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| At Least 4 Are Killed in Shooting in Darwin, Australia | At Least 4 Are Killed in Shooting in Darwin, Australia |
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| SYDNEY, Australia — The police said at least four people were shot and killed on Tuesday in Darwin, the capital of Australia’s Northern Territory, when a gunman went on a shooting spree in the city’s main business district. | SYDNEY, Australia — The police said at least four people were shot and killed on Tuesday in Darwin, the capital of Australia’s Northern Territory, when a gunman went on a shooting spree in the city’s main business district. |
| The Northern Territory police said a 45-year-old man had been arrested. A video of his detention showed three officers in military camouflage subduing him as he tried to kick himself free. | |
| Prime Minister Scott Morrison told reporters traveling with him in London that the shooting was not an act of terrorism. | |
| Witnesses told Australia’s public broadcaster that the gunman walked into the Palms Motel just before 6 p.m., carrying a shotgun and firing more than a dozen rounds there and at two other nearby locations. | |
| “He shot up all the rooms and he went to every room looking for somebody and he shot them all up,” said John Rose, a witness. “Then we saw him rush out, jump into his Toyota pickup and rush off.” | “He shot up all the rooms and he went to every room looking for somebody and he shot them all up,” said John Rose, a witness. “Then we saw him rush out, jump into his Toyota pickup and rush off.” |
| The shooting in Darwin, a former frontier outpost with a population of about 130,000, seemed to be Australia’s deadliest since May of last year, when seven members of a Western Australia family were found dead in an apparent murder-suicide. That was the country’s worst mass shooting since the 1996 Port Arthur massacre in Tasmania, which left 35 people dead and led to a significant toughening of Australia’s gun laws. | |
| Experts typically define a mass shooting as the deaths of four people, excluding the gunman, in a single event. | Experts typically define a mass shooting as the deaths of four people, excluding the gunman, in a single event. |
| After the Port Arthur killings, Australia banned assault rifles and many other semiautomatic rifles and shotguns, and it established a major gun buyback program, buying firearms — mostly the banned weapons — from owners who turned them in. It also imposed new registration requirements and restrictions on gun purchases. | After the Port Arthur killings, Australia banned assault rifles and many other semiautomatic rifles and shotguns, and it established a major gun buyback program, buying firearms — mostly the banned weapons — from owners who turned them in. It also imposed new registration requirements and restrictions on gun purchases. |
| Polls show more than 90-percent support in Australia for the two-decade-old gun regime, but the country has also been gradually loosening its laws in recent years and gun sales are increasing. Those who own guns, own more guns — in some cases, 100 or more. Sales of semiautomatic handguns, which are not as regulated as rifles, have skyrocketed. | Polls show more than 90-percent support in Australia for the two-decade-old gun regime, but the country has also been gradually loosening its laws in recent years and gun sales are increasing. Those who own guns, own more guns — in some cases, 100 or more. Sales of semiautomatic handguns, which are not as regulated as rifles, have skyrocketed. |
| In the Northern Territory, for example, the number of gun owners declined to 13,000 in 2014 from almost 15,000 in 2007, according to Gunpolicy.org, a clearinghouse for gun data, but the number of privately owned firearms increased to almost 64,000 from less than 47,000 in the same period. | |
| Violent crime in the territory has been on the wane, with assaults and domestic violence declining over the past year, according to state crime statistics. | |
| “This is a very tight community and I know they will be rocked by this event,” Mr. Morrison said. |