Gwion wrote:In Australia, on average, firearms traditionally account for well under 1/3 the total murder rate......
And added to that, how many of those murders (or suicides) would still have occurred if there wasn't a firearm available as well:
If someone is intent on killing someone else - a firearm isn't the only weapon. Removing them (if it was possible) from criminals wouldn't stop murders - they'd just move onto the next available option.
Remember the mother who murdered 8 children in Cairns a little over a year ago. If she had access to a firearm she may have used that. The stats and media would have blamed the firearm as the problem. Yet she didn't have access to a firearm, and it
did not stop her from committing murder.
But taking away guns from LFO's and leaving them in the hands of the criminals makes many people feel like they're contributing positively to society and sleep better at night. Truth doesn't matter - just our ideologies.