Australia's Prime Minister John Howard: Tough on Muslim extremists/terrorists
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Australia's Prime Minister John Howard: Tough on the innocent people who'd like to protect themselves against Muslim extremists/terrorists, or any other threat to their lives/family/friends/property/livelihood
PM urgers tighter gun laws
John Howard:
"We did a lot more in 2002 and 2003 with handguns, but we really must resolve as a nation never to go down the American path. There are many things about America that I admire, but I do not admire their gun culture."
Roland Brown (Chairman of the National Coalition for Gun Control):
"I don't think Australia should wait for the effects of another Port Arthur massacre or a Dunblane style massacre before we get some effective controls over handguns," he said.
"We really need the Commonwealth to explain why target shooters with handguns in clubs are better armed than our police. We really need an explanation as to that and they haven't provided one."
So I went to the Aussie's Institute of Criminology and found some interesting things (no doubt, right!)
Selected Crime Profiles : Australian facts & figures 2005 Scroll down to the 'Homicide,type of weapon' pie chart. Notice that ONLY 17% of the homicides were firearm related. 17 freakin' percent. More people are murdered in cold blood by physical force and blunt instruments than either knives, or firearms. Tell me how that fits into PM Johnny's master plan.
Scroll further and you'll see that assaults and sexual assaults have risen.
Take note.
Then check out the robbery pie chart, you'll see that 64% of robberies were conducted by unarmed robbers. This means that people were robbed, assaulted, and sexually assaulted, possibly (probably!) hurt mentally, emotionally, and/or physically WITHOUT the use of a firearm. But... but... that will all stop if you take away their motivation... which is the gun, right?
An interesting press release, Gun laws do not reduce criminal violence, by the Fraser Institute in Canada. It takes on gun control and gun violence in Australia, Great Britain, and Canada.
“What makes gun control so compelling for many is the belief that violent crime is driven by the availability of guns, and more importantly, that criminal violence in general may be reduced by limiting access to firearms,” says Gary Mauser, author of the paper and professor of business at Simon Fraser University.
....
The United States provides a valuable point of comparison for assessing crime rates as that country has witnessed a dramatic drop in criminal violence over the past decade – for example, the homicide rate in the US has fallen 42 percent since 1991. This is particularly significant when compared with the rest of the world – in 18 of the 25 countries surveyed by the British Home Office, violent crime increased during the 1990s.
The justice system in the U.S. differs in many ways from those in the Commonwealth but perhaps the most striking difference is that qualified citizens in the United States can carry concealed handguns for self-defence. During the past few decades, more than 25 states in the U.S. have passed laws allowing responsible citizens to carry concealed handguns. In 2003, there are 35 states where citizens can get such a permit.
Disarming the public has not reduced criminal violence in any country examined in this study. In all these cases, disarming the public has been ineffective, expensive, and often counter productive."
Basically it says this: England & Wales: homicide jumped 50% in the 90s and gun crime INCREASED by 35%, an increase that keeps on a comin'.
Australia's homicide rate has stayed pretty much the same since wide bans on guns, and is beginning to climb again. Since 6 years ago, armed robberies have jumped 166%.
The Canadian crime rate is rising, while America's is dropping. Go figure.
Yeah, but y'all, seriously, AMERICA has the dangerous gun culture that NOBODY wants. PM John Howard says so.
It's also interesting to read what the Fraser guys have to say about all the taxpayer's money that's used to fund these silly government programs that don't make a difference in how safe your children are in their beds at night. It's all a big lie, a placebo if you will. My children will be safe because *I* am marrying a Marine. Heh, that, and I can and will protect my own.
It's funny to me that the PM can be so harsh on the one hand, and so slack on the other.
