Twenty years after the
Port Arthur Massacre when a lone gunman killed 35 people and wounded 23 more…….
The
Conversation,
27 April 2016:
The 1996 firearm laws
were immediately followed by a
buying spree, as banned rapid-fire rifles and shotguns were replaced with
freshly imported single-shot firearms.
By 1999, civilian gun
imports had dropped to a record low. And most gun dealers closed their doors.
In the years that
followed, gun-buying climbed steadily to new heights. By 2015, the arms trade
had broken
all previous records. Last financial year Australia imported 104,000
firearms.
The million
guns destroyed after Port Arthur have been replaced with 1,026,000 new
ones. And the surge only shows upward momentum.
Twenty-one years after……
News.com.au, 12 October 2017:
THERE is a major
“loophole” in Australia’s gun laws which allows for private arsenals with
hundreds of guns and owners to “buy their first ... or 310th gun”.
Tighter restrictions on
gun ownership — including a compulsory requirement to show “genuine reason” for
owning each firearm — were introduced in 1996 following the Port Arthur
massacre.
But the number of
weapons that can be owned by an individual have since been weakened in various
states and are not exclusively capped.
NSW Greens spokesman
David Shoebridge said “a loophole in NSW’s gun laws allows private individuals
to use the same reason to buy their 1st, 10th or 310th gun” and that Australia
faces another mass shooting if the national approach to gun control isn’t
tightened.
“A 20-year review of gun
laws enacted after the Port Arthur Massacre in 1996 did not even look at
capping the number of guns that can be owned by one individual,” he said.
“We are seeing private
arsenals being built up in our major capital cities ...(and) suburbia.”
NSW Police figures for
private firearm ownership obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show
there are 31 private arsenals across Sydney with 73 to 305 guns each.
“Of the top 100 private
arsenals with the most guns, 31 are in Sydney,” Mr Shoebridge said.
“These gun owners are
not collectors or arms dealers but private individuals who have been allowed to
amass private arsenals.
“It is inevitable that
some of these private arsenals with end up in the hands of criminals.
“This really isn’t a
question of mere politics it is a question of life and death.”
Almost 22 years later……
ABC
News, 1 March
2018:
Thousands of automatic
rifles, handguns and a rocket launcher are among the weapons handed in during
last year's National Firearms Amnesty.
The final results,
released today, show 57,324 firearms were handed in between July and September
across Australia to be registered or destroyed.
Authorities received
around 2,500 fully-automatic or semi-automatic guns that were previously
unaccounted for, and 2,900 handguns.
The rocket launcher was
handed in to a licensed firearms dealer in Queensland, who believes it was once
recovered at a local tip.
New South Wales received
the highest number of firearms at 24,831, followed by Queensland on 16,375.
Victorians handed in 9,175 guns.
Almost a third of the
weapons were destroyed, with the rest either registered and handed back, or
passed on to a licensed dealer for resale.
Federal Minister for Law
Enforcement Angus Taylor said the weapons were no longer on the "grey
market", which refers to guns that are not registered and not in the hands
of criminals.
"It's critical to
get them off this grey market … so they don't end up in the black market,"
he said.
Despite the evidence
before his eyes Home Affairs tsar Peter Dutton is apparently considering
expanding the political power of the Australian gun lobby – à la U.S. National Rifle
Association……
The
Guardian, 15
March 2018:
The home affairs
minister, Peter
Dutton, is considering establishing a committee to allow gun importers to
review proposed changes to firearm regulations for “appropriateness and
intent”.
Following a meeting with
a pro-gun lobbyist in February, Dutton is weighing up whether to establish a
so-called “firearms advisory council”, which the gun lobby says would give it
“a seat at the table” to advise the government on firearms policy.
Last month Dutton met
with officials from Nioa, one of Australia’s largest gun dealers, and members
of the shooting lobby to discuss the council.
Nioa is run by Robert
Nioa, a major political donor to his father-in-law, the federal MP Bob Katter.
He is also a director of the firearms industry lobbying group Shooting Industry
Foundation of Australia, or Sifa.
Sifa’s other directors
include the general manager of Winchester Australia, Clive Pugh and the
managing director of Beretta Australia, Luca Scribani Rossi.
The group donated
to Liberal and National MPs in the lead-up to the 2016 federal
election and pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into a campaign that helped
minor rightwing parties gain votes in last year’s Queensland state
election.
Held at Nioa’s company
headquarters in Brisbane, the meeting was attended by Laura Patterson, Sifa’s
communications and research officer, and Nioa official David Briggs.
Robert Nioa was not at the meeting.
In a video posted by
Sifa on social media, Patterson said the meeting was aimed at “formalising” the
establishment of a “firearms advisory council”.
In the video, which
included an image of the department’s logo, Patterson said the council would
“establish a mechanism for expert government to industry consultation” and
would allow Sifa to “review proposed regulatory changes for efficiency,
appropriateness and intent”.
BACKGROUND
Australian Government, Australian
Institute of Health and Welfare, 2017:
Rates of firearm-related
injuries for both hospitalised cases and deaths fell between 1999–00 and
2005–06 from a starting rate of 2 cases per 100,000 population to 1.5 per
100,000 for hospitalised cases and 1 per 100,000 for deaths in 2013–14 (Figure
6).
Rates for hospitalised
cases were relatively steady from 2005–06 onwards, while rates for deaths
continued to fall:
* The fall in rates for
hospitalised cases in the early part of the period was mainly attributable to a
decline in unintentional cases, from 221 to 105, between 1999–00 and 2005–06.
* The fall in rates for
deaths over the entire period was mainly attributable to a decline in
intentional self-harm (suicide) cases, from 236 to 166, between 1999–00 and
2012–13.
The rate of firearm
suicide by males was about 6 to 7 per 100,000 population annually for about 30
years, to the late 1980s.
The rate then declined
to less than 1 per 100,000 by 2011 (Figure 7). A similar pattern was seen for
females, although rates were much lower.
