Crime Down Under, the results are in.


It has now been more then 1 year since gun owners in Australia were
forced to surrender 640,381 personal firearms to be destroyed, a
program that was reported to cost Australian taxpayers more than $500
million dollars.  Crime statistics are finally coming in so why aren't
the results of this grand liberal experiment to "rid Australia of
dangerous firearms" being promoted by Sarah Brady and Handgun Control
Inc.?

In short, it did not work.

If forced to comment, the anti-gunners will no doubt declare the
experiment a success because the percent of all homicides committed
with firearms decreased from 21% in 1997 to 16% in 1998.  (In a
country the size of Australia this is a decline of 22 actual homicides
per year committed with a firearm, an amount that is not statistically
significant.)  This will simply be more deceit of the kind we have
learned to expect.

According to the Australian government's own data, if you eliminate
the statistical spike from the massacre at Port Arthur in April 1996
which triggered the anti-gun frenzy, the overall homicide rate in
Australia has remained constant for the past 4 years through 1998! 
Furthermore, 50% of all 1998 Australian homicides were committed with
a weapon OTHER then a firearm, and 34% involved no weapon at all!

There is no indication from Australian crime data that this terrible
infringement on citizen rights and massive financial expenditure saved
even one life!

Unlike the Australian homicide rate which has remained constant, from
1995 to 1998 the rate of assaults in Australia increased by 27% and
the rate of robbery increased by 57%! There was NO reduction in
violent crime or improved public safety after eliminating so-called
"dangerous firearms".

If crooks did not have a gun, they apparently used whatever was
available.  In the more densely populated and higher crime areas of
Australia such as New South Wales, robbery with a weapon other than a
firearm increased by 29.7%!  Within metro Sydney, robbery with a
weapon other than firearm skyrocketed to 4 times the national average
and 6 times the NSW state rate.

I don't know about you, but to me getting robbed is still bad and
murdered still means dead no matter what is used in the commission of
the crime.  I prefer the option to defend myself.

A greater percentage of American's own guns so what would a similar
program cost here? Assuming there are certain economies of scale, a
similar program simply adjusted for the greater U.S. population would
cost more then $7 billion!

Australian policy makers and American anti-gun groups should be forced
to explain why no improvement in public "safety" was observed in
Australia after such a monumental effort and expense.  Why if it
failed in Australia would it work in the United States?



Additional information is available at:

http://www.ssaa.org.au/ilasep98.html


The following summary of government report excerpts and sources cited
was provided by:

The Shooters Party www.shootersparty.org.au PO Box 303 Ashfield NSW
2131 02 9686 2396



AUSTRALIAN CRIME STATISTICS SUMMARY 1998-1999

New South Wales: (Source: NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research:
"New South Wales Recorded Crime Statistics, 1998": February 1999) 
period: January 1997 to December 1998

General Comment: "In the 1997 Report, increases were recorded in eight
major categories of offence...  This year (1998), increases have been
recorded in seven categories of offence, and the size of the increase
amongst those categories of offence which are still rising, has in
most cases, diminished significanty..."  "The 1997 report, for
example, revealed a 33 percent increase in robbery with a firearm.  
This year's report shows that this category of offence is now
stable..."

Murder: "No statistically significant upward or downward trend in the
number of murder victims over this period..."

Assault: "There was a statistically significant upward trend for
assault over this period (up by 6.2%)"

Robbery without a weapon and Robbery with a firearm: "There was no
statistically significant upwards or downwards trend for either
robbery without a weapon or robbery with a firearm, during this
period."  "Robbery with a firearm, the least prevalent of the robbery
offences in NSW overall, is again concentrated in the Sydney region.  
Inner Sydney' rate for robbery with a firearm (55.4 per 100,000) was
almost four times as high as the State rate (14.4 per 100,000)"

Robbery with a weapon other than a firearm: "There was a statistically
significant upward trend in the number of recorded incidents of
robbery with a weapon other than firearm (up by 29.7%)."  "The
recorded rate of robbery with a weapon other than a firearm in the
Sydney Statistical Division, during 1998 was more than four times the
rate in country NSW."  "Inner Sydney's rate for robbery with a weapon
other than a firearm (396.4 per 100,000) was almost six times as high
as the State rate (69.2 per 100,000)." "Between 1997 and 1998 sizeable
percentage increases were recorded in the rate of robbery with a
weapon other than a firearm in most geographical areas of NSW,
particularly within the Sydney Statistical Division."


Nationwide: (Source: Australian Institute of Criminology "Australian
Crime Facts and Figures, 1999) Latest of four surveys of "Crime and
Safety in Australia" conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics

General Comment: "This survey, conducted in April 1998, estimated
2.6-million crimes against individuals and their household property in
the previous twelve months..."

Violent Crime: "The rate of assault has increased 27% from 1995 to
1998, while the rate of robbery has increased 57% over the same
period..."  "The rate of both homicide and sexual assault has remained
relatively stable over the six years."

Homicide: "The number of murder and manslaughter victims remained
relatively constant over the four year period.     The exception is
the spike in the murder figures in early 1996; this is due principally
to the massacre at Port Arthur in April 1996..." "The number of
manslaughter victims for the period never exceeded nine in any one
month..."

Weapons used in homicides: "50% of homicides recorded in 1998 were
committed with a weapon other than a firearm and 34% involved no
weapon...." "There was a decrease of almost 30% in the number of
homicides by firearm from 1997 to 1998.   A firearm was used in 54
(16%) homicides in 1998 compared to 76 (21%) in 1997..." "The average
total homicide rate per year for this period was 1.6 per 100,000 total
population, with the average rate for homicide by firearm being 0.5
per 100,000 total population..."

Robbery: "There were 23,778 robbery victims in Australia recorded by
police in 1998 with 127 victims per 100,000 of population.    This
represents an increase of 10.6 percent from the rate in 1997..."  "Of
these, 54% were unarmed robberies, 38% were committed with a weapon
other than a firearm, and 8% were committed with firearms..."