Posted on 04/15/2008 9:26:24 PM PDT by epow
Australian Gun Law Update After One Year
Here's a thought to warm some of your hearts... From: Ed Chenel, A police officer in Australia !
Hi Yanks, I thought you all would like to see the real figures from Down Under. It has now been 12 months since gun owners in Australia were forced by a new law to surrender 640,381 personal firearms to be destroyed by our own government, a program costing Australia taxpayers more than $500 million dollars.
The first year results are now in: Australia-wide, homicides are up 6.2 percent, Australia-wide, assaults are up 9.6 percent ; Australia-wide, armed robberies are up 44 percent (yes, 44 percent)!
In the state of Victoria alone, homicides with firearms are now up 300 percent. (Note that while the law-abiding citizens turned them in, the criminals did not and criminals still possess their guns!)
While figures over the previous 25 years showed a steady decrease in armed robbery with firearms, this has changed drastically upward in the past 12 months, since the criminals now are guaranteed that their prey is unarmed.
There has also been a dramatic increase in break-ins and assaults of the elderly, while the resident is at home.
Australian politicians are at a loss to explain how public safety has decreased, after such monumental effort and expense was expended in "successfully ridding Australian society of guns." You won't see this on the American evening news or hear your governor or members of the State Assembly disseminating this information.
The Australian experience speaks for itself. Guns in the hands of honest citizens save lives and property and, yes, gun-control laws affect only the law-abiding citizens.
Take note Americans, before it's too late!
Thanks for posting this. And you’re right, it speaks for itself.
That's not fair!!
Agreed
Ping to expectations confirmed.
Hey, it’s just another step to get things ready for the New World Order. Can’t have any resistance among the sheeple. Can’t get rid of the criminals because the criminals justify increased police numbers and the ever-growing surveillance systems being put in place.
Unfortunately, this is a hoax. The gun laws were passed in Australia in 1996 — 12 years ago.
I did get a red flag when I saw the homicide rate up 300%, so I went to Snopes (While it IS liberal, I think it is right on some aspects of this)
http://www.snopes.com/crime/statistics/ausguns.asp
Firearm homocides up 300% in the state of Victoria?
That could mean one last year, four this year, right?
The whole crime wave might be traced to one incident for all we know.
Always better to post the exact numbers and not try to dazzle with the rate of increase.
I’ve never owned a gun, but I’ll use my biggest kitchen knife to defend the right of other Americans to own them.
OK, so what have the actual stats shown in the last 12 years, a decrease or increase in the Australian crime rate?
This article may be a fake or it may just be a repeat of old statistics that are now out of date, but I have read in other publications that the overall crime rate in Australia is higher now than before the gun ban, whenever it went into effect, just as has happened in the UK after handguns were totally banned.
Very old news! It’s been years since the massacre at Port Arthur. Truth be known the murder rate won’t have changed people who want to kill wil still kill.
Melbourne’s Gangland murders only ended a year or so ago, most of them were committed with guns.
Bikies have guns and kill each other regularly - as long as they stick to killing each other I don’t care much about that.
As Freepers have said all along removing guns does not stop muders. People with murderous intent will always find a way.
It may be correct on this matter, it appears that it is, but I don't take anything from Snopes as absolute truth on any issue that has a liberal side and a conservative side until I see it confirmed somewhere else besides there.
As an Australian do you have access to the correct Australian crime stats over the last 12 years? I’ll try to google up something on that topic just out of curiosity, but the Aussie government may not be giving out that information to the general public.
I thought that this article was a little outdated.
| Year | Mental illness | No mental illness | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number | Rate(a) | Number | Rate(a) | |
| a: per 100,000 population | ||||
| 1990 | 322 | 19.9 | 1,298 | 80.4 |
| 1991 | 354 | 21.6 | 1,407 | 85.9 |
| 1992 | 419 | 25.2 | 1,517 | 91.4 |
| 1993 | 571 | 34.0 | 1,748 | 104.1 |
| 1994 | 650 | 38.1 | 1,817 | 106.6 |
| 1995 | 747 | 43.0 | 1,800 | 103.8 |
| 1996 | 760 | 43.0 | 1,912 | 108.3 |
| 1997 | 768 | 42.7 | 1,812 | 100.9 |
| 1998 | 828 | 45.4 | 2,023 | 110.9 |
| 1999 | 772 | 41.7 | 1,855 | 100.2 |
| 2000 | 738 | 39.3 | 1,808 | 96.4 |
| 2001 | 741 | 38.9 | 1,991 | 104.7 |
| 2002 | 702 | 36.4 | 2,145 | 111.2 |
| 2003 | 745 | 38.2 | 2,016 | 103.3 |
| 2004 | 729 | 36.8 | 1,939 | 98.0 |
| Total | 9,846 | 36.6 | 27,088 | 100.7 |
Both show a steady climb then decrease per 100,000 population. (Guess that's because the weakest victims got taken out, and the stronger ones got more efficient in rejecting the predators.)
What would the US stats reveal?
I agree. But the truth of this particular matter on the use of statistics is pretty clear, especially the bit about the 300%, which is what got me.
It is good to be skeptical...:)
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