Lowering the number of guns will lower the number of murders. It seems like common sense.
Today's news brings us the exact opposite conclusion via the Sydney Morning Herald.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/...455665717.html
Quote:
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.
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600,000 guns removed from the system, on an island continent with some of the world's most restrictive gun laws. Ten years later,
no measureable effect.
Of course, nations differ and Your Nation's Results May Vary. But to me, the lesson is:
It's the character of the people, the culture and the society that determines the murder rate. Not how many tools they have to get the job done.
Focus on the tools, and you are wasting your time.
Focus instead on creating a society where violence is unacceptable.