NCJ Number
160202
Date Published
1992
Length
9 pages
Annotation
Gun control has been a contentious issue in Australia, with gun-control advocates pushing for stricter laws and gun owners opposing them; statistics show that gun control has done nothing to decrease crime in that country.
Abstract
In Australia, to legally possess a handgun, the owner must be licensed, and the gun must be registered; the owner must be a member of a recognized gun club, and the gun may be transported only between home, range, and the gunsmith's shop. Police estimate compliance with the handgun registration laws at approximately 85 percent. These same restrictions do not uniformly apply to rifles and shotguns, and long guns are plentiful. The number of firearms in private hands in Australia has increased from 2.7 to 3.5 million in 10 years; this constitutes one firearm for every four Australians in 1990. In spite of the proliferation of firearms, the Australian homicide rate has remained nearly constant since the turn of the century. Firearms homicides have also been dropping as a percentage of the homicides since 1955. They currently account for 40 percent of all murders committed in Australia. Of all the categories of serious crime, only commercial robbery might be seriously affected by tougher gun laws, since the overwhelming majority of other serious crimes are committed without firearms. Handgun ownership aside, generalization about firearms ownership and gun laws cannot be made, since the States have considerably more autonomy than States in America, and, like in the United States, gun laws vary considerably from location to location. Tasmania and Queensland have the most liberal conditions of firearms ownership regarding long guns. There is no indication from the data that gun licensing, gun registration, and gun prohibition have had any success in reducing crime in either Australia or the United States.