American family move to Australia as schools turn into killing zones

Ongoing gun violence is prompting some families to leave the United States and move to Australia, hoping for a safer life for their children.

Amy and Chris Fox said they decided to leave their Minneapolis home in the United States for the southeast Sydney suburb Loftus after considering how their four-year-old son would cope in a school shooting situation.

'My son has autism, so if there was a shooting at his school, I don't know how he would respond to that. He doesn't always respond to his name,' Mrs Fox told SBS News.

Mrs Fox said her family, still living in America, is also considering moving abroad after Monday's school shooting in Nashville, where a former student shot through the doors of a Christian elementary school, killing three children and three adults.

The shooter, Audrey Elizabeth Hale, was transgender, and armed with two assault-style weapons and a handgun.

Amy and Chris Fox (pictured with their son) said they decided to move from Minneapolis to Sydney after considering how their four-year-old son would cope in a school shooting

It's the latest in a long string of U.S. mass shootings that have turned schools into killing zones and added fuel to a national debate over gun rights and regulations. 

'I have met a number of women, who have moved overseas to Australia or elsewhere because of the gun violence and other issues, so for a lot of people I've met here from America, this was a big factor for moving overseas,' she explained.

The couple previously lived in Australia between 2016 and 2019, but moved back to the United States. They returned to Australia to offer a safer life for their son.

Monday's violence marked the 90th school shooting – defined as any incident in which a gun is discharged on school property – in the United States this year, according to the K-12 School Shooting Database, a website founded by researcher David Riedman. 

Last year saw 303 such incidents, the highest of any year in the database, which goes back to 1970. 

Mrs Fox said she doesn't believe gun culture will ever change in the US, starkly contrasting with Australian gun policies.

'The gun culture is not changing. I believe too many politicians are in the pocket of the National Rifle Association,' she explained.

'They receive hundreds of thousands of dollars from that organisation, and it seems people care too much about making money and don't care about who dies.'

Mrs Fox said more of her family living in America is looking to move overseas following the Nashville school shootings on Monday (pictured, shooter Audrey Hale)

Australia adopted harsh gun laws following the 1996 Port Arthur massacre in Tasmania, that left 35 people dead.

Then-prime minister John Howard implemented a gun buy-back scheme that saw 700,000 firearms destroyed, banned semi-automatic and automatic weapons and tightened gun regulations.

The regulations meant there were only 0.9 gun deaths in Australia for every 100,000 people in 2019, compared to 12.09 deaths per 100,000 in the US, according to gunpolicy.org.

'Australia did something with the mass shooting in Tasmania and that was motivating for my family to come back to Australia,' Mrs Fox said.