FED: Australian sister city of Littleton opens its heart

AAP General News (Australia)
04-21-1999
FED: Australian sister city of Littleton opens its heart

By Scott McFarlane and Debra Way

SYDNEY, April 21 AAP - The slaughter of up to 25 school children in the US shocked
Australia today, a week shy of the third anniversary of the Port Arthur massacre.

Prime Minister John Howard today said he was shocked and sickened by the shooting at
Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, and would formally send his sympathies to
President Bill Clinton tonight.

"Like everybody, I'm shocked and it's a tragic event ... an appalling event of terrorism in
a free country," Mr Howard told reporters in Perth.

"It's an awful reminder of a tragic event in Australia's recent history and I feel for the
American people, and particularly for the families of those who have been taken by this awful
event."

Thirty-five people died when lone gunman Martin Bryant began firing at the Tasmanian
historical site of Port Arthur on April 28, 1996.

But crime experts and the federal government said a schoolyard massacre similar to that in
the US was unlikely in Australia due in part to the tough gun laws introduced after Port
Arthur and a different local culture.

Youth suicide and crime expert Dr Rob Watts, of Melbourne's RMIT University, said the
shootings were a symptom of the US gun culture.

"I very much doubt it (could happen in Australia). It simply doesn't fit within the culture
here," he said.

Dr Watts said while the youth suicide rate was high in Australia, that did not translate
into mass killings by young people.

"America and South Africa are the two most violent societies in the world who are not in a
state of war," he said.

"The homicide rate is beyond belief and in both countries it is extremely easy to obtain
any killing weapon anyone wants."

Federal Education Minister David Kemp said tighter gun laws meant schoolyard massacres of
the type which happened in Colorado were less likely to occur in Australia.

"The ready availability of guns in the United States has contributed to a culture where
even very young people who don't have any obvious reason for possession of firearms have got
access to them," Dr Kemp told AAP.

"In Australia, the laws have been tighten up very considerably, particularly since Port
Arthur, as a result of the prime minister's leadership."

The US shooting was particularly bad news in the southern New South Wales town of Bega.

The sister city to Littleton, where the two student gunmen opened fire on their fellow
students at Columbine High School before taking their own lives, Bega today opened its heart
after hearing of the tragedy.

The tightknit community knows the pain only too well - local schoolgirls Lauren Barry and
Nichole Collins were abducted and savagely murdered two years ago.

Bega-Littleton Sister Cities Exchange president Edna Duncanson said at the time of the
girls' slaying the Littleton sister city committee provided much support and sympathy.

Now it is Bega's turn to repay the kindness.

Ms Duncanson said she had spoken with Littleton councillor and good friend Susan Thornton
today to express her sympathy and dismay.

"She was absolutely devastated," she told AAP. "It comes as a shock that these kinds of
things can happen and it brings it home to us - it's not just in the big cities where it's
happening," she said.

Ms Duncanson said it was horrifying that young people took out their frustrations in this
way.

"All we can do is offer our support and sympathy," she said.

The American city and the Australian town had a 45-year relationship which began when the
Bega and Littleton newspaper editors became friends.

AAP shm/mfh/was/de

KEYWORD: US SCHOOL AUST SECOND NIGHTLEAD

1999 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.