Since 1996, the number and rate of homicides - defined as murder and manslaughter - has fallen. In 2002, Australia further tightened gun laws, restricting the caliber, barrel length and capacity for sport shooting handguns. One study says that the program reduced the number of guns in private hands by 20 percent. In all, more than 700,000 weapons were surrendered, according to a Library of Congress report on Australian gun policy. It also instituted a mandatory buyback program for firearms banned by the 1996 law.ĭuring the buyback program, Australians sold 640,000 prohibited firearms to the government, and voluntarily surrendered about 60,000 non-prohibited firearms. Under the 1996 law, Australia banned certain semi-automatic, self-loading rifles and shotguns, and imposed stricter licensing and registration requirements. In that incident, a 28-year-old man, armed with a semi-automatic rifle, shot and killed 35 people, and injured 18 others, in what was known as the Port Arthur Massacre. In 1996, Australia passed the National Firearms Agreement after a mass shooting in Tasmania in April of that year. He killed nearly 60 people and wounded more than 500 others. We thought it was time to update our 2009 article on Australian gun laws, because that story - which is now more than eight years old - has seen a sudden spike in traffic as a result of the horrific gun massacre at an outdoor country music concert in Las Vegas.Īs reported by the New York Times, the gunman, Stephen Craig Paddock, 64, used semi-automatic weapons outfitted with a “bump stock” device that allowed him to quickly fire multiple rounds at concertgoers from his luxury suite on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. The current homicide incidence rate is the lowest on record in the past 25 years.” In fact, the most recent government report on crime trends in Australia says, “Homicide in Australia has declined over the last 25 years. In 2009, we wrote an Ask FactCheck item for readers who wanted to know, “Did gun control in Australia lead to more murders there last year?” The answer at the time was “no,” and that’s still the case.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |