A few months ago the the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed that
the total number of gun deaths in Australia for year 2003, was 290.
This figure shows that there has been a great reduction in yearly gun
deaths since governments started to introduce stricter gun laws a
decade and a half ago. Here is the 2003 breakdown of gun deaths.
- By Category:
- Accident 40
- Suicide 193
- Homicide 54
- Legal etc. 3
- By State:
- New South Wales 97
- Victoria 50
- Queensland 75
- South Australia 17
- Western Australia 28
- Tasmania 15
- NT and ACT 8
The total gun death figure of 290 compares most favourably with the
figures of the 1970′s and 1980′s when 700 was a typical approx. figure.
Thus we are witnessing the fact that because of the steady increase in
gun controls over 400 fewer Australian die from gun wounds each year
compared with two decades ago.
We should all jump for joy with this improvement but the gun lobby
seems to us to find the lower figures distasteful. There are a number
of reasons for this and perhaps they should be made public. GCA was
represented at a recent criminology conference and the representatives
of the Sporting Shooters Association could find few words to praise the
success of our gun laws, indeed, their lecture presentation appeared to
concentrate on how unsuccessful our gun laws were.
In the next news report we will try to analyse the curious attitude to
improved gun laws which some shooter groups adopt.