Commentary
Gun Control in Australia
--- Chaos Down Under
Miguel A. Faria, Jr., MD
Last August, the rugged Aussie survivalist whose real life exploits
inspired the "Crocodile Dundee" movies died in what then appeared
to be a mysterious shootout with Australian police. A police sergeant was
also killed in the incident. It was reported that Rodney William Ansell,
the 44-year-old, blond haired Aussie, resembled uncannily Paul Hogan the
actor who played his part in the movie and the sequel. Although Ansell was
no angel and had had previous run-ins with police, he had been named 1988
Australian Northern Territory Man of the Year for inspiring the movie and
putting "the Australian Outback on the map."
What motivated this shooting? In 1996, Australia adopted draconian gun
control laws banning certain guns (60 percent of all firearms), requiring
registration of all firearms and licensing of all gun owners. "Crocodile
Dundee" believed the police were coming to confiscate his unregistered
firearms. In Australia today, police can enter your house and search
for guns, copy the hard drive of your computer, seize records, and do it
all without a search warrant. It's the law that police can go door to door
searching for weapons that have not been surrendered in their much publicized
gun buy back program. They have been using previous registration and firearm
license lists to check for lapses and confiscate non-surrendered firearms.
The problem began with the Port Arthur (a Tasmanian resort) tragedy on
April 28, 1996, when a crazed assailant opened fire and shot 35 people.
Australians were shocked and the government reacted quickly. Draconian gun
legislation was passed in the heat of the moment. There are three major
political parties in Australia: the center right (Liberal Party), the socialist
camp (Labor Party), and the ultra left (Australian Democratic Party) ---
which tilted the balance of power toward stringent gun control at the expense
of freedom.
As a result of the ban, all semiautomatic firearms (rifles and handguns)
are proscribed, including .22 caliber rabbit guns and duck-hunting Remington
shotguns.
Writing in The Gun Owners (Jan. 31, 2000), the newsletter for
Gun Owners of America (GOA), former California State Senator H.L. Richardson
writes: "They outlawed every semi-auto, even those pretty duck guns,
the Browning A5 and the Remington 1100s. They even struck down pump shotguns:
the Winchester model 12 and the Remington 870...Do you own a Browning BAR
rifle? Banned. How about a Winchester Model 100? Out of luck, all semi-auto
hunting rifles were outlawed as well. They didn't miss a one."
Be that as it may, at a cost of $500 million, out of an estimated 7 million
firearms (of which 2.8 million were prohibited), only 640,000 guns were
surrendered to police. What has been the result? Same as in England.
Like in Great Britain, crime Down Under has escalated. Twelve months
after the law was implemented in 1997, there has been a 44 percent increase
in armed robberies; an 8.6 percent increase in aggravated assaults; and,
a 3.2 percent increase in homicides. That same year in the state of Victoria,
there was a 300 percent increase in homicides committed with firearms. The
following year, robberies increased almost 60 percent in South Australia.
By 1999, assaults had increased in New South Wales by almost 20 percent.
Two years after the ban, there have been further increases in crime:
armed robberies by 73 percent; unarmed robberies by 28 percent; kidnappings
by 38 percent; assaults by 17 percent; manslaughter by 29 percent, according
to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
And consider the fact that over the previous 25-year period, Australia
had shown a steady decrease both in homicide with firearms and armed robbery
--- until the ban.
Australia, a semi-arid, isolated continent, and a vast nation-state,
in many ways parallels the history of the United States. In the 1850s and
1860s, it had gold rushes and pioneering settlers, reminiscent of our own
western migration. In World War I and World War II, it fought with the allies.
Australia remained a subject of Great Britain until 1986, when the last
ties with the British crown were dissolved. With only 19 million people,
Australia has an impressive fauna that includes plenty of varmints, marsupials,
dingoes (that wreak havoc on livestock), as well as large rats and other
rodents. Yet, hunting has become prohibitively difficult for all but
a handful of Australians with private lands and the usual connections.
Now, the ban on firearms and the disarmament of ordinary Australians has
left criminals free to roam the countryside as they please. Bandits, of
course, kept their guns. Like in America, only the law-abiding, by definition,
obey the law. Yet, the leftist Australian government has responded by passing
more laws; in 1998 Bowie knives and other knives and items including handcuffs
were banned.
Licensing is difficult. Self and family protection is not considered
a valid reason to own a firearm. The right to self-defense, like in
Great Britain and Canada, is not recognized in Australia, Like Americans,
Australians loved and possessed firearms --- that is until the ban. Freedom
has been extinguished. A way of life has ended. Please, don't tell me it
cannot happen here!
Dr. Faria is the Editor-in-Chief of the Medical Sentinel.
His e-mail is [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Originally published in the Medical Sentinel 2000;5(3):107. Copyright©2000
Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS)
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