Austrailian gun ban

[samfloor]

Since Australia banned private ownership of most guns in 1996, crime has risen dramatically on that continent, prompting critics of U.S. gun control efforts to issue new warnings of what life in America could be like if Congress ever bans firearms.
After Australian lawmakers passed widespread gun bans, owners were forced to surrender about 650,000 weapons, which were later slated for destruction, according to statistics from the Australian Sporting Shooters Association.

The bans were not limited to so-called "assault" weapons or military-type firearms, but also to .22 rifles and shotguns. The effort cost the Australian government about $500 million, said association representative Keith Tidswell.

Though lawmakers responsible for passing the ban promised a safer country, the nation's crime statistics tell a different story:

Countrywide, homicides are up 3.2 percent;

Assaults are up 8.6 percent;

Amazingly, armed robberies have climbed nearly 45 percent;

In the Australian state of Victoria, gun homicides have climbed 300 percent;

In the 25 years before the gun bans, crime in Australia had been dropping steadily;

[Ric]

some people will NEVER get it...

Ban guns, and only criminals WILL have guns...

another thing to think about , PCP, Heroin, LSD all have been banned, hows that, working out ?

[rivalarrival]

Same thing happened in the UK. Their violent crime rate is 5 times higher than ours. (~2000 incidents per 100,000 people/year in the UK vs ~400 in the US). Their murder rate is about 3 per 100,000 per year vs the US rate of about 6.

Of course, most of the murder victims in the US are violent criminals themselves. For every violent street gang member whose live they've saved in the UK, they've added 500 innocent people being raped, stabbed, beaten, etc.