Updated Sat Mar 3, 2012 12:15am AEDT Police say highway patrolman Senior Constable David Rixon was shot several times outside of a block of flats at Coledale in Tamworth about 8:00am (AEDT) on Friday.
Senior Constable Rixon, who had over 20 years of experience in the force, was taken to Tamworth Hospital for treatment but died soon after.
Another man who was shot is under police guard in hospital undergoing emergency treatment.
AND
Two women taken hostage during an armed hold-up at a Gold Coast pub, in which a police officer was shot and critically injured, are walking detectives through the crime scene.
Plain clothes Senior Constable Damian Leeding, 35, remains in a critical condition in the intensive care unit at Gold Coast Hospital after being shot in the face with a sawn-off shotgun at the Pacific Pines Tavern late last night.
AND
Crews is the first police officer in New South Wales killed while on duty since 2002
Australian Police continued to have a heavy presence in a western Sydney suburb today following a drug raid which resulted in the death of a colleague.
Officers from Middle Eastern Organised Crimes Squad were executing a search warrant when Constable William Crews, 26, was shot in his neck and head.
Read more: http://www.3news.co.nz/Sydney-police-officer-shot-dead/tabid/417/articleID/175231/Default.aspx#ixzz2G4px6jV2
7News : Sydney home sprayed by 'machine gun' fire
News video here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8vlFw9XIcY
I posted the recent stats from Australia upthread, and I never maintained that Australia has no gun deaths at all, so why are you showing me this?
Damian Leeding died btw.
I also made it clear that we have an entirely different culture, our population isn’t as ‘diverse’ as your is in the US and a large portion of the gun deaths included in the stats are suicides and accidents.
Comparing Australian stats with the US is not only futile, in most cases the numbers are quoted quite dishonestly...by US sources. Manipulated to make you feel better maybe?
Stick to the facts.
Crime falling across Australia
4 March 2012
Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Justice Jason Clare today released the Australian Institute of Criminology’s (AIC) annual report into crime trends which shows the crime rates continue to fall across most major categories.
“This is a good result for law enforcement agencies across the country, but we still have a lot more work to do – the recent shootings are proof of that,” Mr Clare said.
“That’s why a couple of weeks ago I announced that the Australian Crime Commission would conduct a National Intelligence Assessment of the illegal firearm market and its links to gang activity in Australia.
“The Federal Government and State and Territory Governments are also working together on nationally consistent legislation to tackle criminal organisations.”
The key statistics in the AIC’s Australian Crime: Facts and Figures report are:
Break-ins have been cut by about half since 1996;
Car theft has dropped by about 61 per cent over the past decade;
The overall number of violent crimes decreased in 2010 except for the offence of kidnapping and abduction;
Of the five categories of violent crime, four recorded a drop in the number of victims between 2009 and 2010 – homicide, assault, sexual assault and robbery;
The most common weapon used in homicide in 2009–10 was a knife. Knives were involved in 39 per cent of all homicides;
Firearms used in 13 per cent of all homicides;
There has been a 27 per cent drop in the number of homicides between 1996 and 2010, with a drop of 11 per cent between 2009 and 2010;
The homicide rate is 1.2 per 100,000 population;
The number of victims of robbery in 2010 is the lowest on record since 1996, with 14,582 victims. Robbery victim numbers peaked in 2001 with 26,591 victims;
Murder and sexual assault occurred most frequently within residential settings - 61 percent of murders occurred in a residential dwelling and 63 percent of sexual assaults occurred in a residential dwelling;
Assault rates decreased from 801 per 100,000 people in 2009 to 766 per 100,000 in 2010;
In 2010, there were 17,757 recorded sexual assaults, down from 18,807 the previous year;
The rate of fraud victimisation dropped by 11 per cent from 2009 to 2011 and, since peaking in 1998-99, has declined by 35 per cent;
In 2009–10, the offending rate for people aged 15 to 19 years was almost four times the rate for all other offenders (6,751 compared with 1,821 offenders per 100,000);
In 2009–10, 2,767 arrests involving heroin were made – an 81 percent decrease in arrests over the past decade;
In 2009–10, cannabis accounted for the highest number of drug-related arrests with 57,170 arrests - an increase of three percent from 2008–09; and
In 2009-10 the number of cocaine arrests increased by 47 per cent rising to 1,244 from 848 in 2008-09 but cocaine arrests remain lower than for any other drug type.
This annual publication is compiled from information provided by sources in each state and territory, and the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
The full report can be accessed online at www.aic.gov.au and a summary of the report’s findings is attached.
The stats quoted include SUICIDE AND ACCIDENTS
http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/current%20series/tandi/261-280/tandi269/view%20paper.html
As previously indicated, the use of firearms to inflict fatal injury declined over the period examined. This decline is most conspicuous in the case of non-handgun firearms (Figure 4), illustrated by a comparing two time periods: 1991-1995 and 1997-2001 (the year 1996 was excluded because of the Port Arthur homicides in which 35 people were killed in an incident involving one offender who used military style firearms, leading to subsequent firearm reforms). The mean number of handgun related deaths between 1991 and 1995 was 28 and the mean number of other firearm related deaths was 371. Between 1997 and 2001 the mean number of handgun related deaths was 39 and the mean number of other firearm related deaths was 210. A comparison between the two time periods reveals that while other firearm related deaths decreased by 43 per cent, handgun related deaths increased by 36 per cent (although care should be exercised when comparing these proportionate changes due to the relatively small number of handgun deaths that occur in Australia each year).
THOSE WHO QUOTE ANY INCREASE IN HOMICIDES BY GUN IN AUSTRALIA APPARENTLY HAVE AN AGENDA.
In total there were 5083 registered deaths attributable to firearms in Australia between 1991 and 2001. Suicides committed with firearms accounted for the majority of these deaths (77%), followed by firearms homicide (15%), firearms accidents (5%), firearms deaths resulting from legal intervention and undetermined deaths (2%). Over the 11 year period the number and rate of firearm related deaths has decreased (Figure 1 and Table 1)
Each time I have provided this information about Australia, it’s interpreted as if I am recommending gun control in the US. I’m not. I just resent the misleading information you are provided with - we are a different country with a different history and culture - and population mix. I think you need to keep your guns, but you also need to stop manipulating our statistics in your arguments.