Ya Think?

Source: smh

Buyback has no effect on murder rate

HALF a billion dollars spent buying back hundreds of thousands of guns after the Port Arthur massacre had no effect on the homicide rate, says a study published in an influential British journal.

The report by two Australian academics, published in the British Journal of Criminology, said statistics gathered in the decade since Port Arthur showed gun deaths had been declining well before 1996 and the buyback of more than 600,000 mainly semi-automatic rifles and pump-action shotguns had made no difference in the rate of decline.

The only area where the package of Commonwealth and State laws, known as the National Firearms Agreement (NFA) may have had some impact was on the rate of suicide, but the study said the evidence was not clear and any reductions attributable to the new gun rules were slight.

"Homicide patterns (firearm and non-firearm) were not influenced by the NFA, the conclusion being that the gun buyback and restrictive legislative changes had no influence on firearm homicide in Australia," the study says.

Can we please, for the love of god, finally drive a stake into the notion that ANYTHING the state does regarding firearms other than keeping their GD hands off is a good thing? This I didn't know...

In his first year in office, the Prime Minister, John Howard, forced through some of the world's toughest gun laws, including the national buyback scheme, after Martin Bryant used semi-automatic rifles to shoot dead 35 people at Port Arthur.

And this is why these types of emotion driven, feel good laws are almost always a mistake (Megan's law being a notable contrarian example IMHO). Note to all governments, citizens appreciate being treated like responsible adults who can be trusted, as 99% or so can, as opposed to being treated like criminals in waiting.

Just a thought.

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