Subject: Gun Control for the Open Minded
>> One Year After Gun Control in Austrailia - Thanks Bill Q
>>
>> Hi Yanks, I thought you all would like to see
>> the real figures from Down Under. It has now
>> been 12 months since gun owners in Australia
>> were forced by new law to surrender 640,381
>> personal firearms to be destroyed by our own
>> government, a program costing Australia
>> taxpayers more than $500 million dollars.
>>
>> The first year results are now in:
>>
>> Australia-wide, homicides are up 3.2 percent,.
>> Australia-wide, assaults are up 8.6 percent;.
>> Australia-wide, armed robberies are up 44 percent (yes, 44 percent!)
>> In the state of Victoria alone, homicides with firearms are now up 300
>> percent.
>> (Note that while the law-abiding citizens turned them
>> in, the criminals did not and criminals still possess their guns! )
>>
>> While figures over the previous 25 years
>> showed a steady decrease in armed robbery
>> with firearms, this has changed drastically upward in
>> the past 12 months, since the criminals now are
>> guaranteed that their prey is unarmed.
>>
>> There has also been a dramatic increase in
>> break-ins and assaults of the elderly.
>>
>> Australian politicians are at a loss to
>> explain how public safety has decreased,
>> after such monumental effort and expense was
>> expended in successfully ridding Australian society of guns.
>>
>> You won't see this data on the American evening news or
>> hear your governor or members of the state Assembly
>> disseminating this information. The
>> Australian experience proves it.
>>
>> Guns in the hands of honest citizens save
>> lives and property and,
>> yes, gun-control laws affect only the
>> law-abiding citizens.
>>
>> My comment:
>>
>> Personal possession of a firearm is ultimately about freedom. When we
>> lose
>> that freedom we will have lost much more than the firearms.
>> one of the Aussie List members can confirm this:
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sat Sep 02 2000 - 09:32:37 PDT