I Went After Guns. Obama Can, Too.

[SecularMotion]

By JOHN HOWARD

IT is for Americans and their elected representatives to determine the right response to President Obama’s proposals on gun control. I wouldn’t presume to lecture Americans on the subject. I can, however, describe what I, as prime minister of Australia, did to curb gun violence following a horrific massacre 17 years ago in the hope that it will contribute constructively to the debate in the United States.

I was elected prime minister in early 1996, leading a center-right coalition. Virtually every nonurban electoral district in the country — where gun ownership was higher than elsewhere — sent a member of my coalition to Parliament.

Six weeks later, on April 28, 1996, Martin Bryant, a psychologically disturbed man, used a semiautomatic Armalite rifle and a semiautomatic SKS assault weapon to kill 35 people in a murderous rampage in Port Arthur, Tasmania.

After this wanton slaughter, I knew that I had to use the authority of my office to curb the possession and use of the type of weapons that killed 35 innocent people. I also knew it wouldn’t be easy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/17/opinion/australia-banned-assault-weapons-america-can-too.html?hp&_r=0

[Kolesar]

1. I remember my karate instructor bringing up this ban in 1998

Also, we have no constitutional right to bear arms. (After all, the British granted us nationhood peacefully; the United States had to fight for it.)

And we fought the Mexicans, the Apache, the British, and a launched a gratuitous global conquest against Spain. We are killers.

[jimmy the one]

2. Aussie complaint letter to NRA, ~2000

Bringing up aussie PM John Howard brings back memories:

aussie PM howard, ~2000: “There are many things that Australia can learn from the United States, How to manage firearm ownership is not one of them.”
Australia's gun-related homicide rate was 0.28 per 100,000 people in 1998, compared to 4 per 100,000 in the US, Williams wrote in {a complaint} letter to NRA President Charlton Heston.

mar2000, aftermath of aussie gunbuyback of 96/97: Australian govt officials have accused the National Rifle
Association of using inaccurate statistics in a new television ad about gun crime down under.
The NRA ad, which claims Australia’s recent passage of draconian gun control laws has increased gun crime significantly, is presented as a television news story and claims crimes involving guns have increased in Australia since the laws were introduced in 1996.
Specifically, Australian law now bans private ownership of all semi-automatic rifles, semi-automatic shotguns and pump-action shotguns.
Australian Federal Attorney General Daryl Williams accused the NRA of falsifying government statistics and urged the gun-rights organization to “remove any reference to Australia” from its website.

“I find it quite offensive that the NRA is using the very successful gun reform laws introduced in 1996 as the basis for promoting ownership of firearms in the United States,” Williams said.

The top Australian prosecutor also said he sent a letter to NRA president and actor Charleton Heston asking for an immediate withdrawal of the information. The NRA video claims that following the country’s ban, assaults involving guns rose 28%, gun murders increased 19% and home invasions rose 21%. Though the gun group’s ad does not cite sources, a March WorldNetDaily report gave similar statistics that were provided by an Australian pro-gun organization called the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia. http://www.wnd.com/2000/03/1951/

http://www.texnews.com/guns.texnews/news/aust0325.html

The claim that following the gun ban Australia experienced big increases in crime has been refuted as an urban legend at www.snopes.com, a website that is devoted to exposing urban legends.
Attorney-General of Australia, Daryl Williams, pointed out in letter to Charlton Heston that "firearms are being used less often in murder, attempted murder, assault, sexual assault and armed robbery in 1998 compared with 1997." He also stated in his letter, "The 54 firearm-related homicides in Australia in 1998 equate to a rate of only 0.28 per 100,000 people. I have been advised that this compares to a rate which is in the order of 4 per 100,000 in the United States. Now that you have the facts, I request that you withdraw immediately the misleading information from your latest campaign." http://guninformation.org/

I wanted to post the letter itself, but couldn't readily bring it up.