Recent statistics show a rise in gun ownership despite tight gun control laws having been in force for the best part of a decade. The number of firearms has risen something like 25% in the last 3 years.

Nationwide, the proportion of robberies involving weapons is the same as it was in 1996, while the proportion of abductions involving weapons is higher, the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics fiures reveal. They show a mixed result in firearms-related offences since the mid-1990s. There has been a fall in firearms murders (from 32 to 13 per cent) but a rise (19 to 23 per cent) in attempted murders involving guns.

Of course, what this is telling us is that criminals will still get hold of firearms, and use them in their work. The gun controls have largely impacted the law abiding citizenry. However what they were largely aimed at doing is stopping some nutcase, like Martin Bryant, acting on impulse and going out killing masses of people ….such as the 35 people killed at Port Arthur. Yes, there are still nutcases, and they still commit violent acts, but the damage one can do on impulse with a knife or a baseball bat or similar is much less than what could be done with an assault rifle.

Why do people need to own guns at all? I reckon that the only place they should be allowed is at a rifle range under the control of a shooting club. And, I would have them stored not in people’s homes but at an armoury facility at the local police station, having to be signed in and out each time they are used.

As for criminals getting hold of guns, I think it should be an offence to carry a gun in public, punishable by 5 years or more in prison. For any crime committed using a gun, the penalty should be double what it would otherwise be, or something like that. (I’m also disturbed when people commit crimes with knives, and I’d gaol people for carrying them in public if I was the government).

At least Australia’s gun problems pale into insignificance compared to the crazy situation in the USA. How out of step with the rest of the world are the Americans when loonies such as the NRA have such a huge influence in politics? How can any civilised country actually believe that it is a good thing to have vast numbers of guns, including military grade weapons, in the hands of its citizens? Folks, it’s not the wild west anymore!

Look at these statistics on gun murders :

1. South Africa 31,918 (2000)
2. Colombia 21,898 (2000)
3. Thailand 20,032 (2000)
4. United States 8,259 (1999)
5. Mexico 3,589 (2000)
6. Zimbabwe 598 (2000)
7. Germany 384 (2000)
8. Belarus 331 (2000)
9. Czech Republic 213 (2000)
10. Ukraine 173 (2000)

You can see how the USA with its 300 million or so people, kills over 8,000 in a single year due to its obsession with guns, and the ease with which just about any nutcase can own them (and the correlation between gun fanaticism and number and power of guns and degree of headcase that the person is, is astounding).

Compare that with the more civilised countries such as:

20. United Kingdom 62 (1999)
21. Australia 59 (2000)

and

29. Denmark 14 (2000)
30. Ireland 12 (1999)
31. Slovenia 12 (2000)
32. New Zealand 7 (2000)

and the difference is amazing. Australia with 20m people has a gun murder rate that would see about 900 murders if it had the same population as the USA - that is, about 1/9 of the number in the US. Even the 50 or so murders we do have is enough to concern people - imagine the cries for action if it was at the same rate as America’s.

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