Backyard Aquaponics
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I recently read an article that said that the Oz's crime rates are up significantly since the government took your guns away. This is a hot topic here as well. A lot of the left leaning think that taking guns away will decrease crime and reduce shootings. What are the real statistics there?

The crime rates would be the same, it's just everybody would have guns, and they'd shoot each other instead of beating each other up. Plus, you're 80% more likely to kill yourself with a gun than to kill an intruder with a gun.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_c ... death_rate

But the proper criminals (not the stupid kids in a low income area/druggies) are still going to have guns, bikies, and those types. It's just the husband that walks in on his wife sleeping with another guy isn't going to shoot him, her, then top himself.

If I wanted a gun, I could go and get a license, and buy a handgun/rifle. Why on earth somebody would need an assult rifle is beyond me though.

Language warning on that one.

+1 columnmn
We've never been able to carry a concealed weapon either. Currently many crimes are drug related, ice being the biggest offender.
Don't need a gun to settle a dispute.

We have disputes with ferals here - rabbits, cats, foxes and pigs, and I find that the .22magnum settles those disputes quite well

In any case, I suggest you read this Chris:
http://www.snopes.com/crime/statistics/ausguns.asp

I'm not so sure that there's any link between crime rates and firearms as such...

In Australia, we've never had the US attitude towards everyone's 'right' to bear arms so there's always been fewer firearms in the community as a whole.

That said when the Port Arthur incident happened it all changed and seems to be demonised. If you read into the conspiracy theories you might be concerned that this was a setup but we'll never ever truly know. We could say that about a whole range of things concerning .......shadow govts, music/movie industry, freemasons as the list goes on.

So I'd agree with the below from Colum - the crime rate would be no different.

Furthermore those with dark intentions are going to get their hands on illegal firearms so having strict laws around their control is largely pointless.

On top of that the laws are very inconsistent, both within State law between levels of licence but then also between states overall.

For example - there are 'main' 4 categories for firearm ownership. A/B being the easier level to get, C/D being much harder.

Under the basic A licence, you'll need this just to buy a paintball gun or say a 22. B licence covers slightly above that as far as centrefire goes. Interestingly, pump action shot guns are a no go - but you can get a pump action 223.....interesting.

What blows me away is there are no regulations around the ownership of compound bows. Cross bows are pretty much completely illegal. However you can get an air rifle that shoots arrows under an A licence...but cross bows are worse? Go figure.

Furthermore, we can’t have Airsoft type guns/games/businesses because they ‘simulate’ war games and no doubt would be scruitinised heavily under anti terror laws (what a joke) – but then playing paintball is completely legit. Heck I grew up on a farm playing 'gun games' with the other kids so lets ban Nerf guns while we're at it.

I really don’t understand why our government allows these inconsistencies. No air soft because it’s training future terrorists, but paint ball is AOK? What the hell is the difference...??

Ok I know what it is – Airsoft uses replica type weapons and that’s the contentious issue at play. Even if you have an A/B licence, any firearm that has a model name that sounds like a replica – banned.

Anything that remotely looks like a replica – banned. Still, from what I’ve found out, Airsoft is mainly banned due to the war games scenario but again, I must be stupid, because I don’t understand why Paintball doesn’t fall under the same hammer.

Again, very inconsistent.



Hand guns are very difficult to get > granted not impossible but require extended waiting times, physc tests etc. I’m not even sure if then you’re able to legally store them or whether they have to be stored within a licenced gun club?

I don’t think saying ‘why anyone would need an assault rifle’ is a legitimate argument. Again with the gumment being touchy on things that look dangerous (LOL) lets categorise them as Semi auto + automatic firearms.
Yes, there are legimate ‘needs’ for these types of weapons – further more and going back to inconsistencies, you can get a semi auto air rifle on an A licence but need a C-D licence for .22 and above SA/Auto’s.

Ever spent some time on a property with a serious rabbit problem (and lets face it Australia is/has always been plagued with them) then a semi auto is minimum – even just a 22. I did some shooting as a youngster on a farm near Tullabejeal (West Wyalong) and we were cleaning up 40+ rabbits every night. A semi auto would've made that task a whole lot easier but we're made to feel like criminals for wanting access to these.

/sigh.....sorry probably doesn't answer the OP and not a topic I should debate haha

I've a got a friend who is an economist and this is one of the topics he writes about quite frequently.

Apparently crimes rates generally are down and trending down. Gun related crimes and deaths unsurprisingly went down a lot due to the reduced numbers of guns in the community. In some areas there is an increased incidence of gun related crimes and there is good evidence that the number of illegal fire arms is increasing.

Thanks for some interesting comments. This is another view:http://crimepreventionresearchcenter.org/2013/12/murder-and-homicide-rates-before-and-after-gun-bans/
Colum, the video was entertaining and brought up some good points. I still believe in the old: “An armed man is a citizen. An unarmed man is a subject.”

I find it disturbing that you can't have an airsoft play gun as well. When I was in high school, we used to hunt in the woods by our house. We were once surprised to find "our woods" were full of soldiers running around with guns. We hid and watched them as they were having war exercises. Their guns were actually CO2 markers, and were the precursor to modern paintball guns. So, the "terrorist training" logic kind of takes a hit. All I know is the more the government gets involved...with anything, the worse it gets. Business, education, insurance- all go down hill when the Feds get involved. In our ever left leaning P.C. world here, people are so afraid to offend anyone, that they take the rights away from the majority, to please the minority. Having a huge deal now with the Confederate flag. In the South, we lost more men in that war then all others combined, and direct ancestors of these men are living here today. Because 1 nutcase had a picture of him with a Confederate flag, now they are trying to ban the flag. Like the flag was the reason that he went into a church and shot those people. Good God, what reasoning.There are networks that have dropped TV shows that displayed a Dodge Charger with a rebel flag on it's roof. Really sad to see how far this PC crap is going. If your offended by the flag, you don't have to buy it or fly it, but why should you be able to tell someone else they can't buy it? Goes against the freedoms this country was founded on. I do know that here, the cities that have the strictest gun control laws also have the highest violent crime rates. It's the old criminals will always have guns, but citizens won't be able to protect themselves.

Here's the total number of gun deaths per year in Australia from 1979 to 2012 showing a steady downtrend. Port Arthur occurred in 1996 and the gun buyback soon after, but the trend was well underway by then. Curious, I wonder why people aren't shooting each other as much as they used to ?
http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/australia

Here's the total number of gun deaths per year in Australia from 1979 to 2012 showing a steady downtrend. Port Arthur occurred in 1996 and the gun buyback soon after, but the trend was well underway by then. Curious, I wonder why people aren't shooting each other as much as they used to ?

http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/australia

Man I really don't get the whole US crazy about guns thing.... Love the Jim Jeffries video, watched it a couple of times now and he sums it up pretty well I reckon..

The problem with gun control is that it doesn't work. if you look at statistics here, you'll find that the cities with the strictest gun control laws have HIGHER crime rates then those with less. People who are going to commit crimes are not going to comply with the gun laws, just like they don't comply with any other laws. A majority of people here feel that it is our right, under the Constitution to have guns if we so choose. Like all the other government "controls" that don't work, this one won't work either. Background screenings and more importantly, firearm education would do far more to reduce accidental gun deaths then removing firearms from law abiding citizens. Most of the people I know grew up with guns, and were taught basic firearm safety at a young age. Most of our gun accidents here are from sheer stupidity. People leaving a loaded weapon accessible to children, "shooting" at people with "unloaded weapons", etc. You can't regulate stupidity and ignorance. Lord knows we are trying, but sadly, it won't work.

Yeah yeah, that's the standard mantra from the pro-gun lobby...
I don't want to get into yet another one of these debates, there have been enough on the forum over the years, and it's been done to death... All I have to say is.... What Jim said...

facts are facts.http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/201 ... n-control/
Every single city in the US that has strict gun control laws has MORE crime then those who don't. Explain how more gun control will reverse that trend.