By the end of Martin Bryant’s rampage that day, a total of 35 people had been massacred, then the world’s worst mass murder by a lone gunman.

Far away in Queensland, then-Police Minister Russell Cooper was celebrating his wedding anniversary when the shocking news filtered through.

Speaking to Queensland Country Life from his Buderim home this week, Mr Cooper said it’s a day he remembers like it was yesterday.

“The last few weeks have brought back all the memories – I don’t need reminding,” he said.

“Bringing in all the legislation, being brutally attacked by our own people, but the bottom line is, once Martin Bryant went off, things were going to change, and they did.”

Mr Cooper was joined in his vigil in front of the TV on that horrifying day 20 years ago by Brisbane’s Anglican Archbishop Peter Hollingworth. Both watched as Prime Minister John Howard swore to do something about Australia’s gun laws.

As the Police Minister in the Borbidge government at the time, it was a statement that had a direct impact on Mr Cooper and on the government.

“It was a no-win situation,” he recalled. “It finished us as a political force for 10 years. People went over to Pauline Hanson and One Nation in droves, but I knew something had to be done.

“John Howard said he wanted to draw a line in the sand. He wanted to look back and say, we’re not like America. I supported that then and I still do.”

Even in hindsight, he says he has no regrets about supporting Howard’s gun law reformations.

“I had options – I could have resigned as the Minister for Police, but someone else would have just taken over.

“I felt I knew a fair bit about firearms, and could make the best of it for our people. If we’d resisted, we’d have had a referendum imposed on us, and a Commonwealth law overrides a state one anyway, so that was fruitless.

“The best thing to do, thinking of our people, was to make sure they had access to the weapons they needed.” 

Mr Cooper says the Prime Minister knew his state colleagues were going to suffer for their support and was as supportive as he could be in the circumstances.

Those “circumstances” were compounded by what Mr Cooper describes as the most lax gun laws in Australia at the time.

“A couple of years before Port Arthur, a police officer had been shot, and I took gun law changes to cabinet to bring us up to other states, but that was rejected. Queensland was so far behind the other states that it was a massive jump to catch up when this happened.”

Mr Cooper accepts that the decision to support the reformation of the laws cost his party government but says he couldn’t have acted any other way.

“I knew someone else would do it if I didn’t, and it could be worse. I was able to explain to Howard about the need for 410s and lighter guns that people start off with, so that gun clubs weren’t disadvantaged.

“I said, if you take all these out, you take away all those gold medals from Michael Diamond and the like – that’s where they started.”

He also thought that people had benefited greatly from the general amnesty declared, and the “generous” compensation scheme put in place.

“It was up to $600 for a semi-automatic and people took advantage of that,” he said. “They used the money to go and buy other guns.”

Mr Cooper believes there has been no disadvantage to anyone from the changes to the system, of getting a licence, registering weapons in categories, and obtaining a permit to acquire.

“My own son has the same weapons he had at the time of the legislation coming in,” he said. “We had seven firearms, including a semi-automatic. We handed one in and we kept the others, including revolvers.

“If people don’t qualify for a licence – they’re in a built-up area wanting a 303 or something – that’s just commonsense.”

The benefits far outweigh any “nuisance factor” as far as Mr Cooper is concerned. He cites the value of the laws to police when they are trying to track down the illegal use of weapons.

“The laws have made their job more possible,” he said.

As far as comments that the laws have bred a thriving black market, he challenges people to go to the police with their proof.

“People have had 20 years to bring forward their own ideas, and we’ve not seen one,” he said. “I think things have settled down enormously. I’m pretty sure there’s been no resolutions through the LNP lately to change things.”

While some may claim they have been disadvantaged by the changes, many Australians have begun reflecting on what they remember of that awful day, 20 years ago today. 

The Hobart Examiner’s Barry Prismall remembers “a bullet riddled police car, four large tarpaulins covering the blood ...the Fly-buys card poking from the wallet of a young female victim. Her last act on Earth.”

All of Australia prays never to experience that horror again.

Disclaimer: Sally Cripps is an active member of the Blackall Clay Target Association.