PA Bill Number: HB2235
Title: Providing for regulation of the meat packing and food processing industry by creating facility health and safety committees in the workplace; ...
Description: Providing for regulation of the meat packing and food processing industry by creating facility health and safety committees in the workplace; ... ...
Last Action: Referred to LABOR AND INDUSTRY
Last Action Date: Apr 25, 2024
Criminals make mockery of Australia's gun ban :: 11/12/2015
Australia’s strict gun-control laws are predictably keeping firearms out of the hands of all groups except one: Criminals.
An analysis of official government statistics shows a spike in gun crime over the last decade, particularly in the states of New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania and Victoria. A full ban on many firearms was established in 1996.
(Photo: The New Daily screenshot)
“The ban on semi-automatics created demand by criminals for other types of guns. The criminals’ gun of choice today is the semi-automatic pistol,” professor Philip Alpers of the University of Sydney told the New Daily Nov. 10.
Some of the newspaper’s findings include:
- Victoria reported 3645 firearms-related charges, a jump of 85 percent from 2005-2006.
- New South Wales reported 3463 firearms charges, up 83 percent on 2005-2006.
- South Australia’s 2014 gun possession and trafficking charges spiked 49 percent from 2010-2011.
- Tasmania’s 2014 unlawful gun possession charges were up 32 percent from 2005-2006.
“Taken together, the data suggests that despite our tough anti-gun laws, thousands of weapons are either being stolen or entering the country illegally. The fourfold rise in handgun-related charges in NSW in the past decade points to the existence of a big illegal market for concealable firearms that seems to have been underestimated in the past,” the newspaper reported.
A sheriff told the New Daily that gun crimes he tended to handle were linked to “mid-level drug crime.”
Gun control advocates in Australia have a new plan for tackling the problem: Ammunition regulations.
“There is very little regulation of ammunition purchase. In most jurisdictions you can purchase ammunition because you have a firearm license and there is no restriction on the type you can purchase – so if you own a rifle you can still purchase ammunition for a handgun,” said Samantha Lee of Gun Control Australia.
Associate Professor Philip Alpers, director of Australia’s Center for Armed Violence Reduction, concurred.
“Gun enthusiasts are quite right when they say guns don’t kill – it’s the bullets that kill,” Alpers said, the newspaper reported. “For many years we just focused on the guns and ignored the ammunition that was lying around – now people are starting to realize that ammunition control is just as important.”
http://www.wnd.com/2015/11/criminals-make-mockery-of-australias-gun-ban/
