Why We Should Have Gun Control-Like Australia

Prior to the Port Arthur Massacre, Australia had very lenient gun laws. The massacre of 35 people with an additional 23 wounded, pushed the then Prime Minister, John Howard, to reform the legislation associated with guns. Since then, firearm related deaths have declined by 47% . However, these statistics do not include illegally owned firearms, and there have been studies conducted showing that these laws have not made a difference.

This essay investigates the Australian gun laws and whether they are effective or not. In particular, with a focus on what the current gun laws are and how they have or have not worked also if they need to be updated. The current gun laws were first introduced by John Howard in 1997 after the mass shooting in Port Arthur where 35 people were killed and a further 18 injured on the 28th of April, 1996 (Sharpe, 2016), the laws were them further improved in 2002, after the Monash University shooting, where a commerce student with mental impairments came in to class armed with 6 loaded handguns, 2 students died and an additional 5 were injured (ABC News, 2015). It has been almost 20 years since the introduction of the current gun laws, the essay

In about every nation, gun control has always been an issue of controversy. Gun control laws are quite different from country to country, each possessing different requirements, specifications, and ordinances, so on and so on. What will be examined are the specified gun control laws in three international countries, ranging from Canada, Australia, and Japan, as well as a comparison and contrast of the the similarities and unique differences toward American gun control laws and those in other countries, and finally, the effects of having loose gun control laws. Unlike America, these countries possess stricter laws regarding gun control.

No issue has dominated America like gun violence. Since the start of 2017 there has been 384 mass shootings in America (Mass Shooting Tracker). These include the horrifying event in Las Vegas, where Stephen Paddock opened fire on a concert from his room at the Mandalay Bay. He ended up killing fifty nine people and injuring around four hundred and fifty people (Mass Shooting Tracker). It also includes the shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas where a gunman entered a church and killed twenty seven people and injured another twenty. Reactions to these types of events are fairly similar. An outcry for background checks and even calls for a ban on all firearms usually follow after these events, and for good reason. The loss of life due to gun violence is becoming all too normal in the United States, but to ban all guns would be ineffective and unethical. This article will show that gun control has not worked in certain places of America and other parts of the world. The article will also describe why it is not a viable solution to ban all guns because it would infringe on the Second Amendment. In addition, the article will also present the opinion of those who think that a ban on all guns is a viable solution. This article will now show examples of gun control not working in the United States and other places of the world.

In the last ten months, since the start of the year 2015, proximally 300 mass shootings have taken place in the United States. This number is about 100 times the amount of mass shootings in Australia since their gun restricting bill was passed in 1996. This raises the discussion whether or not changing the American gun laws would help bring down the total of injuries and fatalities.

On a seemingly normal day on the 29th of April 1996, an average looking 28 year old male, Martin Bryant, ate lunch and approached a café in Port Arthur, Tasmania. The man pulled a semi-automatic rifle from a bag, relentlessly killing 35 innocent people and injuring another 23. The Port Arthur massacre was a pinnacle turning point in Australia’s history as the prime minister of the time, John Howard, introduced the National Firearms Agreement, banning all semi-automatic and automatic rifles alongside pump action shotguns http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/port-arthur-massacre-shooting-spree-changed-australia-gun-laws-n396476. Ever since the introduction of the National Firearms Agreement, Australian citizens have not been victims of mass shootings

Since Howard’s reforms have been put in place a mass shooting has still not occurred in Australia to this day. The fact that before the reforms were put in place in 1996, thirteen mass shootings had occurred since 1979, the gun control reforms made Australia a safer and more secure country (Donohue, 2015). The reforms that were put in place made sure that guns typically used in massacres were banned and around 700000 guns were confiscated and dismantled, which were given up by the population cooperatively. The new reforms also implemented that people needed a valid reason to now own a legal gun, which had to be approved by the police and then could finally, be purchased from a licensed arms dealer. Owning a gun for self-defence was and still

There have been many incidents in the past based on the lack of gun control. These incidents range from an incident with one other person to mass shootings. There are three big issues that woke up our society: the Trayvon Martin case, the Colorado movie theater murders, and recently the San Bernardino shooting. These incidents will help illustrate the reasons why we need stricter gun control.

Epidemiologic Reviews, found that “law restrictions on owning and purchasing guns was followed by a drop in gun violence, indicating that government imposed restraints to gun access can save lives”. If our nation imposed tighter gun control laws like the Australian government, we would see a drop in gun-related violence across America.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the United States experiences epidemic levels of gun violence, claiming over 30,000 lives annually. For every person who dies from a gunshot wound, two others are wounded. In America, there are approximately 270 million firearms possessed by civilians, and only 897,000 carried by police. Every year, approximately 100,000 Americans are victims of gun violence. In addition to those who are killed or injured, there are countless others whose lives are forever changed by the deaths of and injuries to their loved ones. (Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence).

Many countries have implicated stricter gun control laws which has in fact, caused there to be less acts of gun violence. For example, Australia has the National Agreement on firearms which has prohibited semiautomatic and automatic assault rifles. and has implicated a law forcing everyone to register and get a license to purchase a firearm. Unfortunately, these restrictions were enforced due to the most tragic mass shooting in the nations history. The Port Arthur massacre of 1996, where a man killed 35 innocent people and wounded almost 2 dozen others. Now, Australia has less than three hundred people killed per year. That is an outstanding number compared to the 32,000 people killed each year in the United States by

Gun control has been very controversial in the past years. It is written in the second amendment of the Constitution that civilians have the right to bear arms. This amendment was made so that civilians can create a militia if the situation called for one. However, guns allow people to kill a large amount civilians with ease. Allowing people to freely wield guns without a thorough back ground check can potentially cause harm to innocent bystanders because of an outdated amendment that was made 200 years ago.

Former Governor of New York Eliot Spitzer once said "Yes, people pull the trigger - but guns are the instrument of death. Gun control is necessary, and delay means more death and horror". Spitzer’s words makes one think: should we fear the person behind the gun or the gun itself? The majority of violent crimes that happen in America are not only caused by a criminal, but also the weapon in which the criminal is holding. America’s gun violence problem stems from the increasing accessibility of firearms. Many of the mass shootings in America could have been prevented if access to semi-automatic and automatic weapons were completely banned. Gun violence is an arising issue, and a change needs to be made concerning the gun laws in the U.S. Stricter gun control laws is necessary to prevent high accessibility to firearms and mass shootings, also research shows that Australia’s strict gun control laws are proven to be more efficient in preventing gun violence.

Guns will be used to kill at least 30,000 people this year in America alone, 30 people per day. Australia however, will not have nearly as many gun-related deaths because Australia has a ban on most firearms, and a gun buyback program. Because of this Australia hasn’t had a mass shooting since 1996. No one outside of law enforcement and military should be able to acquire firearms of any time, because with a limited access to guns, there will be a decrease in gun-related crimes and deaths.

In the wake of a tragic shooting in the Charleston’s historic black church, it is advised for the United States federal governments to conduct another amendment regarding its implementation of the new-stricter gun laws. Australia’s gun laws reformation can be looked at as a positive example. First point can be the prohibition of firearms trade for private ownership without any logical reason of what the intention for owning the gun. Second point can be the registration requirements for all gun buyers in the market so that all firearms that are being sold will be individually registered to their licensed owners under the government officials record. Third point can be the limitation of gun sales quota, given the fact that according to Griffin