Rebel Wilson on Gun Control: America Should Follow Australia's Lead

By Alexandra Svokos alexandra.svokos@mstarsnews.com | Jul 25, 2015 06:36 PM EDT

Pitch Perfect star Rebel Wilson took to Twitter to voice her disapproval of America's gun laws following a shooting at a movie theater in Lafayette, Louisiana. The Australian native said the United States should follow Australia's lead, where there are strict laws against owning guns.

"I don't remember a mass shooting in Australia since they overhauled the gun laws," Wilson tweeted. "It seems like every week in America there's a shooting."

Wilson was responding to the mass shooting in Lafayette on Thursday. John Russell "Rusty" Houser shot 11 people during a screening of Trainwreck. Two women were killed. Houser shot himself in the head. Authorities found that the gun that he used was legally purchased.

"My heart is broken and all my thoughts and prayers are with everyone in Louisiana," Amy Schumer, the star of Trainwreck tweeted.

Australia has had strict gun laws since a mass shooting occurred in 1996. Martin Bryant killed 35 people, in the country's worst mass-murder. Bryant is imprisoned for life. After the shooting, Australia passed the National Firearms Agreement. This outlawed automatic and semi-automatic rifles and pump-action shotguns. 640,000 guns were turned in to authorities in a buyback scheme, NBC reports.

In the first 204 days of 2015, there were 204 mass shootings in the United States, Mass Shooting Tracker found. The tracker counts a mass shooting as an event in which four or more people are shot (but not necessarily killed). Many Americans, including President Barack Obama, have announced their distress over lack of tighter gun control laws in the United States, even as more national tragedies occur. Obama recently called his inability to pass tighter laws his biggest frustration.

"If you look at the number of Americans killed since 9/11 by terrorism, it's less than 100. If you look at the number that have been killed by gun violence, it's in the tens of thousands," the president said.

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