Post by cupofjoe on Dec 14, 2006 8:02:36 GMT -8
I thought that this was interesting:
www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,20926083-5005961,00.html
Gun buyback cuts suicides, massacres
From correspondents in Paris
December 14, 2006 11:42am
The Federal Government's weapons buyback scheme has dramatically ended gun massacres and sharply reduced the number of overall firearms deaths, a study has found.
The initiative was launched in 1996 within days of the Port Arthur massacre in Tasmania by gunman Martin Bryant, who used semi-automatic weapons during his killing spree.
Under the new law, the Government banned semi-automatics and pump-action rifles and shotguns and offered to buy these weapons from gunowners, using a levy on income tax.
Tens of thousands of gunowners also voluntarily surrendered non-prohibited weapons, without compensation.
In all, more than 700,000 guns were destroyed in a country with a population of 12 million adults.
Looking back at the effects that this measure has had over the past decade, Australian public-health experts said the benefits had been enormous.
In the 18 years prior to the Port Arthur massacre, Australia experienced 13 mass shootings and there has been none since then.
The rate of homicides, suicides and fatal accidents involving firearms had been declining in the 18 years preceding the new gun law.
After that, the decline doubled, with the biggest fall occurring among the tally of suicides.
"Removing large numbers of firearms from a community can be associated with a sudden and ongoing decline in mass shootings and accelerating declines in total firearm-related deaths, firearm homicides and firearm suicides,'' the report, published in Injury Prevention, a journal of the British Medical Association, said.
The University of Sydney's School of Public Health, professor Simon Chapman, was the lead author of the study.
www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,20926083-5005961,00.html
Gun buyback cuts suicides, massacres
From correspondents in Paris
December 14, 2006 11:42am
The Federal Government's weapons buyback scheme has dramatically ended gun massacres and sharply reduced the number of overall firearms deaths, a study has found.
The initiative was launched in 1996 within days of the Port Arthur massacre in Tasmania by gunman Martin Bryant, who used semi-automatic weapons during his killing spree.
Under the new law, the Government banned semi-automatics and pump-action rifles and shotguns and offered to buy these weapons from gunowners, using a levy on income tax.
Tens of thousands of gunowners also voluntarily surrendered non-prohibited weapons, without compensation.
In all, more than 700,000 guns were destroyed in a country with a population of 12 million adults.
Looking back at the effects that this measure has had over the past decade, Australian public-health experts said the benefits had been enormous.
In the 18 years prior to the Port Arthur massacre, Australia experienced 13 mass shootings and there has been none since then.
The rate of homicides, suicides and fatal accidents involving firearms had been declining in the 18 years preceding the new gun law.
After that, the decline doubled, with the biggest fall occurring among the tally of suicides.
"Removing large numbers of firearms from a community can be associated with a sudden and ongoing decline in mass shootings and accelerating declines in total firearm-related deaths, firearm homicides and firearm suicides,'' the report, published in Injury Prevention, a journal of the British Medical Association, said.
The University of Sydney's School of Public Health, professor Simon Chapman, was the lead author of the study.
