Even The Guardian Knows Aussie Gun Control has Failed

I remember the time then-President Barack Obama said he really liked the Australian gun control system. It’s what he wanted for this country, which is why I’m damned glad he never got the chance.

A lot of other people like that system. It’s the system Gabby Giffords’ aide tried to say she favored after she said “no more guns.”

After all, those folks say it works. Just look at Australia.

Well, yeah, let’s do that.

In fact, let’s look at how The Guardian frames Australia’s gun control efforts.

But while Australia has long been heralded as the gold standard for gun control, almost 30 years later, the landscape is shifting.

Gun numbers are on the rise – there are now more than 4m firearms in the Australian community, almost double the 2.2m weapons recorded in 2001, after the national firearms agreement, according to a report commissioned by gun safety groups.

At least 2,000 new guns are lawfully entering the community every week.

And while the number of gun licence holders per capita has gone down as Australia’s population has soared, there is now a larger number of guns in the community per capita than there was in the immediate aftermath of the crackdown.

That’s because the number of guns each licence holder has is going up – gun owners now average more than four firearms for each licence. In Sydney New South Wales firearm register data shows that there are more than 70 individuals who own more than 100 firearms. (Crucially, these are not deemed to be collectors, whose weapons are not functional.)

And, despite the Howard reforms promising uniform gun laws throughout Australia and the establishment of a national firearm register, 30 years later this is not a reality.

…

There are also growing concerns about weapons that circumvent the gun licensing system entirely. 3D-printed firearms of increasing sophistication are now routinely seized by police as Australians tap into an online ecosystem that glorifies a so-called “unlimited right to keep and bear arms”.

“We all got together after Port Arthur and everybody pulled together with the ban [on some semi-automatic and pump-action firearms] and the buyback,” said Andrew Hemming, an expert in criminal law at the University of Southern Queensland. “Well, the reality is … if anybody can make one, the sands have shifted and it’s only a question of time.”

Once again, you cannot stop criminals from getting guns.

The piece went on to note that the Australian “gun lobby” argues that it’s not lawful gun owners who are the problem, and they’re right. As Hemming almost seems to argue, if anyone can make a gun, then trying to stop people from buying guns is a waste of time.

3D printing was always the death knell for gun control. The moment it became clear you could make a gun, the ability to control guns was good and dead. It never worked as designed, but now it’s downright impossible to even minimize the number of guns in private hands.

And it’s not like Australia was really that free from massacres since Port Arthur.

Just four years later, a man burned down a hostel, killing 15 backpackers. In 2009. A man started a brushfire that killed 11 people. Then, just a couple of years later, a nurse at a retirement home set fire to the place, also killing 11 people.

In fact, arson is a surprisingly common means for mass killers, but let’s not worry about that. Let’s just focus on guns, and then do so in a way that doesn’t actually stop criminals.

After all, I didn’t mention the guy who went on a rampage in a motel with a pump-action shotgun, killing four.

So no, the gun control never stopped mass killings. Now, it’s not stopping anyone who wants a gun from getting one, either.

It’s time to scuttle the whole thing and to recognize that guns save lives. Australia, though, doesn’t have a Second Amendment, which is why they’re in this mess in the first place.

Barack Obama can like their scheme all he wants. It’s just clear that it’s a good thing he never got his way.

Editor’s Note: President Trump and Republicans across the country are doing everything they can to protect our Second Amendment rights and right to self-defense, unlike what President Obama favored during his presidency.

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