{"id":7703,"date":"2019-04-04T22:33:49","date_gmt":"2019-04-05T02:33:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thediplomaticenvoy.com\/?p=7703"},"modified":"2019-04-04T22:33:49","modified_gmt":"2019-04-05T02:33:49","slug":"focus-on-firearm-legislation-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/thediplomaticenvoy\/2019\/04\/04\/focus-on-firearm-legislation-australia\/","title":{"rendered":"FOCUS on firearm legislation: Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Adam Varoqua<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><i>Staff Writer <\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The National Firearms Agreement (NFA), a series of \u00a0gun control laws that strictly regulate the ownership of semi-automatic and automatic firearms, heavily influenced Australia\u2019s gun control policies, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/2015\/8\/27\/9212725\/australia-buyback\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Vox<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> reports. The NFA\u2019s pivotal point of enforcement was the institution of a gun buyback program, which resulted in the government buying about 650,000 guns from gun owners. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The firearms purchased in this program were destroyed upon collection, which represented the elimination of 20 percent of privately owned guns within the country. The NFA even banned ownership of certain types of guns, such as shotguns and automatic firearms, with very limited exceptions. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u00a0\u00a0<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">According to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/world\/port-arthur-massacre-shooting-spree-changed-australia-gun-laws-n396476\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">NBC News<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, the NFA\u2019s passage was brought on by a watershed moment: Australia\u2019s Port Arthur Massacre. The massacre occurred in 1996 when Martin Bryant entered a caf\u00e9 located in Port Arthur, Tasmania. Bryant proceeded to pull out a gun and start firing. His killing-spree which resulted in the death of 35 people earned its infamous reputation as the most lethal mass-murderer in Australian history.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">After the massacre, the Australian government quickly introduced the NFA, reports NBC. The Prime Minister at that time, Conservative Party member John Howard, was criticized heavily for the law\u2019s passage. \u201c<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The laws had widespread public support but faced fierce opposition from some rural supporters \u2026 because they believed they were unfairly paying a price for the misdeeds of others,&#8221;<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Howard said to NBC. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Howard went on to remark the NFA\u2019s effectiveness and public good it has raised within the country. He said, \u201c<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">All the credible research both in Australia and elsewhere shows that the gun control laws have markedly reduced gun-related deaths<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">What followed from the NFA was a decline in both the homicide and suicide rate. Homicides decreased by 47 percent within seven years of the law\u2019s passage while the suicide rate decreasing by as much as 57 percent, Vox reports. Within the NFA\u2019s first two years of implementation, Australia experienced the sharpest reduction in homicides it has ever documented.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u00a0<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">As the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/sydney.edu.au\/news-opinion\/news\/2017\/10\/05\/australia-slipping-backwards-on-national-firearms-agreement.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">University of Sydney<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> reports though, not every state within Australia has fully adhered to the NFA. For example, New South Wales allows people to have silencers and go for firearm training even without a firearms license, both of which the NFA prohibits. \u201cEvery jurisdiction has slipped backward by varying degrees,\u201d Associate Professor Philip Alpers of the School of Public Health of the University of Sydney, said. \u201cNew South Wales is the most obvious example of compliance \u2018slippage\u2019.\u201d<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">According to the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/wonk\/wp\/2012\/08\/02\/did-gun-control-work-in-australia\/?utm_term=.cf018efb0316\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Washington Post<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a study that examined the NFA\u2019s effectiveness on reducing homicide rates was not found to be statistically significant. However, the study did find that the decline in suicide rates was statistically significant. Furthermore, <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/fortune.com\/2018\/02\/20\/australia-gun-control-success\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Fortune<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> reports, reduction of overall gun violence and prevention of further mass shootings were apparent after the Australian government took action. Since the NFA\u2019s inception in 2005, Australia has experienced only one mass shooting, a stark contrast to just 18 years prior to the law\u2019s passage, in which 13 mass shootings occurred.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The National Firearms Agreement (NFA), a series of  gun control laws that strictly regulate the ownership of semi-automatic and automatic firearms, heavily influenced Australia\u2019s gun control policies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3722,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1654,1354,382],"tags":[894,945,1340],"class_list":["post-7703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-april-2019","category-world","category-international-news","tag-focus","tag-australia","tag-gun-control"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - 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