What Hasbeen and Mhaze said.
Alan B.

Ttnb

You may be right that culture is a factor, but there are far fewer mass shootings, murders, suicides and accidental deaths caused by firearms in Australia nowadays than there were before we tightened gun laws. Why would we want to go back?

And what Leyonhjelm wants is to shift our culture closer to that of the USA, where owning firearms is considered a right and is a core issue for like-minded libertarians.

MHaze

You are right, most gun deaths in the USA are suicides, and if suicidal Australians simply shifted from using guns to other methods when gun laws were tightened, then the drop in gun-related deaths would overstate the impact of tighter gun laws on the overall death rate.

But the data show that suicide rates in Australia dropped dramatically after we tightened gun laws, especially among men, reversing what had been an upwards trend. It is well known than women are more likely to attempt suicide, but men are more likely to actually die by suicide, because they tend to choose more rapid and violent means, such as guns. So a reduction in total male suicides was actually one of the biggest benefits of Australia’s tighter gun laws.

https://www.aihw.gov.au/getmedia/fef61104-dbe5-4f91-bdb2-fc50f7c55177/Suicide-self-harm-monitoring-Data.pdf.aspx?inline=true

Switzerland is an interesting case, often cited in the USA as an example of why high levels of gun ownership do not necessarily lead to high levels of gun deaths. It has mandatory military service for men, and the government provides all men aged 18-34 considered “fit for service” with a rifle or pistol, which they are allowed to buy once they complete military service. Historically this led to very high gun ownership levels. So I don’t think that Australia’s gun ownership and usage patterns will ever be “like Switzerland”.

Both gun ownership and gun-related deaths have fallen sharply in recent years as government policies have changed, so even in Switzerland there is clearly a very strong correlation between gun ownership and gun deaths. And despite the steep recent decline, at 2.84 deaths per 100,000 people, its gun-related death rate is about three times higher than Australia’s.

https://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/switzerland

I Remember my big brothers having their rifles from Military Service at home afterwards & there were periodic inspections. In all my 19 years in the old country in Europe I’ve never heard of a gun related incident. As I keep saying, it’s a matter of culture & mentality .
If there were to be a survey it’d be found that gun related assaults in Australia are mostly committed by non-Europeans.

Indy

Are you still claiming the 51 murders in Christchurch NZ, was a case of revenge, and not mass murder, carried out by a white Anglo boy.

Your claim that most gun murders in Australia are carried out by non Europeans is nonsense, just your racial bias. As for the old country, WWII 60 million Europeans murdered by other Europeans.

Paul1405,
Who do you think instigated or rather set the example for that NZ atrocity . I don’t know why that bloke did what he did but I’m pretty sure I know where he got the idea from !
The Germans of 80 years ago did what they did because of a very similar reason the Russians are doing what they’re doing now, self preservation of their society. To protect themselves from the likes of you. Taking the old adage of “you got to be cruel to be kind” is extreme but as you keep providing the proof for, basic kindness doesn’t work.

Indy,

Mass murder of others in the name of self preservation and revenge, is that your idea of "harmony"? Mass sackings of public servants, forcing the young into compulsory boot camps, persecution of gays, Aboriginals and lefties etc, are part of your brave new world of "harmony". Come off it, harmony to you is everyone agreeing with you, end of story.