One of Jason Winter’s last acts on this earth was to throw a tray at a man who was pointing a gun at his wife Joanne and their 15-month-old son. It saved their lives. He was killed shortly after.
Anthony Nightingale’s last words were used to try to save those around him, “No, no, not here”, he pleaded.
Carol Loughton was shot and her body covered her daughter. Open and clear to the gunman, just trying to save Sarah’s life. Carol survived her injuries, Sarah did not.
Tony Kistan died while helping his wife escape; Peter Crosswell dragged his two companions to the floor.
Nannette Mikac was a tour guide in Port Arthur. That day he had brought his children for a picnic. When the gunshots started, he was heard trying to comfort his daughter while they were running, “We are safe now, pumpkin”.
Moments later her last words were just trying to save her children’s lives.
There were at least 60 people in and around the Broad Arrow restaurant at the time. Australia’s worst mass shooting could be worse.
How many lives did Ian Kingston or Brigid Cook save? We can never know. But they welcomed and shouted and treated and soothed whoever they could. Some people ran back to the restaurant when the shooting stopped. In the blood and chaos to see who can help.
How many lives were saved in moments that are lost in time, because stories and selflessness and courage died with people whose last breaths were spent in acts of service and love?
The stories we choose to tell
“Don’t mention his name on the radio.”
“Really?”
“If you ever say his name, your text line will light up and the audience will tell you: don’t say his name.”
Long before I started researching mass shootings I had an ABC radio show that was broadcast all over Western Australia.
As an immigrant to this country, it was a place I was still trying to find my rhythm. My partner (and now wife) told me. I honestly don’t even remember why or when. But it stuck.
Then, as I watched the specter of mass murder through the lens of how it was reported, its power grew – with each investigation of each murder and each fear and each desperate search to understand this horrific crime.
I have read 2000 years of random mass murder. From the earliest shooting: 1903 in Kansas to 1913 in Germany to 1924 in Melbourne.
For the modern “first” shooting: 60 years ago (this August), University of Texas.
To Christchurch and Bondi Junction and Bondi Beach.
I’ll tell you a secret: We don’t know why.
For each dive into the background and mental state and notices and social media posts and remembered comments and diaries and letters with family and friends. We will never really get to know.
We are guessing. It is a noble goal. But we never get there. We are guessing. And, to help us guess, we tell you everything about the killer – we delve into history and state of mind and notices and social media posts and recall comments and diaries and letters with family and friends.
If we tell you about the killer we tell you why this happened?
Nope. We’re just guessing. And how we do it is the problem.
“It seems the more people you kill, the more famous you get,” wrote the perpetrator of the mass murder at Umpqua Community College, Oregon, in 2015 (9 people were killed).
“When you see me on the news, you’ll know who I am,” wrote the perpetrator of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Florida, 2018 (17 people were killed).
Victims of the Port Arthur massacre
- Winifred Joyce Aplin, 58
- Walter John Bennett, 66
- Nicole Louise Burgess, 17
- Sou Leng Chung, 32
- Elva Rhonda Gaylard, 48
- Zoe Anne Hall, 28
- Elizabeth Jayne Howard, 26
- Mary Elizabeth Howard, 57
- Mervyn John Howard, 55
- Ronald Noel Jarry, 71
- Tony Vadivelu Kistan, 51
- Leslie Dennis Lever, 53
- Sarah Kate Loughton, 15
- David Martin, 72
- Noelene “Sally” Joyce Martin, 69
- Pauline Virgina Masters, 49
- Alannah Louise Mikac, 6
- Madeline Grace Mikac, 3
- Nanette Patricia Mikac, 36
- Andrew Bruce Mills, 39
- Peter Brenton Nash, 32
- Gwenda Joan Neander, 67
- Moh Yee (William) Ng, 48
- Anthony Nightingale, 44
- Mary Rose Nixon, 60
- Glenn Roy Pears, 35
- Russell James Pollard, 72
- Janette Kathleen Quin, 50
- Helen Maria Salzmann, 50
- Robert Graham Salzman, 57
- Kate Elizabeth Scott, 21
- Kevin Vincent Sharp, 68
- Raymond John Sharp, 67
- Royce William Thompson, 59
- Jason Bernard Winter, 29
The only certainty we have about motive is what the killers have repeatedly told us. If you are lonely with a gun, if you believe that you are worth more than your society has given you, if you want to be remembered, we have provided a clear and obvious way.
Many shooting researchers call it document of vaccination. Who was the killer? Why did he do that? Here’s everything we know about them.
It created that thing. It can be disturbed. It got messed up, here.
After Port Arthur, there was general revulsion across the country, led by grieving Tasmanians seeking to put the focus where it belonged: on the victims; survivors; family; community healing; legal responses.
After Mercury published a picture of the murderer on the front page of the newspaper, with the headline “This is the man”, two things happened: the Director of Public Prosecutions threatened them with contempt of court charges if the coverage caused a mistake; and a member of the paper’s management team told me the phone was disconnected.
Readers from across the state were outraged.
“Get that bastard off the front page,” they said.
There was, in fear and sorrow, a steely resolve. It entered the wider public consciousness, and the killer became what he was: pitied, reviled, ignored.
Instead of what he wanted to be: monstrous, powerful, memorable.
That document hassle saved a life. It told would-be assassins they would not get the notoriety they were looking for. It can and should be seen as meaningful and impactful as gun control.
Which is important now more than ever.
There are more guns in Australia now than at the time of the Port Arthur massacre. Mass killings have returned to the country.
We are losing the legacy of the response of that day 30 years ago.
Changes
It’s easy to see media coverage and culture as a free-for-all. It is far from it. The best centers are thoughtful, evidence-based. They seek to serve the public interest.
Changes in editorial policies have been made by several major media outlets over the years, thanks in part to increased international research on the relationship between media coverage and mass shooting motivation.
They include, here in Australia:
ABC Editorial Policies
As much as possible, the focus of reporting should be on victims and survivors.
Avoid glorifying terrorists or unintentional murderers.
Use the image and name of the perpetrator carefully, especially in subsequent stories.
MEAA Code of Conduct
Extremists seek to use the media as a platform for their actions. Do everything you can to prevent this.
Ask yourself if it is important to identify criminals and, if so, how much?
In New Zealand, after Christchurch, five news organizations came together in unprecedented fashion to coordinate coverage of the trial, avoiding giving the killer the platform he wanted.
Change has happened, and it has undoubtedly saved lives.
After Bondi Beach and Christchurch and the civil liberties movement and the return of mass gun ownership, today is a good day to remember what the response to Port Arthur taught us: we get to choose the stories we tell.
Dr Glynn Greensmith is a senior lecturer in journalism at Curtin University and author of Mass Shootings, Media and Motive: How changing advertising can save lives.
