US family moves to Australia as schools become killing zones: ‘Gun culture isn’t changing’
- American families moved to Australia to flee gun violence
- There have been 89 school shootings in the US in 2023
Ongoing gun violence is prompting some families to leave the United States and move to Australia, hoping for a safer life for their children.
Amy and Chris Fox said they decided to leave their Minneapolis home in the United States for Loftus, a southeast suburb of Sydney, after considering how their four-year-old son would handle a school shooting situation.
“My son has autism, so if there was a shooting at his school, I don’t know how I would respond. He doesn’t always answer to his name,’ said Ms Fox SBS News.
Ms Fox said her family, which still lives in the United States, is also considering moving abroad after Monday’s school shooting in Nashville, where a former student shot through the doors of a Christian elementary school, killing three children and three adults.
The shooter, Audrey Elizabeth Hale, was transgender and was armed with two assault weapons and a pistol.
Amy and Chris Fox (pictured with their son) said they decided to move from Minneapolis to Sydney after considering how their four-year-old son would handle a school shooting.
It is the latest in a long series of mass shootings across the United States that have turned schools into killing zones and added fuel to a national debate over gun rights and regulations.
“I’ve met a number of women who have moved to Australia or other places because of gun violence and other issues, so for a lot of people I met here from the US, this was a big factor in moving abroad.” She explained.
The couple previously lived in Australia between 2016 and 2019, but have since moved back to the United States. They returned to Australia to offer a safer life for their son.
The violence on Monday marked the 90th school shooting, defined as any incident in which a gun is fired on school property, in the United States this year, according to the K-12 School Shooting Database, a website founded by researcher David Riedman.
Last year there were 303 such incidents, the highest of any year in the database, which goes back to 1970.
Ms Fox said she doesn’t think gun culture will ever change in the US, in stark contrast to Australian gun policies.
‘Gun culture is not changing. I think there are too many politicians in the pocket of the National Rifle Association,” he explained.
“They get hundreds of thousands of dollars from that organization, and it seems like people care too much about making money and don’t care who dies.”
Ms Fox said more of her family living in the US are looking to move abroad following the Nashville school shootings on Monday (pictured, shooter Audrey Hale)
Australia adopted tough gun laws after the 1996 Port Arthur massacre in Tasmania, which left 35 people dead.
Then-Prime Minister John Howard implemented a gun buy-back scheme that led to the destruction of 700,000 firearms, banned semi-automatic and automatic weapons, and tightened gun regulations.
The regulations meant there were just 0.9 gun deaths in Australia per 100,000 people in 2019, compared to 12.09 deaths per 100,000 in the US, according to gunpolicy.org.
“Australia did something about the mass shooting in Tasmania and that motivated my family to return to Australia,” said Ms Fox.