List Archives

Thu Apr 19 13:17:24 BST 2007

Dear Julian
I am sorry that is incorrect.

Since the tightening of guns laws in Australia in 1996, the homicide rate
associated wih guns decreased the following year.

I quote you a few figures below.

"Twelve days after 35 people were shot dead by a single gunman in Tasmania,
Australia's state and federal governments agreed to enact wide-ranging new
gun control laws to curb firearm-related death and injury. Between July 1996
and August 1998, the new restrictions were brought into force. Since that
time, key indicators for gun-related death and crime have shown encouraging
results.

Firearm-Related Homicide

"There was a decrease of almost 30% in the number of homicides by firearms
from 1997 to 1998."

-- Australian Crime - Facts and Figures 1999. Australian Institute of
Criminology. Canberra, Oct 1999

This report shows that as gun ownership has been progressively restricted
since 1915, Australia's firearm homicide rate per 100,000 population has
declined to almost half its 85-year average.

Homicide by Any Method

The overall rate of homicide in Australia has also dropped to its lowest
point since 1989 (National Homicide Monitoring Program, 1997-98 data). It
remains one-fourth the homicide rate in the USA.

The Institute of Criminology report Australian Crime - Facts and Figures
1999 includes 1998 homicide data showing "a 9% decrease from the rate in
1997." This is the period in which most of the country's new gun laws came
into force.

Gun-Related Death by Any Cause

The Australian Bureau of Statistics counts all injury deaths, whether or not
they are crime-related. The most recently available ABS figures show a total
of 437 firearm-related deaths (homicide, suicide and unintentional) for
1997. This is the lowest number for 18 years.

The Australian rate of gun death per 100,000 population remains one-fifth
that of the United States.

"We have observed a decline in firearm-related death rates (essentially in
firearm-related suicides) in most jurisdictions in Australia. We have also
seen a declining trend in the percentage of robberies involving the use of
firearms in Australia."

-- Mouzos, J. Firearm-related Violence: The Impact of the Nationwide
Agreement on Firearms. Trends & Issues in Crime & Criminal Justice No. 116.
Australian Institute of Criminology. Canberra, May 1999; 6

Assault and Robbery

Those who claim that Australia suffered a "crime wave" as a result of new
gun laws often cite as evidence unrelated figures for common assault or
sexual assault (no weapon) and armed robbery (any weapon). In fact less than
one in five Australian armed robberies involve a firearm.

"Although armed robberies increased by nearly 20%, the number of armed
robberies involving a firearm decreased to a six-year low."

-- Recorded Crime, Australia, 1998. Australian Bureau of Statistics, Jun
1999

Firearm-Related Crime in Tasmania

"A declining firearm suicide rate, a declining firearm assault rate, a
stable firearm robbery rate with a declining proportion of robberies
committed with a firearm and a declining proportion of damage to property
offences committed with a firearm suggest that firearm regulation has been
successful in Tasmania."

-- Warner, Prof K. Firearm Deaths and Firearm Crime After Gun Licensing in
Tasmania. Australian Institute of Criminology, 3rd National Outlook
Symposium on Crime in Australia. Canberra, 22-23 Mar 1999.

Curbing Gun Proliferation in Australia

In the 1996-97 Australian gun buy-back, two-thirds of a million
semi-automatic and pump-action rifles and shotguns were sold to the
government at market value. Thousands more gun owners volunteered their
firearms for free, and nearly 700,000 guns were destroyed.

By destroying one-seventh of its estimated stock of firearms (the equivalent
figure in the USA would be 30 million), Australia has significantly altered
the composition of its civilian arsenal.

In addition, all remaining guns must be individually registered to their
licensed owners, private firearm sales are no longer permitted and each gun
purchase through a licensed arms dealer is scrutinised by police to
establish a "genuine reason" for ownership. Possession of guns for
self-defence is specifically prohibited, and very few civilians are
permitted to own a handgun. All the nation's governments, police forces and
police unions support the current gun laws.

Other Countries

Similar reductions in gun death and injury have been noted in several
countries whose gun controls have been recently tightened.

In Canada, where new gun laws were introduced in 1991 and 1995, the number
of gun deaths has reached a 30-year low.

Two years ago in the United Kingdom, civilian handguns were banned, bought
back from their owners and destroyed. In the year following the law change,
Scotland recorded a 17% drop in all firearm-related offences. The British
Home Office reports that in the nine months following the handgun ban,
firearm-related offences in England and Wales dropped by 13%.

A British citizen is still 50 times less likely to be a victim of gun
homicide than an American.

Sources: http://www.aic.gov.au/stats/facts99/

http://www.statistics.gov.au/ (see media release 68/99, 16 Jun 1999)

http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/tandi/tandi116.html

http://www.aic.gov.au/conferences/outlook99/warner.pdf

Philip Alpers, gun policy researcher

Auckland & San Francisco.

All gun deaths, be they homicides, suicides or unintentional shootings, have
decreased from a total of 521 in 1996 to 437 in 1997. This figure of 437 gun
deaths is the lowest number in 18 years (1)".

In 2001 the suicides due to guns was 267, in 2005 it was 147.
Death by assault with firearm in 2001 was 47, in 2005 it was 19.

This is a public health problem for the USA

Regards
Tony Joseph

On 19/4/07 8:08 AM, "Julian Guitron, M.D." <julianguitronmd at yahoo.com>
wrote:

> Tony Joseph,
> 
> 10 years have gone by... I've heard that overall crime
> rate has exploded up to 300% since the tighter gun
> control. Now good people don't have guns, only the
> criminals!
> 
> Is this correct?
> 
> Julian Guitron M.D.
> Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital
> 
> 
>>> 
>>     Dear Ken
>> 
>>     Sorry but I did try to restrain myself from
>> commenting.
>> 
>>     While I agree that there is  need for more
>> mental health facilities
>>     worldwide, I doubt if it would have helped the
>> disturbed young man in
>>     Virginia ( according to reports here he was a
>> loner and wrote worrying
>> plays
>>     in creative writing classes about killing fellow
>> students and a 
>> professor).
>> 
>>     Anyway, the point is that he was able to
>> purchase 2 semi-automatic hand
>> guns
>>     and kill 32 young people whatever the state of
>> his mind.
>> 
>>     USA has 4% of the world's population and 50% of
>> the firearms- surely
>> injury
>>     prevention measures ( and common sense)  should
>> be applied as in any
>> other
>>     trauma situation.
>> 
>>     As I said previously when we had a similar
>> incident here in Australia
>> with
>>     35 killed in Tasmania over 10 years ago, our
>> Prime Minister to his
>> credit
>>     changed the gun laws overnight with the
>> cooperation of our States making
>> it
>>     much more difficult to buy guns and virtually
>> impossible to buy an
>> handgun
>>     as a private citizen.
>> 
>>     If this group can't change the culture and the
>> constitution in your
>> country,
>>     who can?
>> 
>>     Regards
>>     Tony Joseph
>>     Sydney
>> 
>> 
> 
> __________________________________________________
> Do You Yahoo!?
> Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
> http://mail.yahoo.com
> --
> trauma-list : TRAUMA.ORG
> To change your settings or unsubscribe visit:
> http://www.trauma.org/index.php?/community/

List Archives

For your convenience, find the Trauma List Archive Below

Australia and Gun control...