This, at least, has been on the Internet for quite some time...as evidenced by the fact that the big Australia gun confiscation-slash-buy-back program was enacted in 1996.Huff9337 wrote:It has now been 12 months since gun owners in Australia were forced by new law to surrender 640,381 personal firearms to be destroyed by their own government, a program costing Australia taxpayers more than $500 million dollars. The first year results are now in...
And just like gun control statistics anywhere, there's a lot more than meets the eye. I don't normally reference Wikipedia articles, but the section on measuring the effects of Australia's firearm laws seems at least objective and well-cited: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_politi ... _Australia.
All said and done, my uninformed opinion is that the Australian government has spent almost a billion dollars since 1996, and have nothing measurable to show for it other than ridiculously onerous gun control laws that still don't seem to be able to prevent (surprise!) illegally obtained or illegally imported firearms. About the only thing it looks as if they can claim with authority is that the number handgun thefts (not thefts committed with handguns, but the number of handguns stolen) have decreased dramatically...because illegal handguns will never be reported as stolen (duh), and it's so hard now for a civilian to obtain a handgun legally that they're guarded and locked up as a most-prized possession...and of course they can't really carry the handgun anywhere except to a sporting event where they will be used.
I particularly like this bit:
Yep. Another wise governmental decision.One of the government policies was to compensate shooters for giving up the sport. Approximately 25% of pistol shooters took this offer, and relinquished their licenses and their right to own pistols for sport. This compensated confiscation was criticised by sporting shooters groups. In the state of Victoria $A21 million was spent "buying back" 18,124 firearms, while in the same period Victorians imported 15,184 firearms to replace their confiscated target pistols.
I enjoyed visiting Australia once, but I wouldn't want to live there.
I'll take Texas, thank you, where the same, "It has now been 12 months since gun owners in Australia..." quotation was published January 12, 2001 in the newsletter of the Wise County Sheriff's Department: http://www.sheriff.co.wise.tx.us/cuffns ... -12-01.htm.
