Sydney - The failure of gun control in Aus?

And this is only one city in Australia. A 24 year old was shot dead today in Western Sydney in what police claim was a targeted attack. I said in another thread last week that I swear i am seeing a shooting every couple of days in Sydney so I decided to do a bit of research into shootings which have occured over the last year or so. What I found was a map which hasn't been updated since February last year so it doesn't even include the shootings which have occured recently. From what I can count, there are roughly 50 incidents.. It would be interesting to see how many have happened after also.

Sydney shootings
Sydney's western suburbs have been hit by dozens of shootings in the past six months as gangs wage what police describe is a turf war.

Sydney Shootings up until Feb 2012

Now I understand that most of the shootings are most likely gangs. But would this be proof that gun control simply isn't working in our country? That the criminals are running around with guns and firing into peoples homes which also house innocent children and civilians?

Heres the incident that occured today..

Sydney man shot dead in broad daylight

Police are searching for a gunman after a man was shot and killed in a southwest Sydney street while children played nearby.

Joshua George was on Gidley Crescent in Claymore, near Campbelltown, with three friends at about 1.30pm (AEDT) when he was shot, in what police believe was a targeted attack.

The 24-year-old was taken to Campbelltown Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead, a police spokesman told AAP.

Detective Chief Inspector Mark Brett says it is believed that Mr George had fought with his attacker on Saturday in nearby Airds, on the other side of Campbelltown.

I don't know abou anyone else, but it seems Sydney is getting worse when it comes to gun crime.

reply to post by DarknStormy


I live in Australia and from what i can tell it is ONLY the cops and crims who have guns, minus farmers with the odd shotty to kill rabbits, thats about it. The only time i've seen guns here is when I've gone to purchase illegal things, gone to a farm or seen a police officer.

I wouldnt say gun control is failing I just dont think we have a very gun focused society although its interesting to note that we have massive gun control here and that basically only cops and drug dealers have guns....

reply to post by DarknStormy


Its bad, but honestly our gun crime rate is not as bad as many other countries.

reply to post by sir_slide


What... that doesn't make sense... we have very strict gun laws... criminals aren't allowed to have weapons!!!

/end sarcasm

America, take note that banning guns does not stop those that wish to possess them!

Originally posted by Mentalistbee
reply to post by DarknStormy

 

Its bad, but honestly our gun crime rate is not as bad as many other countries.

But what if we were to not focus on gun homocides and just gun incidents in general per capita? You would find that our gun rates are actually pretty high in comparison to some other countries.

reply to post by DarknStormy


yeh, most of the gun violence in Australia comes from outlaw biker gang type wankers.
Even then alot of the military styled weapons are so rare, that lately cops have been finding home made
guns from backyard gunsmiths.

Originally posted by sir_slide
reply to post by DarknStormy

 

I live in Australia and from what i can tell it is ONLY the cops and crims who have guns, minus farmers with the odd shotty to kill rabbits, thats about it. The only time i've seen guns here is when I've gone to purchase illegal things, gone to a farm or seen a police officer.

I wouldnt say gun control is failing I just dont think we have a very gun focused society although its interesting to note that we have massive gun control here and that basically only cops and drug dealers have guns....

I agree with you and even though the gun laws may of stopped incidents such as what happened in Tassie, it hasn't stopped people from killing each other and it doesn't matter who is doing the killing. If people want to get a gun, they can get one with ease. What people don't realise about the incidents in Australia is people doing drive by shootings and putting innocent children and families at risk.

Originally posted by Mentalistbee
reply to post by DarknStormy

 

Its bad, but honestly our gun crime rate is not as bad as many other countries.

Our gun crime rate is out of control, believe me I know. the thing is the media only reports what they are told to report. think about it Australia has 22million people in it and has 5 TV channels on the eastern seaboard not including fox. with a 1 hour news in the afternoon 3/4 of which is sport, now all of that "news" is the whole country and the world in 15 minutes, give me a break lol.
in Sydney, Melbourne, Gold coast, its been war on the streets the thing is only the cases where the public has been involved to a large extent has the media got involved.
even with gun restrictions the underworld still has freedom to deal in weapons, they were armed before the laws they are armed after.

reply to post by DarknStormy


And the point was what, the bikie gangs have been fighting for years.

reply to post by DarknStormy


I wouldnt say with ease. You can get one if you know people or are very patient. The thing is that if you have any kinda criminal record you cant get one, so obviously you will seek one illegally, problem is that means that there are loads and loads of people with criminal records buying guns illegally, so the guns that exist mainly belong solely to criminals. This is what I worry about with the US gun laws coming in. I used to be anti guns until i worked out what the 'leaders of the free world' are up to, if they take away the weapons then people are defenseless.

Its a hard subject and I find myself coming off as some right wing gun nut most of the time although I really do they think there is a point here, especially with the 2nd amendment, and ESPECIALLY when you take into account the contradictory evidence coming forward in these shootings, I think that they manipulated the situation to try and take away the guns that would threaten their agenda. Period.

Originally posted by frenzy4444
reply to post by DarknStormy

 

And the point was what, the bikie gangs have been fighting for years.

Down here in Victoria, bikie gangs aren't a problem, except for when that guy opened fire in the Melbourne CBD killing an innocent civilian. Its not just bikies that get killed.

reply to post by sir_slide


Its strange seeing what we have been through playing out in the USA. We pretty much bent over and took it from behind.. I hope the US don't do the same. Christmas will be 365 for the crims over there

Mcdonalds food and cigarettes kill more people than guns.

Guns do not kill people . People kill people.

So in fact, peope who eat mcdonalds and smoke are really killing themselves.

See the pattern here?

reply to post by magma


As much as I agree, you can't pull a trigger on a big mac and pump someones skull full of Island sauce and cheese.

As someone living in sydney Australia i too believe that gun crime is getting worse and the police here are struggling to get it under control.The media doen,t tend to cover all these incidents to closely unless death occcurs,leaving the mass population to believe that the gun buy back scheme of past was a sucess.Yes their have been no mass shootings or rampage,s in Australia in the last 10 or so years but are we any safer?I don,t think so.

No one claims that gun control stops ALL shootings, Australia's statistics are not even remotely comparable to the US's, they are pretty damn low.

Originally posted by magma
Guns do not kill people . People kill people.

Why do people keep saying this? It's the stupidest argument.

People do kill people, a lot of the time they use guns. Interesting you should bring up McDonald's though, because it's similar. Why do people eat McDonald's? It's easy, it's convenient, it's minimal trouble and effort. If the McDonald's wasn't there at all would they go home and make a sandwich? They could, but they probably wouldn't.

This is the same with guns, except with killing rather than eating. It's easy, quick, convenient. They could do it with a knife, but if it came to it they probably wouldn't, as reflected in other country's homicide statistics.

reply to post by SpearMint


If people want other people dead they will find a way.

Guns are easy, your right.

But people make the choice.

So the argument is not stupid. It is the core reason why there is even an argument at all.

Originally posted by kepala
As someone living in sydney Australia i too believe that gun crime is getting worse and the police here are struggling to get it under control.The media doen,t tend to cover all these incidents to closely unless death occcurs,leaving the mass population to believe that the gun buy back scheme of past was a sucess.Yes their have been no mass shootings or rampage,s in Australia in the last 10 or so years but are we any safer?I don,t think so.

Thats what I was trying to get at. We had the same problem down here in Melbourne a while back and even though it was gang related, innocent people were also murdered in the process. We haven't had a massacre which would work in the advantage of the gun crackdown but when it comes to overall gun crime, we still have an issue in some major cities even though some of them may not be killing people.

Originally posted by DarknStormy
reply to post by magma

 

As much as I agree, you can't pull a trigger on a big mac and pump someones skull full of Island sauce and cheese.

Maybe not, but you could certainly stuff a quarter pounder or 2 down someones throat and watch them choke.