The Halifax Explosion and the Port Arthur Massacre: Testing Samuel Henry Prince's Ideas

Samuel Henry Prince wrote that major catastrophes lead to change. Despite his status in the field, there have been few attempts to examine empirically Prince's ideas about change. In this paper the authors describe a massacre in Port Arthur, Tasmania, in 1996 in which a man armed with automatic...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of mass emergencies and disasters 2001-08, Vol.19 (2), p.181-208
Main Authors: Scanlon, T. Joseph, Handmer, John
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Australia
Disasters
Gun Control
Homicide
Policy Reform
Social Change
Social Response
Social Theories
Tasmania
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Samuel Henry Prince wrote that major catastrophes lead to change. Despite his status in the field, there have been few attempts to examine empirically Prince's ideas about change. In this paper the authors describe a massacre in Port Arthur, Tasmania, in 1996 in which a man armed with automatic weapons killed 35 persons and injured 19 others. As a result of the massacre, changes occurred in Australian gun-control laws. The fallout from the massacre is examined in light of Prince's thesis about change following catastrophes.
ISSN:0280-7270
2753-5703
DOI:10.1177/028072700101900203