Tasmania's Devil - Society vs. Martin Bryant
Editorial
Far Eastern Review
16 May 1996
When Maritn Bryant was taken to hospital following his rampage at a Port Aurthur cafeteria, a telling epitaph soon appeared on the outside wall: "an eye for an eye." The words are from the biblical Book of Exodus, and in their day they were meant as a limitation: societies could exact only an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, no more. It is a measure of how far we moderns have "progressed" that this standard has come to be seen as a synonym for vengeance. In fact it grounded punishment on two key pilars: proportion and accountability.
Now it is hard to think of a punishment proportionate to the deliberate and brutal taking of 35 human lives. In wake of the killings, Australian politicians have been hurriedly pushing for tighter gun control, to the point where the weapon almost seems to be regarded as more culpable than the murderer. This mechanical approach strikes us as particulaly characteristic of our age, and Australia, of course, is not alone. Not long after the Oklahoma City blast, the U.S. Congress debated all sorts of bans on weaponry in a special piece of anti-terrorist legislation. Yet is it worth noting that the bomb that killed 168 people in Oklahoma City's federal building was made of ordinary fuel oil and fertilizer? Or that the sarin nerve gas which the Aum Shinrikyo sect dropped into the Tokyo subway was manufactured themselves? Does anyone really believe that even the best legislation could prevent these tragedies?
As we move to the close of the 20th century, ordinary citizens have been made increasingly aware that the same freedoms that have enriched our societies have also made them vulnerable-on a scale never before imagined-to those who would take advantage of these freedoms for evil ends. To put it another way, any society that intends to remain free and safe must put a premium on individuals responsibility and personal accountability, and recognize that communitites of peaceful, law abiding citizens, have rights too. As we bury those who were shot or burned to death at Martin Bryant's hand at the Broad Arrow Cafe, we do well to remember these victims. By all means, let us have an open debate on guns. But justice demands that it not blind us to whose hand was on the trigger.
Copy held SSAA National
Home > Research archive > 1996 > Tasmania's Devil - Society vs. Martin Bryant