On the 20th anniversary of the Port Arthur Massacre in which 35 people were shot dead by a heavily armed killer, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is praising the strict gun control measures the took root as a result of the traumatic attack.

Mr. Turnbull told Hobart Radio 7HO that the National Firearms Agreement - which including a pioneering gun buyback schemeas well as tighter restrictions on gun ownership - has "kept Australians safer ever since".

Gun control advocates worry that Australia is starting to backslide on its commitment to the National Firearms Agreement, but Malcolm claims that is not the case:  "We must continue to maintain our strong and responsible stance with respect to guns that is enshrined in the National Firearms Agreement and which has kept Australians safe," he said.

But it turns out that Australia has more guns today then on the day of the Port Arthur Massacre.  University of Sydney Associate Professor Philip Alpers, founding director of GunPolicy.org, told the ABC that "the million guns destroyed after Port Arthur have been replaced with 1,026,000 new ones".  He added, "By 2015 the arms trade had broken all previous records, and last financial year Australia ported 104,000 firearms."

At the same, the numbers of households with guns plunged by 75 percent since the massacre, even as the population grew.  That means gun owners who didn't get rid of their weapons in the buyback are hoarding weapons.

"Until recently the average Australian shooter owned three to five firearms," said Prof. Alpers.  "The same people now keep a larger collection, and a proportion of those guns continue to leak into the illicit market."