Sedition
Panel of Selectors
Looking at what the 1996/97 reforms did from from personal experience, rather than whatever politicians want to tell us..
Banning semi-auto rifles and the buyback scheme - The banned weapons were predominantly semi-auto .22 calibre weapons (specifically ones that Bryant used). We handed a couple of these in, for which the government grossly overpaid for, and other than a BB gun and some quality air pistols, these were the weakest of all our firearms, and their handgun equivalents (and more powerful versions) are still perfectly legal.
The criminals who hold unregistered versions of these banned guns aren't going to hand them in for starters. Over 600,000 weapons were handed in and recorded as destroyed, many of them probably were, but thanks to corrupt police acting as a middle man, who knows how many went from lawfully owned into the hands of criminals for sale on the blackmarket.
The other part of the buyback scheme was that you could hand in your licence and every weapon you owned and receive full compensation, not just for the banned ones. This lead to many people (such as target shooters that I traveled all over the state with for competitions) realising that the laws are only getting worse and it's not worth jumping through all the hoops, especially when the government is offering ridiculously high compensation right now. A lot of these sport pistols are high quality, very accurate and rapid firing.. I bet the criminals love having those passed onto them now.
From a shooter's perspective, this really achieved nothing other than reducing the popularity of a sport. The politicians could pat themselves on the back though and all the anti-gun people who really have no idea could applaud them for it.
The other main reform they made was with regards to licencing, making the only legitimate reasons for owning a gun was for sport shooting (each weapon you own must be used a minimum number of times per year in fully sanctioned competition shootings) or for the purposes of culling on farmlands.
While the people who have no idea might think this is great, it is extremely inconvenient to have to travel across the state having to compete in set numbers of matches for every weapon every year, especially when many people left the sport thanks to these laws and sanctioned shoots weren't as common. And as for culling, it's only something we did when a farmer requested it, which wasn't that often anyway.
Other than personal experience, I'll do like most people on this issue and rely on some things that I've read and have no way of verifying:
In 2002-03, over 85% of firearms used to commit murders were unregistered.
In 1997-99, over 80% of handguns confiscated were never legally purchased or registered in Australia.
From 1985-2000, 78% of firearm related deaths were suicide.
The criminals will always have access to guns and will be largely untraceable. Registered owners will continue to do the right thing and face random police inspections to verify, since they are on record. A record which was compromised not that long ago too.
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and forgot to add.. the amount of people that have lived the city their whole life and find there way out to my parts and have never seen a gun before blows my mind. The look on their face when they actually get to hold one is priceless, not to mention when they actually fire the damn thing.
Unfortunately the people that make these laws and the ones that are the most vocal about gun laws seem to fit the description of people that have never been around a gun before in their life.
Banning semi-auto rifles and the buyback scheme - The banned weapons were predominantly semi-auto .22 calibre weapons (specifically ones that Bryant used). We handed a couple of these in, for which the government grossly overpaid for, and other than a BB gun and some quality air pistols, these were the weakest of all our firearms, and their handgun equivalents (and more powerful versions) are still perfectly legal.
The criminals who hold unregistered versions of these banned guns aren't going to hand them in for starters. Over 600,000 weapons were handed in and recorded as destroyed, many of them probably were, but thanks to corrupt police acting as a middle man, who knows how many went from lawfully owned into the hands of criminals for sale on the blackmarket.
The other part of the buyback scheme was that you could hand in your licence and every weapon you owned and receive full compensation, not just for the banned ones. This lead to many people (such as target shooters that I traveled all over the state with for competitions) realising that the laws are only getting worse and it's not worth jumping through all the hoops, especially when the government is offering ridiculously high compensation right now. A lot of these sport pistols are high quality, very accurate and rapid firing.. I bet the criminals love having those passed onto them now.
From a shooter's perspective, this really achieved nothing other than reducing the popularity of a sport. The politicians could pat themselves on the back though and all the anti-gun people who really have no idea could applaud them for it.
The other main reform they made was with regards to licencing, making the only legitimate reasons for owning a gun was for sport shooting (each weapon you own must be used a minimum number of times per year in fully sanctioned competition shootings) or for the purposes of culling on farmlands.
While the people who have no idea might think this is great, it is extremely inconvenient to have to travel across the state having to compete in set numbers of matches for every weapon every year, especially when many people left the sport thanks to these laws and sanctioned shoots weren't as common. And as for culling, it's only something we did when a farmer requested it, which wasn't that often anyway.
Other than personal experience, I'll do like most people on this issue and rely on some things that I've read and have no way of verifying:
In 2002-03, over 85% of firearms used to commit murders were unregistered.
In 1997-99, over 80% of handguns confiscated were never legally purchased or registered in Australia.
From 1985-2000, 78% of firearm related deaths were suicide.
The criminals will always have access to guns and will be largely untraceable. Registered owners will continue to do the right thing and face random police inspections to verify, since they are on record. A record which was compromised not that long ago too.
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and forgot to add.. the amount of people that have lived the city their whole life and find there way out to my parts and have never seen a gun before blows my mind. The look on their face when they actually get to hold one is priceless, not to mention when they actually fire the damn thing.
Unfortunately the people that make these laws and the ones that are the most vocal about gun laws seem to fit the description of people that have never been around a gun before in their life.
