Gun Control & RKBA
In reply to the discussion: I have a question you guys can answer [View all]jimmy the one
(2,712 posts)armmueller: May 1996, Australia banned most semi-automatic rifles and semi-automatic and pump shotguns. Prior to this law, many Australian states and territories had firearms registration. Owners of these newly outlawed firearms were required to surrender them (with some monetary compensation).. Roughly 600,000 of an estimated 4 million Australian guns have been surrendered to authorities and destroyed.
And firearm murder rates & firearm suicide rates in oz have fallen significantly since the buyback. The aussie gun buyback 96/97 was done with widespread public approval in response to the mass shooting at port arthur australia; wiki: The buyback was predicted to cost A$500 million and had wide community support
Australians generally agreed with PM howard & the guncontrol policy worked well thru the years. You pick a bad example to argue registration & confiscation, the buyback was compulsory but also had widespread approval.
armmueller: "Since 1921, all lawfully-owned handguns in Great Britain are registered with the government, so handgun owners have little choice but to surrender their guns in exchange for payment according to government schedule...The handgun ban by no means has satiated the anti-gun appetite in Great Britain."
I suppose you have a point with the last sentence - they do not care much for guns overall, but do recall (similar to Oz) the 1997 british handgun ban was in response to a mass shooting at dunblane, with kids involved, and the ban has widespread support same as buyback in australia.
Stricter guncontrol has solid majority support in america too, especially after mass shootings, the difference being that australia & the UK didn't bend to the bleatings of a pathetic minority intent on deception & selfish concerns regarding unfettered gun ownership.
(All the Way Down the Slippery Slope: Gun Prohibition in England and Some Lessons for Civil Liberties in America", Hamline Law Review, 1999)
Oh my, typical rightwing propagunda. Civil liberties persecuted in UK? well they haven't really mounted much of a complaint against the handgun ban, largely favor it.