clinton.
The question referenced the buyback policy that Australia introduced in the wake of the Port Arthur massacre in 1996, where gunman Martin Bryant killed 35 people using a variety of guns at a historic tourist site in the island state of Tasmania.
As she answered the question at Friday’s town hall meeting, Clinton said that the evidence appeared to “support” Australia’s policy.
“By offering to buy back those guns, they were able to curtail the supply and set a different standard for gun purchases in the future,” she said, before adding that she did not know how such a scheme could be implemented in the US.
Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton has drawn the ire of the influential National Rifle Association (NRA) by saying that the United States should consider a gun buyback scheme, similar to that introduced in Australia in the late 1990s.
Clinton was asked a question about why the US did not consider a buyback scheme, as she addressed a town hall meeting in Keene, New Hampshire, on Friday.
“Recently, Australia managed to get away, or take away tens of thousands, millions of handguns. In one year, they were all gone. Can we do that? If we can’t, why can’t we?” a man asked Clinton.
The question referenced the buyback policy that Australia introduced in the wake of the Port Arthur massacre in 1996, where gunman Martin Bryant killed 35 people using a variety of guns at a historic tourist site in the island state of Tasmania.
As she answered the question at Friday’s town hall meeting, Clinton said that the evidence appeared to “support” Australia’s policy.
“By offering to buy back those guns, they were able to curtail the supply and set a different standard for gun purchases in the future,” she said, before adding that she did not know how such a scheme could be implemented in the US.
