E-Mail from Australian IOOB
February 4th, 2003
Subject: Gun Control?
From: Ed Chenel in Australia.
Hi Yanks, I thought you all would like to see the
real figures from Down
Under. It has now been 12 months since gun owners
in Australia were forced
by a new law to surrender 640,381 personal
firearms to be destroyed by our
own government, a program costing Australia
taxpayers more than $500 million
dollars.
The first year results are now in:
Australia-wide, homicides are up 3.2
percent,
Australia-wide, assaults are up 8.6
percent,
Australia-wide, armed
robberies are up 44 percent (yes, 44 percent)!
In
the state of Victoria
alone, homicides with firearms are now up 300
percent.
There has also been a dramatic increase in
break-ins and assaults of the elderly.
(Note that while the law-abiding citizens turned
them in, the criminals did
not. The criminals still possess their guns!)
While figures over the previous
25 years showed a steady decrease in armed
robbery with firearms, this has
changed drastically upward in the past 12 months,
since the criminals now
are guaranteed that their prey is unarmed.
Australian politicians are at a loss to explain
how public safety has
decreased, after such monumental effort and
expense was expended in
"successfully ridding Australian society of
guns."
You won't see this data
on the American evening news or hear your
governor or members of the state
Assembly disseminating this information.
The Australian experience proves it. Guns in the
hands of honest citizens
save lives and property and, yes, gun-control
laws affect only the
law-abiding citizens.