Saturday - February 25, 2006

Gun Control Down Under

If you read only one thing this week, it absolutely must be this editorial by Howard Nemerov. Nemerov examines the factual statistics gathered over the last ten years since Australia banned possession of firearms. Here is all the ammunition (pardon the pun) you need the next time some Liberal gun-control freak starts screaming at you.

Read this editorial all the way through, let the facts sink in and then go to the NRA’s web site, sign up and learn about firearms safety and what you can do to keep the Congresstards from disarming us all and turning us into a nation of sheep who will be at the mercy of criminals that, even if caught, our courts will let go free to continue to plague us. Do the right thing. Do it now ...

In 1996, Australia invoked massive gun control following a mass murder, where a mentally ill man used firearms to commit the crime.  The government reacted by effectively banning all semi-automatic firearms.  One could apply for a license to own a weapon, but had to show ‘’a legitimate purpose and fitness of character (’genuine reason and need for owning, possessing or using a firearm’), conform to stringent safe storage requirements, and undertake safety training if a new licensee.’’

As with the UK study, it is important to establish a pre-ban baseline and then compare it to similar research after the ban to determine crime trends.  For this purpose, we can examine statistics from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, as compiled and reported by the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC).  It is interesting to note that the AIC has many ‘’stakeholders’’ from the Australian national and state governments.

Here are some key findings about Australian crime trends for the period of 1995 (pre-ban) to 2001 (post-ban):

• The rate of assault has increased steadily from 563 victims per 100,000 people in 1995 to 779 per 100,000 people in 2001.


• In 2001 the rate for robbery peaked at 136 per 100,000 people—the highest recorded since 1995.


• The rate of sexual assault was 86 per 100,000 people, which is higher than any previous year.

Here is the comparison in violent crime trends between Australia and the United States for the period of 1995 to 2001, calculating rates by dividing the number of crimes reported by the population figures.

Crime	Australia	USA
Homicide	-11%	-32%
Assault	+39%	-24%
Rape	+19%	-14%
Robbery	+70%	-33%

It is also interesting to note that violent crime rates are higher in Australia.  Following are selected comparisons for violent crime rates per 100,000 people in 2001.  While homicide is lower and robbery is similar, assault and rape occur more than twice as often in Australia, proving that when the physically weaker are barred from possessing the best tool for self-defense, they are rendered helpless.  As with England, women pay the price when politicians use tragedy as an excuse to eliminate armed threat to their power.

Crime	Australia	USA
Homicide	1.8	5.6
Assault	779	319
Rape	86	32
Robbery	136	146

To summarize, we see a dramatic rise in violent crime in Australia since the gun ban, along with a relatively flat trend in property crime rates, demonstrating the criminals’ understanding of the basic principles of cost/benefit analysis, choosing the quicker method of confronting an unarmed victim.  At the same time, the USA saw significant drops in both violent and property crime rates, proving the adage that an armed society is a polite--and safer--society.

We are a world at war, where concepts can manifest as improvement in the general welfare of all, or as holocaust.  Just as the criminal justifies robbery, rape, and murder out of selfish necessity and expedience, groups of individuals can justify destruction and death through their imagined superiority due to differences in philosophy, culture, religion, or variations in skin pigmentation.  It starts with the belief that others are essentially stupid, bad, or not trustworthy, and not worthy of being treated with respect and decency, resulting in tyranny and genocide.

Many individuals believe in their own manifest unworthiness.  They are overwhelmed with the choices freedom offers, and prefer the apparent safety of slavery.  When offered freedom from choice by a government that says they will provide safety by taking responsibility for making all those terrifying choices, this is too tempting an offer to ignore. The fact that history teaches a consistent lesson about this process is subsumed by the delusional belief that ‘’this time it will be different.’’ Of course, even this part of choice happens only if people study history.  When government controls public education, history can be ignored, or revised to create the fantasy world that suits the desired outcome, making it even easier to shepherd people into the only apparent choice available.  The reality of history shows how this works, always ending with a ruling elite controlling 99% of all wealth and power.

Arrayed against these forces of darkness are those who believe that most people are essentially good; that most people, if allowed to pursue their life goals in an atmosphere of liberty, will create goodness which benefits society.  They understand that with freedom of choice goes responsibility, and do not flinch from this reality.  They understand that they may fail in some undertakings, but rather than considering themselves failures, they learn from experience, consider setbacks challenges rather than obstacles, and persist until they prevail.  When they band together to create a country, it is founded on the belief of liberty and justice for all, and manifests an economy that is the dynamo for, and envy of, the rest of the world; such is our country.

Self-defense is a heavy choice.  For the weak-willed, it is too much to undertake, and they prefer not only that government take on that responsibility, but that it do so even for those who are willing to assume personal responsibility for their choice.  Thus, we have supporters of gun control.  Those in government who offer the promise--not ever based in reality--of defending us from predators are the ones who wish to repeat history and become the next ruling elite, themselves becoming the dominant predators.

Indeed, if you take a life in self-defense, you will be judged, though not necessarily to the negative side of the ledger, so to speak.  It takes character, courage, and skill, but most of all, it takes reverence for life, for if you are unwilling to assume responsibility for your life, you have no life.

English philosopher Edmund Burke said, ‘’All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing.’’ Again, we are faced with a choice, against which the future of this country is balanced. Do nothing about gun control, and we become subjects, as the people of England and Australia are discovering they still are. Then we progress from subjects to peasants, to serfs, to slaves, finally free from the oft-painful necessity of choice.

In America, the choice is still yours, and remember: not choosing, or not acting on that choice, is a choice for tyranny, a choice to sell your children into slavery. 

References:

(1) What Gun Controllers Don’t Want You to Know
http://www.chronwatch.com/content/contentDisplay.asp?aid=7862

(2) The Australian Government Structure, Alan Quartly, Pagewise, 2002.
http://me.essortment.com/australiangover_rbpt.htm

(3) Australia: A Massive Buyback of Low-Risk Guns, Reuter and Mouzos, 2002.
http://www.puaf.umd.edu/faculty/papers/reuter/gun%20chapter.pdf

(4) Australian Institute of Criminology Online Action Plan, May, 2002, page 1.
http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/APCITY/UNPAN003990.pdf

(5) Australian Crime Facts and Figures 2002, Australian Institute of Criminology, November, 2002, page 7.
http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/facts/2002/facts_and_figures_2002.pdf

Posted by The Skipper     on 02/25/2006 at 01:20 PM   
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