Originally posted on 04/19/2013:

Quote Originally Posted by dante1 View Post
Actually in response to the individuals stating the Australian gun laws did not work please see this article. John Howard is not a liberal he is a conservative and I watched his interview about a month or so ago and he claimed that the guns laws did what they were intended for and more. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/08/02/did-gun-control-work-in-australia/

/Given those flaws in the studies showing no effect, the Leigh and Neill study appears the most reliable of the ones conducted. It seems reasonably clear, then, that the gun buyback led to a large decline in suicides, and weaker but real evidence that it reduced homicides as well. Such a buyback isn’t in the cards in the U.S. anytime soon — an equivalent buyback here would entail the destruction of 40 million guns — but the data suggest Howard might have a case.
Australian gun laws have worked as they were meant to. Absolutely. Howard is someone that holds quite different beliefs to me on many things politically but he acted swiftly after the Port Arthur massacre. That's not to say that if someone still wants to get their hands on a gun they can't. But it's so bloody controlled that when you hear of a shooting it's mainly confined to bikie/drug/gang activity or family on family violence. To be fair though, this is still a violent country. It's just violent in different ways. I don't have the fear of drive by shootings, mass shootings in public places or someone robbing/raping me at gunpoint as I did when I lived in the States. Yeah I might be the innocent victim of a shooting gone wrong here but the chances of that are statistically negligilbe. We just worry about different things because unfortunately if someone wants to be violent against random people, they'll still find a way without a gun whether that's through arson, stabbings, king hits, getting bashed on the train on your way home from work, whatever. But... in most of those cases I have a better chance of surviving and the damage is limited to the people the murderer can physically reach out and touch with the exception of arson. So yeah, I'd much rather take that chance than someone having legal access to weapons that can launch rounds on mass groups of people at one time. I don't like impinging on anyone's rights as that feels wrong in my bones but I'm also a mum now with a child to worry about and I just don't trust that everyone is with it enough to use semi-auto weapons solely for protection.

#exitingthethreadbeforeigetslammed