Hey, America. Can we talk about last week?

It’s no secret that it’s been a rough week for the United States, in the wake of the tragedies of Orlando. I’ll spare going into the details since the stories have been flooding the news since the minute the news broke about their occurrence. However, details aside, it’s time to have a serious talk.

I was born and raised in Australia, and lived there until I graduated from high school and moved to the United States to go to college only a year and a bit ago, at the end of 2014. And I must say, I’ve had a great time so far. Except for this: America has a serious gun problem. I’ve said it many times before, and I’ll say it again. You need to make a change. And before you argue with me, please read on.

I understand that you have a constitution that allows you to bear arms. I understand that firearms are ingrained into your culture. Particularly now that I have lived and experienced it. However, I do think there are some changes that need to be made.

Whenever the world talks about gun control and laws, Australia always comes into mention, because of our success in reducing mass shootings and our current gun restriction laws. This is why I have decided to weigh in on this controversial topic, and try to provide insight into opinions from a country who used to have a similar problem. In April of 1996, Australia had their worst ever killing spree, the Port Arthur Massacre, which left 35 people dead and 23 wounded. Following this spree, our Prime Minister John Howard introduced strict gun regulations and formatted a National Firearms Programme Implementation Act, restricting the private ownership of firearms including semi-automatic rifles and shotguns and pump-action shotguns. The Act also included the introduction of firearm licensing.

The government’s scheme had a range of aspects, but I will elaborate on two that I find were incredibly helpful. When the laws were introduced, the government used a buy-back aspect to purchase back the firearms from the public and provide compensation to civilians. They received 700,000 guns in exchange for 350 million dollars. Another aspect of their law was that they allowed anyone to come forward and participate in the buy-back, punishment free. This meant that the people who had obtained or used a gun illegally were able to sell back their guns in exchange for money, and not worry about the legal consequences. This was a smart move on their behalf as it allowed the governmental purchase of even more firearms than they would have received without this.

Firearms are nothing but prevalent in Australian history, used from our early European Settlement all through the 18th and 19th centuries, even most of the 20th century. However, despite the prevalence of guns and the history that we shared with them, after the Port Arthur Massacre we as a nation decided that we had had enough; and worked with the government to make Australia a far safer place. That’s right—we gave up our beloved firearms to the government in order to make our country a safer place. John Howard and the government at the time made a controversial, brave and quite unpopular move to tackle the gun problem. We are much safer as a result.

This is not an opinion article. I am not going to go into American Gun Laws now and where they should go, I am not going to discuss how terrible the events from the last couple of weeks have been, and I am definitely not going to elaborate into how and why America should finally make a change (I have said I believe there needs to be a change but I am not going to digress any further than this.)

This article is written by me, an Australian who also calls herself an American, to show that it is not impossible. That guns and shootings do not have to be a necessity in everyday culture. To show that you can feel safe going to school, university, the movie theater, your place of worship or a music concert, and feel safe. It isn’t a game of chance. There hasn’t been a single mass shooting since 1996, and it isn’t a coincidence. We don’t even miss it- we don’t miss having freer access to guns, we love the safety that we have. We may not have everything right in our country but the regulation of gun laws is one thing we do have right.