Criminals make mockery of Australia's gun ban
Illegal firearms charges spike despite strict laws
Published: 11 hours ago
Australia’s strict gun-control laws are predictably keeping firearms out of the hands of all groups except one: Criminals.
An analysis of official government statistics shows a spike in gun crime over the last decade, particularly in the states of New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania and Victoria. A full ban on many firearms was established in 1996.
“The ban on semi-automatics created demand by criminals for other types of guns. The criminals’ gun of choice today is the semi-automatic pistol,” professor Philip Alpers of the University of Sydney told the New Daily Nov. 10.
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Some of the newspaper’s findings include:
Victoria reported 3645 firearms-related charges, a jump of 85 percent from 2005-2006.
New South Wales reported 3463 firearms charges, up 83 percent on 2005-2006.
South Australia’s 2014 gun possession and trafficking charges spiked 49 percent from 2010-2011.
Tasmania’s 2014 unlawful gun possession charges were up 32 percent from 2005-2006.
“Taken together, the data suggests that despite our tough anti-gun laws, thousands of weapons are either being stolen or entering the country illegally. The fourfold rise in handgun-related charges in NSW in the past decade points to the existence of a big illegal market for concealable firearms that seems to have been underestimated in the past,” the newspaper reported.
A sheriff told the New Daily that gun crimes he tended to handle were linked to “mid-level drug crime.”
Gun control advocates in Australia have a new plan for tackling the problem: Ammunition regulations.
“There is very little regulation of ammunition purchase. In most jurisdictions you can purchase ammunition because you have a firearm license and there is no restriction on the type you can purchase – so if you own a rifle you can still purchase ammunition for a handgun,” said Samantha Lee of Gun Control Australia.
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Associate Professor Philip Alpers, director of Australia’s Center for Armed Violence Reduction, concurred.
“Gun enthusiasts are quite right when they say guns don’t kill – it’s the bullets that kill,” Alpers said, the newspaper reported. “For many years we just focused on the guns and ignored the ammunition that was lying around – now people are starting to realize that ammunition control is just as important.”
Read more at
http://www.wnd.com/2015/11/criminals-make-mockery-of-australias-gun-ban/#Q72YqKkJe2oIiLwo.99
