Can'thavenuthingood
12-13-2006, 09:00 AM
You will see this quoted in your City Council meetings. Homework and preparation ahead of time.
Vick
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Gun deaths in rapid decline since buyback
Matthew Moore
December 14, 2006
AdvertisementTHE risk of dying by gunshot has dropped dramatically since the gun buyback scheme was introduced after the Port Arthur massacre in 1996, a new report says.
Dr Philip Alpers, a University of Sydney academic who helped write the report, said the buyback saw the number of gun deaths a year fall from an average of 521 to 289, "suggesting that the removal of more than 700,000 guns was associated with a faster declining rate of gun suicide and gun homicide".
The Prime Minister, John Howard, introduced some of the world's toughest gun laws after the massacre, forcing people to surrender semi-automatic rifles, which reload each time the trigger is pulled, and pump-action shotguns.
The new report, titled Australia's 1996 Gun Law Reforms: Faster Falls in Firearm Deaths, Firearm Suicides and a Decade without Mass Shootings, finds that in the 18 years before the gun buyback there were an average of 492 firearm suicides a year.
After the introduction of the buyback scheme, that figure dropped to 247 in the seven years for which reliable figures are available.
The report also found the rate of gun homicides fell from an annual average of 93 in the 18 years before 1996 to an annual average of 56.
The latter finding contrasts with a report published in October which found that half a billion dollars spent removing guns had virtually no effect on homicide rates.
That report - by two Australian academics, Jeanine Baker and Samara McPhedran, and published in the British Journal of Criminology - said gun homicide deaths were falling well before the buyback and the rate of decline hardly changed with the new laws.
Dr Simon Chapman, another author of the latest study, agreed that the rate of gun homicide was falling before the buyback. He said that while the rate had risen since then, the numbers involved were so small they were not statistically significant.
The most important impact of the buyback was that there had been no mass shootings.
He said 112 people had been killed in 11 mass shootings in the 10 years up to Port Arthur, and removing the semi-automatic weapons used in those shootings was a principal aim of the policy.
It was "bordering on academic dishonesty" for Dr Baker and Ms McPhedran not to have included that fact in their paper, he said.
The director of the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics, Dr Don Weatherburn, said that while the two papers might seem to be in conflict, they were not.
"Both found that the rate of gun suicide declined faster after the gun buyback and neither found any significant difference in the rate of decline in gun homicide before and after the gun buyback," he said.
"The Chapman paper points out that there has been no mass shooting since the gun buyback. The earlier paper should have mentioned this, but didn't.
"The results on gun suicide and mass shootings are enough reason to be very cautious about reducing the restrictions on gun ownership."
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Article in the Coalition of Sports Shooters:
http://www.c-l-a-s-s.net/Baker-McPhedran.htm
Jeanine Baker and Samara McPhedran research paper is here:
http://armsandthelaw.com/archives/GunLawsSudden%20DeathBJC.pdf
Vick
Vick
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gun deaths in rapid decline since buyback
Matthew Moore
December 14, 2006
AdvertisementTHE risk of dying by gunshot has dropped dramatically since the gun buyback scheme was introduced after the Port Arthur massacre in 1996, a new report says.
Dr Philip Alpers, a University of Sydney academic who helped write the report, said the buyback saw the number of gun deaths a year fall from an average of 521 to 289, "suggesting that the removal of more than 700,000 guns was associated with a faster declining rate of gun suicide and gun homicide".
The Prime Minister, John Howard, introduced some of the world's toughest gun laws after the massacre, forcing people to surrender semi-automatic rifles, which reload each time the trigger is pulled, and pump-action shotguns.
The new report, titled Australia's 1996 Gun Law Reforms: Faster Falls in Firearm Deaths, Firearm Suicides and a Decade without Mass Shootings, finds that in the 18 years before the gun buyback there were an average of 492 firearm suicides a year.
After the introduction of the buyback scheme, that figure dropped to 247 in the seven years for which reliable figures are available.
The report also found the rate of gun homicides fell from an annual average of 93 in the 18 years before 1996 to an annual average of 56.
The latter finding contrasts with a report published in October which found that half a billion dollars spent removing guns had virtually no effect on homicide rates.
That report - by two Australian academics, Jeanine Baker and Samara McPhedran, and published in the British Journal of Criminology - said gun homicide deaths were falling well before the buyback and the rate of decline hardly changed with the new laws.
Dr Simon Chapman, another author of the latest study, agreed that the rate of gun homicide was falling before the buyback. He said that while the rate had risen since then, the numbers involved were so small they were not statistically significant.
The most important impact of the buyback was that there had been no mass shootings.
He said 112 people had been killed in 11 mass shootings in the 10 years up to Port Arthur, and removing the semi-automatic weapons used in those shootings was a principal aim of the policy.
It was "bordering on academic dishonesty" for Dr Baker and Ms McPhedran not to have included that fact in their paper, he said.
The director of the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics, Dr Don Weatherburn, said that while the two papers might seem to be in conflict, they were not.
"Both found that the rate of gun suicide declined faster after the gun buyback and neither found any significant difference in the rate of decline in gun homicide before and after the gun buyback," he said.
"The Chapman paper points out that there has been no mass shooting since the gun buyback. The earlier paper should have mentioned this, but didn't.
"The results on gun suicide and mass shootings are enough reason to be very cautious about reducing the restrictions on gun ownership."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Article in the Coalition of Sports Shooters:
http://www.c-l-a-s-s.net/Baker-McPhedran.htm
Jeanine Baker and Samara McPhedran research paper is here:
http://armsandthelaw.com/archives/GunLawsSudden%20DeathBJC.pdf
Vick