Legal guns still plentiful in Australia

Guns bans in recent years still allow for permits to own guns, permits that are more easily acquired than in some U.S. States

Despite the hundreds of thousands of semi-automatic rifles and shotguns surrendered since John Howard announced the gun buy-back after the Port Arthur massacre ten years ago this month, the public remains well armed with more than 2.5 million firearms registered across the country. There are now more than 750,000 individual gun licence holders and each has an average of three weapons. The greater concern however is for the unknown number of unregistered handguns currently in the community.

Don Weatherburn, the chief of the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics, said the pattern of firearms had made a "horrendous change" for the worse with handguns now responsible for between 50 and 60 per cent of annual gun deaths. "Handguns are a real worry. They have become saleable commodities on the black market," Dr Weatherburn said. "There may be fewer gun homicides but handguns make up a larger proportion of those homicides than they used to. "Handguns are not being used as long arms were in the context of dreadful domestic homicides or by deranged murderers killing lots of people. They are being used in the context of turf wars between rival gangs and by organised criminals. He said firearm theft was now a nationwide problem with handguns stolen in one state turning up in another. Dr Weatherburn said that while many of the handguns were illegally imported there was a disturbing trend of holding up security vehicles not to get the money but to get the guards' handguns.

Samara McPhedran, 28, who founded the International Coalition for Women in Shooting and Hunting to help dispel myths surrounding women and guns, said one of the tragedies of the emphasis on gun control had been the focus away from the cause of broader social problems such as suicide and domestic violence. "It is very easy to blame firearms for violence, but very hard to engage in constructive action that can address the causes of violence," she said. Ms McPhedran said policies on gun control should be based on evidence and that homicide rates overall have remained relatively static since the Port Arthur massacre despite the gun buy-back, while suicide rates have actually gone up. "Appalling events like Port Arthur make headlines around the world but there are victims of violence every day that go unrecognised," she said.

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NY: Bloomberg takes gun fight to Congress: "New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg blasted Congress on Tuesday for considering what he called a 'God-awful piece of legislation' on guns. A congressman charged he was just trying to spur more lawsuits against the gun industry. Bloomberg went to Washington to speak out against a bill offered by Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, which would make permanent a bar on federal authorities' sharing gun trace data with local governments; the governments had used such information to launch lawsuits against gun manufacturers and dealers. Congress has moved to squelch lawsuits brought by U.S. cities against gun manufacturers and dealers, charging they are misguided attempts to undercut the Second Amendment right to bear arms."

Congress told of more ATF abuses: "An Arizona police supervisor Tuesday said the federal agency charged with regulating the nation's firearms industry 'absolutely devastated' his career and his personal life, all because he gave a gun to a friend as a gift. Tucson Police Lt. Michael Lara was among a panel of witnesses who told the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is in need of serious reform. ... Richard Gardiner, a Virginia attorney and an expert in federal firearms laws who often represents FFLs and gun owners under ATF scrutiny, argued that Lara's case is actually closer to being the rule than the exception. 'The ATF tends to focus or has a significant focus on trivial, immaterial violations which are unrelated to public safety,' Gardiner said. 'And they impose unreasonable standards of perfection which are simply not humanly achievable.'"