https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JctBYrIaKvY
Facts:
- In response to a question from the audience, Ms. Clinton said,
"You know, Australia is a good example, Canada is a good example, the UK is a good example...(Rhetoric about mass shootings and gun laws in those countries)...In the Australian example, as I recall: That was a buy-back program. The Australian government--as a part of trying to clamp-down on the availability of automatic weapons--offered a good price for buying hundreds of thousands of guns. And then they basically clamped down, going forward, in terms of having, you know, more of a background check approach; more of a permitting approach. (Um.) But they believed--and I think the evidence supports them--that by offering to buy back those guns, they were able to, you know, curtail the supply and to set a different standard for gun purchases (ah) in the future. Now, communities have done that in our country. Several communities have done gun buy-back programs. But I think it would be worth considering doing it on the national level if that could be (ah) arranged. Remember: I know (ah) after the (uh) terrible '08 financial crisis, I think one of the programs President Obama was able to get in place was Cash-for-Clunkers. Remember that? You know: Getting them off the road and (ah) it was partly a way to get people to buy new cars, because we wanted more economic activity. And it was partly a way to get old models that were polluting too much sort of off the road. So, I think that's worth considering. I...I don't know enough details to tell you (whe-) how we would do it or how it would work, but certainly the Australian example is worth looking at."
- In 1996, a 28-year-old man in Port Arthur, Tasmania, Australia killed 35 people and injured 23 others with firearms he had paid cash for legally at a local gun dealer.
- In response to what has become known as the Port Arthur Massacre, newly elected Conservative Prime Minister John Howard pushed for the National Firearms Agreement, a law which nationalized/standardized gun laws throughout Australia (each Australian state had its own laws prior to the National Firearms Agreement.)
- The (Australian) National Firearms Agreement (of 1996) did the following:
- Banned the importation of “all semi-automatic self-loading and pump action longarms, and all parts, including magazines for such firearms"
- The sale, resale, transfer, ownership, manufacture, and use of such firearms would also be banned by the states and territories, other than in exceptional circumstances (relating to military or law enforcement purposes and occupational categories, depending on the category of the firearm)
- Created standardized categories of firearms
- Required a permit for the purchase of each firearm, unique to that purchase (i.e. if one bought two guns, two unique permits were needed), with a 28-day waiting period before permit issuance
- Established a national firearm registration system
- Required all firearms sales be conducted only by or through licensed firearms dealers, and certain minimum principles that would underpin rules relating to the recording of firearms transactions by dealers
- Established the right of police to inspect all gun transaction documentation
- Set restrictions on the amount of ammunition that could be purchased in a given period of time and that ammunition could only be purchased for guns the buyer owns at the time of purchase
- Required that the purchaser/permit applicant provide a "genuine reason" for needing the firearm; and that "personal protection" was not such a reason
- Sport shooting, recreational shooting/hunting, collecting, and occupational requirements were among the "genuine reasons" for certain classes of guns
- Age, proof of identity, training, storage, and being “fit and proper person” were requirements for permitting
- Local authorities were required to inspect the aforementioned storage facilities, and that the storage of ammunition would be separate from the weapon storage
- In addition to requiring law changes to implement the above resolutions, the agreement provided for the establishment of a twelve-month national amnesty and compensation (buy-back) program, to be accompanied by a public education campaign, after which the jurisdictions would apply “severe penalties” for breaches of the firearms control laws.
- More than 640,000 prohibited firearms were surrendered nationwide as part of the buyback program. In addition, it was reported that about 60,000 non-prohibited firearms were voluntarily surrendered without compensation. The buyback was reported to have resulted in the withdrawal of one-fifth of the stock of civilian firearms in the country and substantially reduced the number of households possessing a firearm.
- In 2002, a licensed pistol owner and member of the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia who was a college student at Monash University in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia killed two fellow students and injured five others with handguns he had acquired as part of the shooting club.
- The (Australian) National Firearm Trafficking Policy Agreement (of 2002, amended) did the following:
- Increased border protection
- Introduced nationally consistent regulation of the legal manufacture of firearms
- Established new offences or substantial penalties for matters relating to the illegal possession and supply of firearms, the defacing of serial numbers, and conspiring to commit interstate firearm wrongdoings
- Tightened recording and reporting provisions for dealer transactions involving firearms and major firearm parts
- Banned the import or sale to sport shooters of handguns or their parts of larger handguns or those with magazines of more than 10 rounds
- The federal (Australian) Parliament also enacted the National Handgun Buyback Act 2003, which provided for financial assistance to be granted to states in connection with the implementation of a buyback program for handguns that did not comply with the new (2002) restrictions.
- The buyback program resulted in about 70,000 handguns and more than 278,000 parts and accessories being surrendered.
- In June 2012, the Australian Crime Commission report on illicit firearms noted:
- There were more than 2.75 million registered firearms in Australia held by more than 730,000 individual license holders (in a population of 22.8 million)
- In 1991 there were 629 firearm deaths (in Australia); in 2001 there were 333
- The vast majority (>70%) of homicides, regardless of the method used to kill the victim, were ‘single victim/single offender’ incidents. Homicides committed by an individual using a handgun or other firearm were significantly more likely to result in multiple victims than homicides in general.
- In 2012, a (Australian) National Firearms Register was established.
- Researchers from Australian universities found that in the decade after the National Firearms Agreement became law, the firearm homicide rate fell by 59% and the firearm suicide rate fell by 65% — without increases in other types of deaths.
- The rates of violent crimes other than homicide and suicide and robbery remained unchanged since the National Firearms Agreement
- The robbery rate rose substantially following the 1996 law, but has been below the 1996 rate since 2002.
- The Australian Constitution has no equivalent of the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution.
- Australia has no land borders with other countries.
Opinion:
Nowhere in her speech did Ms. Clinton say she wanted to take away all guns, or even most guns; she said that we should look at laws in other countries to inform what we may do. I think it is fair to assume that Ms. Clinton is in favor of more stringent gun-control laws than the ones we have currently, but that does not mean that she (or any mainstream politician) wants to (or more importantly: legally could) take away all guns.
There are many debatable points about the application of laws like those in Australia to the United States:
- Is the relationship between the various National Firearm Agreements and reductions in gun-deaths in Australia a causal relationship?
- What Constitutional changes would need to be made in the US to allow for these laws?
- How would the large land borders the US has with Canada and Mexico affect the enforcement of such laws?
- How would the significantly larger number of gun manufacturers in the US as compared with Australia affect these laws?
- Would reducing the number of firearms reduce the number of firearm deaths?
These debatable points don't even touch the realities of current gun-control politics involving the NRA, Congress, the 1996 Omnibus Consolidated Appropriations Bill and its ramifications, gun-manufacturers, police, etc. or crimes involving guns which don't result in homicide or suicide. They do not address the differences between handguns, long guns, automatic, and semi-automatic weapons in the commission of different types of crimes or as sport shooting and collection items. Nor do they even attempt to define automatic or semi-automatic, or distinguish between a pistol and a revolver. All of these things complicate the conversation, but necessarily so.
But we need to admit America has a problem with mass shootings and gun deaths that other, similar countries do not have. If we don't admit that, then we are denying reality and accepting that the next life lost at the pulling of a trigger is acceptable to lose.
And we need to start dealing in facts again. We need to return to at least entertaining ideas which we may not instinctively agree with. We need to stop villianizing and de-humanizing those who don't agree with us. If we don't, we will never be a great as we can be as a country or a people. And we will regularly continue to bury those who die from guns.
Sources:
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.