AAP FACTCHECK – Mass murderer Martin Bryant killed his victims with a bolt-action hunting rifle in Australia’s worst-ever shooting massacre, the late crime figure Mark “Chopper” Read claims in a video on social media.
This is false. Court documents and media reports show Bryant only used semi-automatic firearms to shoot 35 people dead in the 1996 Port Arthur massacre.
A video shared on Facebook and Instagram features notorious criminal Mark “Chopper” Read, who died in 2013, claiming the killer had used “a .308 hunting rifle” in his rampage at the Port Arthur historic site in Tasmania.
“What went on there that day? How do you get 34 (sic) people, you know? From 300 yards, how do you shoot that many people? How does one man shoot that many f***en people? At these amazing distances – he’s getting them with a 308 hunting rifle,” he says in the video.
Read then falsely claims there’s “a body of evidence” that other shooters were involved, saying, “I sort of tend to believe it could be true” that the massacre could have been a plot to “disarm the Australian public”.
However, there is no court evidence or media reports stating that Bryant killed anyone with a bolt-action rifle during his attack. Instead, all available evidence shows he killed all 35 of his victims with semi-automatic firearms.
Bryant pleaded guilty to 72 charges, including 35 counts of murder, and was sentenced to 35 life terms without the possibility of parole on November 22, 1996.
During the sentencing, Tasmanian Supreme Court Chief Justice William Cox stated that Bryant killed his 35 victims with “a .308 FN or SLR rifle” and “an AR15 rifle”, according to a transcript provided to AAP FactCheck by the court.
Read may have confused the name of the weapon Bryant used with the name of the ammunition he used.
The FN-FAL or SLR rifle uses .308 ammunition; however, “a 308” is also a common Australian term for a bolt-action hunting rifle that uses the same ammunition.
However, Bryant’s use of a .308 SLR, also known as an SKS, and an AR15, has been extensively documented in reports in the Guardian Australia, Nine Newspapers, by News Corp Australia, and reports to Australia’s parliament.
After the killings at Port Arthur, the federal government struck a deal with states and territories for a 12-month gun amnesty and compensation scheme, and a national ban on self-loading rifles and self-loading and pump-action shotguns (See Page 6).
The Verdict
False – The claim is inaccurate.
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