many believe that much of the Australian citizenry owned handguns until their ownership was made illegal and all firearms owned by "law-abiding citizens" were collected by the government through a buy-back (http://www.handgunbuyback.gov.au/) program in 1997. This is not so. Australian citizens do not (and never did) have a constitutional right to own firearms — even before the 1997 buyback program, handgun ownership in Australia was restricted to certain groups, such as those needing weapons for occupational reasons, members of approved sporting clubs, hunters, and collectors. Moreover, the 1997 buyback program did not take away all the guns owned by these groups; only some types of firearms (primarily semi-automatic and pump-action weapons) were banned. And even with the ban in effect, those who can demonstrate a legitimate need to possess prohibited categories of firearms can petition for exemptions from the law.



ORIGINAL CYBER-BULLIES

cyber mass email going around ... since 2001 and again,
starting to go around again in 2007.



From: Ed Chenel, a police officer in Australia.
Hi Yanks, I thought you all would like to see the real figures from Down Under. It has now been 12 months since gun owners in Australia were forced
by a new law to surrender 640,381 personal firearms........

Where do we go to see the real figures?

it depends who one wants to believe ..
the distortions are numerous and go on and on ..

however, this is a Govt site, and IF they dont distort the facts,
one could believe these - no guarantee:

http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/cfi/cfi003.html

after you read that, read this Media Release : Kinives and Homicide (http://www.aic.gov.au/media/2001/20010212.html)


the highest proportion of homicide victims were killed with a knife or other sharp instrument (29.1%).
Assaultive force (using hands and feet) ranked second (24.0%), and homicide by firearm third (19.3%)

the victims and offenders were unlikely to be employed at the time of the incident.

A significant proportion of homicides involved consumption of alcohol (33.3% of victims) and/or illicit drugs (24.3%)

Homicide in Australia 1999-2000, Dr Adam Graycar, Director of the AIC noted that apart from significant
incidents involving multiple victims (such as Strathfield, Port Arthur, Childers) the homicide victimisation rate
has remained relatively stable in Australia over the past 11 years.