Browser in local gun shops

from page 5 of The Daily Telegraph, May 1, 1996


by Ardyn Bernoth

  Two days before Martin Bryant went on his murder spree he browsed in local gun shops, asking at one to have a gun repaired.
  Stuart Woods, owner of a gun sales and repair shop in New Town, said Bryant had approached him last Friday asking him to fix one of his guns, an AR-10.
  Mr Woods knew his face well. Bryant had a fascination for guns and it was the second time he had visited the shop that week.
  Bryant had browsed in Mr Wood's shop last Tuesday, examining several guns and asking questions about ammunition.
  "He had been in my shop numerous times. I knew him as a local from the area and knew he had quite a few guns," Mr Woods said.
  Out of his arsenal of weapons, Bryant chose two guns for the Port Arthur carnage, and AR-15 and an SKS Chinese copy of a Soviet rifle.
  Mr Woods also knew Bryant's late father Maurice Bryant who had shared his son's fondness for guns.
  "He used to do quite a bit of bush shooting," Mr Woods said.
  Mr Woods described Bryant as "quite a pleasant chap".
  "He was not exactly chatty but he seemed a cheery sort of fellow," he said.
  As part of the enormous police operation under way in Port Arthur, Hobart police are trying to track down who sold the murder weapons to Bryant and are interviewing owners of all local gun shops.

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