Well, they only got 20% of the guns that time, and the vast majority of them were .22 “pea rifles” and shotguns. In fact only 204 automatic weapons were turned in (for a rate of 1 in 1,000). Also they had about 3.2 million registered firearms before the ban, which reduced to about 2.2 million, only to now be back around 3.2 million, but with a lower % of Aussies owning them.
Also violence was already on the downswing before the buyback, both firearm and non-firearm homicides generally lowered from around '79 on, though while firearm suicides decreased, non-firearm suicides increased.
Don’t get me wrong I’m sure the bans effected the rates a little, but not much and they were already decreasing over a decade earlier. It seems that AUS is just not that murderous, and that those who would have shot themselves seem to have just found another way.
Well, they only got 20% of the guns that time, and the vast majority of them were .22 “pea rifles” and shotguns. In fact only 204 automatic weapons were turned in (for a rate of 1 in 1,000). Also they had about 3.2 million registered firearms before the ban, which reduced to about 2.2 million, only to now be back around 3.2 million, but with a lower % of Aussies owning them.
Also violence was already on the downswing before the buyback, both firearm and non-firearm homicides generally lowered from around '79 on, though while firearm suicides decreased, non-firearm suicides increased.
Don’t get me wrong I’m sure the bans effected the rates a little, but not much and they were already decreasing over a decade earlier. It seems that AUS is just not that murderous, and that those who would have shot themselves seem to have just found another way.