TIME TO CHANGE THE RECORD ON GUNS
Australia’s first National Firearms Amnesty, aimed at reducing the number of unregistered firearms in our community, runs from July 1 to September 30, 2017. During the three-month amnesty, anyone can hand in unregistered firearms or firearmrelated items for registration or surrender at approved drop-off points without penalty and without fear of prosecution.
Amnesty participants do not need to provide personal details if they surrender a firearm or firearm-related article for destruction — there is a ‘no questions asked’ policy.
This amnesty is as much about giving families a chance to get rid of an unwanted heirloom as it is about getting guns off our streets.
Illegal firearms are found in a range of criminal activities, including organised crime and incidents described as “terrorism”.
The argument runs that by reducing the number of guns, amnesties will reduce the number that are stolen and curtail the ability of high-risk individuals — “hardened” criminals or otherwise — getting their hands on blackmarket guns.
However, available evidence does not support arguments about theft as a key source of crime gun supply. Although little data is publicly released about crime gun sources, what we know suggests theft accounts for less than 10 per cent of guns traced in relation to criminal activity.
Problematically, many guns come from “unknown” sources. For example, there was no record of the sawn-off shotgun used in the Lindt Cafe siege ever legally entering the country, and it seems the revolver used to murder Curtis Cheng has equally vague origins.
Last week, Justice Minister Michael Keenan claimed the amnesty would take illegal guns off Australian streets. He went on to link the amnesty with terrorism, citing the Lindt Cafe siege and the murder of Curtis Cheng as examples.
Despite talking up the amnesty, Keenan also said it is “probably not going to be the case we would have hardened criminals who have made a big effort to get a hand on illegal guns [who] would necessarily be handing them in”.
This explains why gun amnesties are not a particularly effective response to firearm crime. Australian and international evidence suggests the people who respond to amnesties are characteristically “low risk”: they are not the ones likely to be involved in violence.
The authorities somehow tout a figure of 250,000 illegal firearms circulating in Australia. How do they come up with this estimate? If they know how many there are, why don’t they know where they are and who has them. I say this is fake news. Most of the hype around the amnesty just fuels fear of firearms in the general public, rather than acceptance that firearms are merely a tool or sporting equipment.
If you are unclear or concerned about firearms owners and users, the recent Shoot for a Cure event held at Sporting Shooters Association, which attracted 194 ladies to shoot pistols and shotguns, should help allay your fears. That day, nearly $10,000 was raised to fight ovarian cancer.
The claims by John Howard recently that the gun reforms brought in by him in 1996 have reduced gun-related homicide and suicide have been refuted. Experts contacted by ABC’s Fact
Check said “the impact of Mr Howard’s reforms on the decline in firearm homicides and suicides is subject to debate”.
Professor Rick Sarre said: “It is incontestable that gun-related homicides and suicides have fallen since 1996, what is contestable is how much you can attribute that to [the reforms].”
Dr Susanna Fay-Ramirez said: “What we determine as significant and not significant is probably the part that’s more up for debate, rather than the actual declines in and of themselves.”
Dr Samantha Bricknell said: “There is a debate and the different analyses that have been done have demonstrated that either there was a significant decrease post reforms or there wasn’t.”
In fact, gun-related homicides and suicides were already falling prior to the 1996 gun reforms. I wish the $600 million used in the 1996 Gun Buyback, and subsequent millions of dollars spent on this National Firearms Amnesty and other state-run amnesties, had instead been directed towards mental health and better Customs equipment.
The politicians and bureaucrats should develop new, innovative and evidence-based responses to the problem of illegal firearms in the community instead of repeatedly using the same failed paradigm over and over.
Law-abiding people and their firearms are soft targets for government and enforcement agencies.
The real challenge is addressing criminal behaviour and providing the resources for Customs and the police to target the importation, distribution and use of illegal firearms. Until this is done, the threat and risk posed by the illegal use of firearms will never be addressed.
Meanwhile, the NT Field and Game range is open for practice from 9am until noon today, while weekly Friday night practice continues at Micket Creek Shooting Complex, Brandt Rd, Knuckey Lagoon.
There are now two grounds, with the token system in operation. The ranges will be open from 3pm on Fridays for those who plan ahead and pre-purchase ammo and tokens. The sales desk normally opens at 5pm.
The next competition is the Festival of Clays, from Friday, July 28 until Sunday, July 30. Coolalinga Guns and Ammo has sponsored a Fausti Camo 12ga shotgun as a door prize for one lucky competitor.
A ticket will be issued to each shooter for each event they enter over the Festival of Clays weekend.
“... available evidence does not support arguments about theft as a key source of crime gun supply”