Prime Minister John Howard pressured the states to adopt the gun law proposals made in a report of the 1988 National Committee on Violence as the National Firearms Agreement, resulting in the non-binding National Firearms Agreement (NFA) between the Commonwealth and the States & Territories as the Constitution of Australia does not give the Commonwealth direct power to enact gun laws. In the face of some state resistance, Howard threatened to hold a nationwide referendum to alter the Constitution of Australia to give the Commonwealth constitutional power over guns. The National Firearms Agreement included a ban on all semi-automatic rifles and all semi-automatic and pump-action shotguns, and a system of licensing and ownership controls.