28th APRIL 1996

The last couple of posts that I have written have been about depressing events (death, murder, crime and the like) and of course today's is no different. I'm in no way trying to write posts about depressing things; it just so happens that a lot of saddening things happened in the world in this month  over various time periods.

However, today's post is slightly different in one way. Today's post is about Australia.

On this day in 1996, a gunman, Martin Bryant, 28, shot and killed 35 people and wounded 21 in the tourist town of Port Arthur, Tasmania, Australia at the historic Port Arthur Prison Colony. He held three of his victims hostage in a local guest-house before killing them. Police captured him the following day. He was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment with no possibility of parole. Reading through the chronological events of the day, it's just hard to think that it all happened so quickly. It took Bryant 20 seconds to kill his first 12 victims and wound 10 in the Broad Arrow Cafe. Just 20 seconds.

The Port Arthur massacre remains one of the deadliest shootings world wide to be committed by a single person.

It's actually quite hard to comprehend all the information because I've actually been to Port Arthur. I've seen the ruins of what used to be the Broad Arrow Cafe (they tore it down: too many horrible memories). I've been in the gift shop where Bryant killed 10 people. I've seen stood in the car park where Bryant took away 8 people's lives. I've seen the numerous memorial plaques and signs for those who lost their lives so tragically at the hands of Martin Bryant. It's just hard to think that humanity contains people like that, who act in that way.

It's just sad.

A 7pm ABC News report on the Port Arthur Massacre.

Available at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQ7R301_8Do