From the ABC:

New research reveals the risk of being shot dead in Australia has dropped dramatically since the gun buyback scheme was introduced a decade ago.

The Federal Government's gun buyback scheme, introduced in 1996, forced people to surrender certain firearms, including semi-automatic rifles and some shotguns, in the wake of the Port Arthur massacre which claimed 35 lives.

New published research reveals the total number of gun deaths in a year has halved to 289 fatalities since the buyback scheme was enacted.

EGADS!

Meanwhile in crazy Amrika..

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - A Texas lawmaker is aiming to allow the blind to hunt. Texas State Representative Edmund Kuempel has introduced a measure that would allow blind people to hunt any game that sighted people can currently pursue.

(Source)

its the farmers i feel sorry for

If you wanna shoot someone, get online and do it!

EDIT:

http://www.members.optushome.com.au/gpahl/deer.jpg

ROFL. I love how this pick is on that page with the retarded hunting idea.

last edited by Reverend Evil at 10:21:06 14/Dec/06

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - A Texas lawmaker is aiming to allow the blind to hunt. Texas State Representative Edmund Kuempel has introduced a measure that would allow blind people to hunt any game that sighted people can currently pursue.

f*** there's some stupid people. It worries me that this person is allowed to breed and vote.

It would be funny (in a Simpsons sort of way) if deaths from knife attacks tripled.

All this report indicates is that people have become less accurate at shooting targets, and more resilient to bullet wounds

One could draw the conclusion that because people can now virtually shoot other people with computer games they don't need to do it IRL. OOOOOO

Actually its because all the FPS released since then (Quake) have been s***.

Deaths from stones being thrown and a fat guy yelling lightning bolt have trippled!

LIGHTNING BOLT! oh wait.. i'm not fat..

289! do these fatal shootings ever hit the news? i can vaguely recall one or 2 shootings on the news but thats about it... the rest were probably victorian police shooting innocent bystanders :P

New published research reveals the total number of gun deaths in a year has halved to 289 fatalities since the buyback scheme was enacted.

i wonder why this report says 'a year' rather than specifying a particular year... is the number of shootings equal for every year since the buyback?

"So this has been a dramatic turnaround in a spate of mass killings we were seeing throughout the 1990s and they seemed to have stopped," he said.

what spate of mass killings?

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - A Texas lawmaker is aiming to allow the blind to hunt. Texas State Representative Edmund Kuempel has introduced a measure that would allow blind people to hunt any game that sighted people can currently pursue.

^^ Probably the same people wanting to ban violent computer games because they make kids violent!

only in amerika

i wonder why this report says 'a year' rather than specifying a particular year... is the number of shootings equal for every year since the buyback?

With the context and grammer with which it is written, obviously the author meant an average.

Such a pedantic person you are.

I reckon it's good to be pedantic when people go around quoting stats from 'research' though, because so often research results get spun a certain way to provide a favourable take on one perspective

New research reveals the risk of being shot dead in Australia has dropped dramatically since the gun buyback scheme was introduced a decade ago.

In other news, knife attacks have quadrupled.

so... 289 is an average of the number of shooting fatalities per year since the buyback... & that figure is approximately half the annual shooting fatalites of all years prior to the buyback? :D

pedanthood is where its at :D

Actually its because all the FPS released since then (Quake) have been s***.

in canada its like 1 per year...

in america is like 10000 a year...

how many people die from car crashes?

Couldn't they just take the blind hunters to a firing range, let them shoot there rifle and yell, YOU GOT HIM !

Same thing for someone who's blind isn't it?

That reminds me of the story of the blind golfer who almost got a hole in one, his playing partners said it went in and knocked it in... he found out and sued them (or was at least upset).

in america is like 10000 a year...

Their population is about 15x larger too.

Their population is about 15x larger too.

and yet japans is lower than ours...

pedanthood is where its at :D

hahaha.

=]

289 as an average doesn't seem too unlikely for Australia wide post gun buyback years?

Although, if it's 289 deaths, that means there would be still non-fatal injuries in there too.
I suppose it's not too unbelievable, I mean look at ages ago that cop that got shot in the face just for sitting in the po-po mobile. =\

The ones who wanted the guns, who intended or had the tendency there to use it for exrteme purposes wouldn't have handed their guns back *shrugs*

i heard this on the ABC in the morning

pretty biased considering that there has been no new change in overall murder rates since the gun buyback was introduced. i hate it when the news organizations do pieces like this which are basically press releases. it wouldn't hurt to hunt around for other sources which might help give a more complete picture.

buyback has no effect on murder rate

last edited by hast at 20:08:33 14/Dec/06

New published research reveals the total number of gun deaths in a year has halved to 289 fatalities since the buyback scheme was enacted.

It doesn't even seem to be talking about crime. So what's happened to the number of suicides by other causes during that time? Sure farmers aren't killing themselves at an end of a gun because all they have is .22 but it doesn't mean that they aren't still killing themselves.

My understanding was gun related crime, particularly with handguns and in Sydney, had skyrocketed in the last few years.

My understanding was gun related crime, particularly with handguns and in Sydney, had skyrocketed in the last few years.

Well I hope this study clears that up for you!

the statistics show there was still a downward trend, the fact that it might not have been the gun laws isn't really that big a deal in my opinion

what is a big deal is that the laws make it far far harder for someone like martin bryant to acquire the guns he used (back then the assault rifles he had were legal, to both own and import). if it makes it harder for some deranged looney to get assault rifles or semi automatics to live out their f***ed up fantasy then a few grumby farmers is a fair trade.

i mean really, if they need to kill something so bad, they should just give it a few weeks and the drought will take care of it.

gun laws are bad laws if they impose a cost and provide no marginal benefit and the statistics tell us there is no marginal benefit. gun laws didn't make murder rates trend down any faster than they were already going.

i'm also surprised the anti-gun people in this thread are defending the laws. these laws were a joke and a waste of money. most anti-gun people will admit this because the laws make them look stupid and it lets them hide behind the failure.

the second round of buybacks had the government buying weapons with short barrels and shooters replacing them with longer barreled versions.

a complete farce.

last edited by hast at 21:27:09 14/Dec/06

Well I hope this study clears that up for you!

Nope, but it did make me think it's bulls*** and look up the article i read about the rise in gun crime in sydney. Here you go. From way back on the just a month and a half ago:

CRIME in the NSW capital is on the way up for the first time in six years - with a 71 per cent increase in gun crime in parts of western Sydney.... The latest crime trends include: Inner Sydney: 50% increase in firearm robberies;

But that's only the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research ranting, wtf would they know compared to some Professor of Public Health at a Sydney University who's main foray in to public debate up until now has been as an anti-smoking crusader as he specialises in tobacco advertising?

trog gots teh pwned

it's news.com.au though, it's like one step away from fiction

f*** you people are clueless, everyone knows the semi-autos are for nubs. Its all about the bolt action scout!