I love when people tout how great gun control is working in Australia and then only cite their gun violence rates. Here's an old post I made arguing with just such a person, which has gotten around a little bit (if anyone would like a quick run-down on a prime example of gun control failure):
"Good work, however you're only looking at the firearms homicides again and you're forgetting the full scope of homicides committed by other means. Whether a homicide is committed by firearm, knife, hammer, bomb, etc is meaningless as it is still a murder. If firearms are taken away from someone intent on killing, they will kill using something else. People are the problem, not firearms. My case in point is the full scope of the Australian homicides from the years before and after the ban went into effect.
In the year or two after the ban, if your theory (that severely reducing the availability of firearms to civilians will have a positive impact on crime) was correct, there should be a massive drop in the murder rates. However that is not the case. The murder rates have followed a consistent downward trend ever since 1990, and there was no significant drop in the murder rates at all. In fact, there was a massive spike in homicides in 2002, with victim homicide rates that were nearly the exact same or increased from the years prior to 1996. This consistent downward trend of murder rates parallels the US statistics, as our rates have been dropping as well. However (and this is a big however) our gun ownership rates are at all time highs!
Here is my link to the murder rates, straight from the Australian Institute of Criminology:
http://www.aic.gov.au/statistics/homicide.htmlFurthermore, even with a mostly consistent decline in homicides in Australia, their violent crime statistics (namely assaults) have shown very consistent gains from 1996 to present. Again, this is completely opposite of your theory about firearms leading to murder and crime. Remember how the US has the highest gun ownership it has ever had? Our violent crime statistics have been on a massive downward trend, completely opposite from Australia.
Same source, more statistics:
http://www.aic.gov.au/statistics/violent%20crime.htmlAustralia is a prime example of how banning firearms have not led to any sort of positive effect on crime. In fact, it stands as another reminder of the failure of gun control."
