You Don’t Say?

The Geek w/a 45 points out some information that will surprise none here.

Though it will make the gun bigots claim false data

Buyback has no effect on murder rate

Half a billion dollars spent buying back hundreds of thousands of guns after the Port Arthur massacre had no effect on the homicide rate, says a study published in an influential British journal.

The report by two Australian academics, published in the British Journal of Criminology, said statistics gathered in the decade since Port Arthur showed gun deaths had been declining well before 1996 and the buyback of more than 600,000 mainly semi-automatic rifles and pump-action shotguns had made no difference in the rate of decline.

The only area where the package of Commonwealth and State laws, known as the National Firearms Agreement (NFA) may have had some impact was on the rate of suicide, but the study said the evidence was not clear and any reductions attributable to the new gun rules were slight.

“Homicide patterns (firearm and non-firearm) were not influenced by the NFA, the conclusion being that the gun buyback and restrictive legislative changes had no influence on firearm homicide in Australia,” the study says.

OMFG! Are they actually saying that criminals doen’t care about gun laws? Why yes, I do believe they are.

Hello, and welcome to the real world, Brady Campaign and VPC. We would like to say good day to you and that no, just because the people are in a different country doesn’t mean you should try it here.

John Howard, while a good and intelligent man in almost every measurable respect, bowed to public pressure and was possibly struck by a severe lack of IQ in the building, most likely caused by screaming gun bigots.

In his first year in office, the Prime Minister, John Howard, forced through some of the world’s toughest gun laws, including the national buyback scheme, after Martin Bryant used semi-automatic rifles to shoot dead 35 people at Port Arthur.

And what did the gun owning community do? Other than tell Mr. Howard the results of his folly ten years in advance? They just sort of registered their weapons. They’re law abiding.

Although furious licensed gun-owners said the laws would have no impact because criminals would not hand in their guns, Mr Howard and others predicted the removal of so many guns from the community, and new laws making it harder to buy and keep guns, would lead to a reduction in all types of gun-related deaths.

Law abiding gun owners: 1

Gun Bigots: 0

And now for the field goal

Politicians had assumed tighter gun laws would cut off the supply of guns to would-be criminals and that homicide rates would fall as a result, the study said. But more than 90 per cent of firearms used to commit homicide were not registered, their users were not licensed and they had been unaffected by the firearms agreement.

Make that 2 points for the law abiding gun owners.

I eagerly await the apology of the Australian government, though I think I’ll be able to climb a ladder to the moon before that happens.