Australian Gun Laws & Warning

So a Australian citizen sent this info and stats below to illustrate the grass isn't greener when you ban guns from law abiding citizens.

Honestly I was surprised by the stats.

Check it his verbatim comments:

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! Will you be one of the sheep to turn yours in? WHY? You will need it. FORWARD TO EVERYONE ON YOUR EMAIL LIST. DON'T BE A MEMBER OF THE SILENT MAJORITY. BE ONE OF THE VOCAL MINORITY WHO WON 'T STAND FOR NONSENSE AUSTRALIA: MORE VIOLENT CRIME DESPITE GUN BAN

Hopefully some aussies are on who can shed some light on this?

Seems like any other crappy email forward. Where are the statistics from?

a reply to: sirlancelot

That sounds about right, but is there a source for those statistics?
Because it looks like a chain email.

originally posted by: watchitburn
a reply to: sirlancelot

That sounds about right, but is there a source for those statistics?
Because it looks like a chain email.

It might be but the stats seem pretty specific. Anyone know how to look it up?

a reply to: sirlancelot

Last update to the gun laws in Australia was in 1998 (New South Wales: Weapons Prohibition Act 1998). There are no national laws as it is administered at a state level. Wikipedia - Gun laws in Australia - National Firearms Agreement

Australia confiscated 650,000 guns. Murders and suicides plummeted. This is exactly the number quoted in the OP and was between 1996 and 1997.

Gun Policy.org Facts - Australia

I'd call BS on this.

Looks like some of the email came from this Perth Website/News Source.

Perth Crime Rates

dang....all I can say for most of yas posters is go ahead and just go back to sleep.....bed is on fire though mister....us Texas boys think it's smart of ya to be like that...yezz....west Aussie is in a crisis....not enough police to handle this 600 a day confrontations,,,,so tell me yeah....

originally posted by: watchitburn
a reply to: sirlancelot

That sounds about right, but is there a source for those statistics?
Because it looks like a chain email.

This was posted the other day.

www.aic.gov.au...

Overall it looks like there was no statistical drop in crime rates after the ban (even armed robbery, wacky huh?) and sexual assaults have been steadily increasing.

a reply to: sirlancelot
Getting the truth out of Australia about crime stats after the ban isn't going to be easy. I'd say you're going to run across a lot of conflicting information, but these stats sound reasonable. Seems like it was the same way with Britain. Check out what happened to Jamaica when they banned guns in the 70's. Jamaica

To make the wall of text more readable:

originally posted by: sirlancelot

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! Will you be one of the sheep to turn yours in? WHY? You will need it. FORWARD TO EVERYONE ON YOUR EMAIL LIST. DON'T BE A MEMBER OF THE SILENT MAJORITY. BE ONE OF THE VOCAL MINORITY WHO WON 'T STAND FOR NONSENSE AUSTRALIA: MORE VIOLENT CRIME DESPITE GUN BAN

Hopefully some aussies are on who can shed some light on this?

a reply to: sirlancelot

How many mass shooting have occurred since the gun confiscation?
Guns are not banned in Australia just guns that can fire more then one bullet without reloading (and maybe a few others)

a reply to: BO XIAN

Okay, you can get a firearm of a certain 'class' if you have a reason for owning it. Eg. Sports shooter - club, target shooter - club, hunting, now this requires, where I'm living a legitimate reason and an area to hunt = + 100 acres, then a permission note/letter from the owner of the property. Other reasons are for the destruction of vermin, security licences and some more ie, collectors, heritage on so on.

All classes of licences require a reason and there are strict storage requirements, such as a safe, bolted to a concrete or similar floor, separate ammunition storage stowed in a similar fashion as the safe.

You cannot have or carry a firearm exclusively for self protection. And, this includes other weapons such as knives, swords, slingshots, tasers, pepper sprays and so on. Body armour is out too.

The 'class' of firearms determines the needs for a person. So simply, automatic weapons are out.

Lever actions and pumps are restricted to a certain level of capacity. (normally a max of 5 rounds)

There are also distinctions between rimfire (.22) and centerfire long arms.

The list and regulations across Aussie states and territories differs with regarding the demographics and I've just touched on a few of the restrictions according to the relative regulations of each.

Now, to possess and carry a firearm you need to have a legitimate reason and proof and in most cases cannot carry that firearm in public except for sporting and security reasons or the safe carriage of such from one location to another. If you are in law enforcement, sure, you can carry your sidearm and perhaps a shotty or long centrefire rifle in your vehicle.

The licences require that you carry the licence at all times when you possess a firearm in your vehicle or at a public venue. As stated previously, your safe storage of the firearm and ammunition (separately) is inspected by police. I could go on but the regulations and 'statutes' make it difficult to possess a firearm without a legitimate reason. 'Personal protection' is outlawed.

Post script - If you are convicted or suspected of certain classes of offences eg. violence, domestic violence, terrorism (and related suspicion offences), robbery or even perhaps armed in a public place you can kiss your flamin firearm and licence goodbye for a long, long time. not regarding the ability of police under any of those circumstances to search and recover evidence of such from your premises or vehicle.

So, I haven't minutely touched here on Firearms or Prohibited Weapons in Aussie, just provided a few tips. And by the way, don';t carry a knife in a public place without a legitimate reason. Perhaps fishing,,,but have a fishing rod for goodness sakes.

Kind regards, as always,

bally and my beers

a reply to: bally001

Is a simple shot blade pocket knife outlawed????

If so, that's . . . hostile to men being men! Sheesh!

Talk about emasculating!

Sounds like the oligarchy is well on its way to turning Aussies into p*ssies.

Sheesh. What's the world coming to--going to--besides hell.

a reply to: BO XIAN

Yeah, maybe I could've explained it more simply. But there is a lot of reading and interpretation of the regulations and statues to put it here in a sentence.
But for arguments sake (scenario) = you carry around a pocket knife - no probs.
You carry around a pocket knife and produce it in public legitimately (eg. showing a friend) - no worries.
You produce the pocket knife to defend yourself and use that defense as the excuse to carry it - probs.
You carry the pocket knife for legitimate reasons, 'eating, cutting paper - filleting fish even and produce it to protect yourself - no probs.
The problem encompassed here is the stupidity of people that carry knives and use the reason for the carry of "simply to protect" themselves hence the regulations. Same with the firearms mate.

So, I can safely carry a good filleting knife and scabbard on my belt if I have a legitimate reason "Hey, I'm a butcher"!!!

Kind regards,

bally.

Methinks China thanks Austrailia for their low impact compliance.

a reply to: bally001

Interesting. Weird.

Thanks. Sounds more than a little convoluted.

And always in favor of the authority.

I'm sure China will appreciate all the gun confiscation when China arrives to conquer Australia . . . as she definitely plans to do.

The "buyback" was over a decade ago (2 decades).. so that makes the whole email rather silly.

If i think on it, the only difference it made was for mass shootings, we had a few at that time not just the bryant incident.. haven't heard of anything similar apart from the odd nut/small scale siege since the buyback..

Did it solve any other "issues" - no.
Can nasty folk still get guns and do bad things.. yes, is that a major problem for us on a somewhat weekly basis though... no.

I'm sorry some asshats have seen fit to throw my country's ideas down your throat, but see that.. like the core of the problem.. is a human/agenda issue, America needs to find it's feet again.. on it's own, without "interested partys" messing things up.. in this day and age.. im not placing bets on a sound outcome.. far too many factions 0 leaders.. conflict = profit.. and money is god for the lawmakers.

Just know, my country really doesn't give much of a hoot. but that hasn't stopped the axe grinders using us as some stupid example of how things are done to inflame your dividing lines into a firestorm that will engulf America if you cant push through the socio-psyc manipulation agenda's pushing you into different corners for some ugly event to come soon.

originally posted by: BO XIAN
a reply to: bally001

Is a simple shot blade pocket knife outlawed????

If so, that's . . . hostile to men being men! Sheesh!

Talk about emasculating!

Sounds like the oligarchy is well on its way to turning Aussies into p*ssies.

Sheesh. What's the world coming to--going to--besides hell.

No, most Aussie males don't need a weapon to feel masculine.

If a skinny weak guy picks up a Colt 45, he isn't any less a skinny weak guy.