Didn’t expect this from academia

[womble]

It’s not in a negative light.

https://theconversation.com/whats-behind-the-rise-in-gun-ownership-in-australia-263810

Quote “ This suggests there is little relationship between levels of legal gun ownership in Australia and levels of firearm violence and misuse.”

Give yourself a pat on the back hey.

[bigrich]

It’s not in a negative light.

https://theconversation.com/whats-behind-the-rise-in-gun-ownership-in-australia-263810

Quote “ This suggests there is little relationship between levels of legal gun ownership in Australia and levels of firearm violence and misuse.”

Give yourself a pat on the back hey.

i read that early this morning . was surprised at the factual , mostly unbiased ,neutral tone in the article.

[bladeracer]

It’s not in a negative light.

https://theconversation.com/whats-behind-the-rise-in-gun-ownership-in-australia-263810

Quote “ This suggests there is little relationship between levels of legal gun ownership in Australia and levels of firearm violence and misuse.”

Give yourself a pat on the back hey.

I'm impressed!

"Dr McPhedran's research expertise includes gun violence and injury prevention, homicide, domestic and family violence, firearms legislation and policy, and social and health policy analysis. In addition to her academic role at Griffith University, she is also the Executive Director (Analysis, Policy and Strategy) at the Violence Prevention Institute Australia."

I would love to see shooters all over Australia messaging her to let her know how much we appreciate another factual article from her, instead of the usual vilification we expect of the press.

[alexjones]

More guns now in the country however less people own them. So it is less people owning more guns.

[womble]

More guns now in the country however less people own them. So it is less people owning more guns.

Not according to the article.

More people owning more guns.

[bigrich]

More guns now in the country however less people own them. So it is less people owning more guns.

Not according to the article.

More people owning more guns.

great , isn't it

[alexjones]

More guns now in the country however less people own them. So it is less people owning more guns.

Not according to the article.

More people owning more guns.

1m gun owners in the country with 4m guns. There were more than 1m gun owners before 1996. So many homes had a gun lying around.

[str8shutr]

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/aug/25/australias-gun-lobby-says-its-winning-the-fight-against-firearm-control-as-numbers-surge
Cutting through the hyperbole of what I'd expect is an outlier of the 400 firearm owning individual referenced in the article, the issue (for me anyway) is not that person.

Think of the current example of the dude who has gone to ground in Victoria after gunning down 2 police officers. According to news reports that I've come across, he supposedly had his licence revoked. Presumably his legally registered firearms were dealt with then. So, if all that fits, then he must have stashed some illegal "spares".
With the reality of 3D printing, going of grid is all too doable.

So, getting excited about legit firearm owners seems to be more about political sop rather than dealing with real root causes.

As a counter perspective, talk to a bicycle rider about the lethality of a car. Somehow, that interaction is managed.

I'd suggest that there's enough of a regime in place for legit firearms. Maybe a national database - might actually happen after recent events ? - but that won't stop the bad actors or individuals who are seriously desperate. They'll just use something else or go off grid thanks to the wonders of technology.

[deye243]

Hope you don't expect anything of any consequence to come out of that for any politician in this country to pick this up and run with it

[womble]

More guns now in the country however less people own them. So it is less people owning more guns.

Not according to the article.

More people owning more guns.

1m gun owners in the country with 4m guns. There were more than 1m gun owners before 1996. So many homes had a gun lying around.

Point being it’s a growing sport, not a declining one. There are significant increases in license uptakes.

Population of Australia in 96 was 18 million. And obviously mostly coastal cities. Hard to say what percentage had guns. A lot of people had a 22 or an air rifle in the cupboard but never used it. Remnants from the rabbit plagues.

[womble]

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/aug/25/australias-gun-lobby-says-its-winning-the-fight-against-firearm-control-as-numbers-surge
Cutting through the hyperbole of what I'd expect is an outlier of the 400 firearm owning individual referenced in the article, the issue (for me anyway) is not that person.

Think of the current example of the dude who has gone to ground in Victoria after gunning down 2 police officers. According to news reports that I've come across, he supposedly had his licence revoked. Presumably his legally registered firearms were dealt with then. So, if all that fits, then he must have stashed some illegal "spares".
With the reality of 3D printing, going of grid is all too doable.

So, getting excited about legit firearm owners seems to be more about political sop rather than dealing with real root causes.

As a counter perspective, talk to a bicycle rider about the lethality of a car. Somehow, that interaction is managed.

I'd suggest that there's enough of a regime in place for legit firearms. Maybe a national database - might actually happen after recent events ? - but that won't stop the bad actors or individuals who are seriously desperate. They'll just use something else or go off grid thanks to the wonders of technology.

Hospitals are full of cyclists and these new stupid electric scooters.

Given his age and that he’s a long term fruit loop he probably had a few guns stashed away he never registered. Registration was your onus before 96 in vic. You had to take the gun into the cop shop after your bought it and register it. All paper records, dealers and police. Not well kept.

And then the guns people had that they weren’t allowed to have anymore. Some handed them in. Some didn’t. Not a great deal we’re handed in overall though. The country had previously imported hundreds of thousands cheap chinese semi autos. Where are they now. Who knows.

But I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s running around with his dusted of skk or something.

He’s a worry. He’s got a long history of shooting.. He could pick them of from a distance. And he has a target rich environment.

[womble]

Hope you don't expect any of any consequence politician in this country to pick this up and run with it

Of course they won’t.

It dose’nt fit their narrative.

It is interesting that it discredits their narrative entirely. More guns does not equate to more homicide, suicide, violence.

Because we’ve just proved the opposite in our country over a 30 year case study. We’ve shown an increase in responsible gun ownership alongside a consistent decline in all above.

And there are many countries where the opposite is also true.

But they always default to US statistics which is so irrelevant to here.

It’s the people, not the guns. The US is full of psychos. And their gun culture is not shared here.

[bigrich]

this brilliant woman has just weighed in on the kneejerk reaction to getting the national firearms register up and running over the current shooting deaths in vic . she's saying looking at the reasons behind these types of incidents is the answer , not more laws . full article was with chanel 9 , storey by daniel Jeffery. i'd put up a link but i'm a tech dummy

[deye243]

Hope you don't expect any of any consequence politician in this country to pick this up and run with it

Of course they won’t.

It dose’nt fit their narrative.

It is interesting that it discredits their narrative entirely. More guns does not equate to more homicide, suicide, violence.

Because we’ve just proved the opposite in our country over a 30 year case study. We’ve shown an increase in responsible gun ownership alongside a consistent decline in all above.

And there are many countries where the opposite is also true.

But they always default to US statistics which is so irrelevant to here.

It’s the people, not the guns. The US is full of psychos. And their gun culture is not shared here.

Yep ...... I'm going to have to start reading what I post before I hit submit

[alexjones]

More laws is never the answer.

[womble]

More laws is never the answer.

Definitely agree. They just invent a new law for the same thing to make it look like they’re doing something. Only ends up being an unnecessary inconvenience for people who follow the law anyway.

I don’t have high expectations for a national registry that actually works. They have enough trouble getting the state ones to work. Never ending problems. Never accurate and up to date.
They just don’t allocate the staff and infrastructure. National would be a massive undertaking and then someone would just come along and cut all its funding.
We really need a separate government body to represent and regulate our interests. They police have better things to do.

Criminals, criminal gangs, organised crime. They’re all armed to the teeth nowadays. Police looking up a register to check if a perpetrator is armed is naive. They should just assume as much.

You look at the crime syndicates bringing in hundreds of containers of illegal cigarettes. For some reason these containers don’t get checked. Come from the same countries with the biggest trades in illicit arms.

[alexjones]

When I did not have my drivers licence at the RBT the cop used my name and date of birth and he could see I had a gun licence. Took him like 3 minutes.

[daza]

More laws is never the answer.

Except our governments don't want to fix the problem, any problem, they only want to LOOK like there are "Doing something about it!" at the lowest possible cost.