Guns confiscated in Australia - impact on crime rates & society

Email | March 20, 2005 | Ed Chenel

[freeholland]

From: Ed Chenel, A police officer in Australia

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 3.2 percent, Australia-wide, assaults are up 8.6 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.

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 proves it. 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!

FORWARD TO EVERYONE ON YOUR EMAIL LIST. DON'T BE A MEMBER OF THE SILENT MAJORITY. BE OF THE VOCAL MINORITY WHO WON'T LET THIS HAPPEN IN THE U.S.A

[The Toad]

Hi.

Thanks for the post. I follow the gun issue very closely and these results, sadly, don't surprise me. We are fighting here in the US against the gun-grabbers and have had a fair amount of success in the last few years.

I know that I'm not alone in hoping that you and our other Aussie friends down under eventually turn things around.

Regards,

Tom
(Chicago)

[Vor Lady]

Dasher,

Aren't you in Victoria? Are his numbers good?

[LongElegantLegs]

Thought you might be interested-ping.

[Piscator]

I believe this is an urban legend. Snopes collected this e-mail back in 2001.

http://www.snopes.com/crime/statistics/ausguns.asp

[Read2Know]

John R. Lott Jr. has written several books on the subject of gun statistics. He has proven that when concealed carry permits are denied, murder, burglary and rapes increase. When CC permits are given out more freely, crime actually drops in the affected areas.
The leftists don't give a rat's arse for your personal safety or the safety of your family. They only want to disarm law abiding citizens so they (the illiberals) can more easily impose their authoritarian utopia.

[freeholland]

Larry Elder has made this topic the subject of discussion on many of his syndicated radio talk shows. According to several of his guests, the crime rate in Britain rose exponentially, when Brits were forced to surrender their fire arms.

As one old bumper sticker read: "When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns."

[Aussie Dasher]

I've not seen those numbers, but they don't surprise me.

We've had a BIG gangland war going in Melbourne for the past few years. Crooks dropping like flies.

I have to agree: the gun buy-back scheme has been a total debacle.

[Vor Lady]

Thanks for the answers. I was surprised about the gang comment. I foolishly thought, 'what gangs?'. You said crooks were dropping like flies. Are they killing each other then? My mom always thought we should have given all the gangbangers in Oregon a handgun, locked them all in the Collisium (in Portland) and tell the last one left alive to shut off all the lights on his way out. She called it post-natal abortion. My mom was a liberal but she was pro-life; an inconsistancy I was never able to resolve.

Do most Aussies think that guns are dangerous and shouldn't be kept by 'normal' people?

[Aussie Dasher]

The gang wars have cooled of late - most of them are dead! Not a bad thing, IMO. Of recent times, one of the most dangerous places to be is in Melbourne, standing next to a crime boss. Hit and counter-hit has been the order of the day.

Hmmm, A liberal prolifer. I'll have to give that deep consideration...

Views on guns in Australia vary a great deal. Rural folk have no problems with guns, see them as a part of life. A good many urban dwellers have never been exposed to guns and see them as the cause of all evil. Ignorance is never a good thing. Mind you, that's not to say a lot of people in the cities are not shooters.

[BenLurkin]