There's plenty of times when the Australian model of gun control is touted as a success, including references by Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama. This article by an Australian publication reveals the fact that it's a failure, and backs up that claim with a lot of data and background. In summary: the criminals are armed better than ever.

 

Please note: I put this post in this forum so it would receive some wide exposure, not to start a discussion that belongs in the 1st Amendment Lounge. It's important, especially just before the election, that we have some basis for negating at least one portion of the continuing attack on our Second Amendment. Or confirmation of what we already think we intuitively know.

 

If someone needs to vent on the subject, please open another post in the Lounge.

 

Addendum: the Australian government has declared a new amnesty.

Nice! Reposted for my friends on Facebook.

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GREAT ARTICLE. Thanks for sharing! The whole Australia thing has been a pet peeve of mine. I always took issue with the fact that people were touting the "evidence" of no recent Australian mass shootings (meaning more than 4 dead) as meaningful of anything. Is it even soon enough to judge? Is it "statistically significant"? Obviously, we all want there to be no mass shootings! That goes without saying. It was just premature for celebration.

 

Criminologists will tell you that crime trends can really only be analyzed and understood over a long period of time - like decades. Probably because big changes (like the gun control in Australia) create a vacuum, but it takes time for other trends to fill that vacuum. What this article points out is that those long-term trends may be already taking shape, but who knows just how bad it will end up? 

 

In addition, the media doesn't address the fact that there have been shootings all along in Australia since the buy-back (they just happened to take less than 5 lives). Again, statistically meaningful? Or a fluke?

 

You also rarely hear anyone addressing other massacres... there's certainly been some horrible mass killings s in Australia since 1996 (they just didn't happen to use a gun):

 

• Childers Palace Backpackers fire - 2000, 15 killed by arson
• Churchill Fire - 2009, 10 killed by arson
• Lin Family murders - 2009, 5 family members killed by blunt instrument
• Quakers Hill Nursing Home Fire - 2011, 11 killed by arson
• Cairns Child Killings - 2014, 8 children killed by stabbing

 

So, not only will the shootings trend will take more time to fully reveal itself... but, in the mean time, murderous people have still managed to slay large amounts of victims without even touching a gun. Sick people always find a way. 

 

​Edit: Oops! I shouldn't have vented. Sorry! I only noticed your "no discussion" request after I posted this. Know that I'll be "sharing" this article in multiple ways. Thx!

No, no, no gun control is working in Australia. It's an ammo problem now.

" until nobody has them, everyone should"

- eagles of death metal lead singer.