The 'Perfect Storm' of Gun Control: From Policy Inertia to World Leader (original) (raw)
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Guns and massacres: the politics of firearms control in Australia
20 years after the Port Arthur massacre how should we view the measures taken at that time to control the availability of firearms in Australia? This chapter from a new volume on violence in Australia considers the 1996 National Firearms Agreement in the context of a longer history of firearms regulation and the research debate over the effectiveness of the agreement in curtailing firearms violence
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Analytical Essay GUN CONTROL IN AUSTRALIA: A CRIMINOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
2015
In recent months there has been an upsurge in contributions to the popular press from social commentators insisting that guns make our nation safer. This essay questions these assertions. The paper provides evidence to support a contrary affirmation: that is, in order to have a reduction in gun violence, there needs to be a reduction in the number of guns generally, and a continuation of the legal controls that currently shape firearms policy in Australia.
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2006
"Results: In the 18 years before the gun law reforms, there were 13 mass shootings in Australia, and none in the 10.5 years afterwards. Declines in firearm-related deaths before the law reforms accelerated after the reforms for total firearm deaths, firearm suicides and firearm homicides, but not for the smallest category of unintentional firearm deaths, which increased. No evidence of substitution effect for suicides or homicides was observed. The rates per 100 000 of total firearm deaths, firearm homicides and firearm suicides all at least doubled their existing rates of decline after the revised gun laws. Conclusions: Australia’s 1996 gun law reforms were followed by more than a decade free of fatal mass shootings, and accelerated declines in firearm deaths, particularly suicides. Total homicide rates followed the same pattern. Removing large numbers of rapid-firing firearms from civilians may be an effective way of reducing mass shootings, firearm homicides and firearm suicides. "
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Finnane, M. Guns and massacres (Stubbs & Tomsen 2016)
Australian Violence: Crime, Criminal Justice and Beyond, 2016
Nearly two decades after the event, the Port Arthur massacre looms so large in the national imagination that it remains still a threshold moment in Australian responses to gun violence. Without even considering the effectiveness of the subsequent statutory controls, including the gun buy-back, the impact of the massacre is notable for the very politics that made possible a national approach to the regulation of firearms. This impact attracts notice precisely because a unified national approach had been on the political agenda since the early 1970s, but impossible to achieve. Indeed a unified national approach was something which had been advocated by Australian police leaders since the 1920s. As an exercise in the capacity of government to develop a highly interventionist program aimed at the prevention of violence the inter-governmental agreement for unified firearm control laws commands attention.
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Association Between Gun Law Reforms and Intentional Firearm Deaths in Australia, 1979-2013
2016
Key Points Question: What happened to the trend in firearm deaths after Australia introduced extensive gun law reform in 1996, including a ban on semiautomatic rifles and pump-action shotguns? Findings: In the 18years before the ban, there were 13 mass shootings, whereas in the 20 years following the ban, no mass shootings occurred, and the decline in total firearm deaths accelerated. Meaning: Implementation of a ban on rapid-fire firearms was associated with reductions in mass shootings and total firearm deaths.
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Gun-related Deaths: How Australia Stepped Off ‘The American Path.’
2013
Australia and the United States share many characteristics. Both are English-speaking democracies of multicultural immigrants. The two nations have been allies for nearly a century. Australians and Americans consume similar diets of movies, video games, popular music, recreational drugs, and alcohol. Both have vast interiors, early histories of armed European settlers mistreating native populations, plenty of feral pests to shoot, and many firearm enthusiasts. Yet the 2 countries differ dramatically on the issue of gun violence. The U.S. population is 13.7 times larger than that of Australia, but it has 134 times the number of total firearm-related deaths (31 672 vs. 236 in 2010) and 27 times the rate of firearm homicide (11 078 [3.6 per 100 000] vs. 30 [0.13 per 100 000] in 2010) (1).
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