Howard's gun buy-back and gun laws had no effect on gun crime. It was a complete waste of taxpayers' money.

Just talking about crime, an interruption in the supply of heroin and better vehicle security are two of the probable causes for a dramatic fall in crime over the past ten years. This is an excerpt from an article by Dr Don Weatherburn, the Director of the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research,

"What's happening to crime? Between 1975 and 2001, crime rates in Australia went through the roof. Burglary, vehicle theft, robbery, assault, sexual assault and fraud rose dramatically.

When the crime wave was at its peak, more than one in 10 NSW households had experienced some form of property crime in the past 12 months (break and enter, attempted break and enter or vehicle theft). More than one in 20 NSW residents aged 15 and over had been assaulted, sexually assaulted or robbed in the previous year.

In the past 10 years there has been a dramatic turnaround in crime.

Unarmed robbery and robberies with a firearm have fallen by 55 per cent, home burglary has fallen by 51 per cent, non-dwelling burglary has fallen by 65 per cent and vehicle thefts have fallen 61 per cent. Other theft offences, such as stealing from a vehicle, have also come down.

You won't read it in the tabloids but property crime in NSW is now at its lowest level in nearly 20 years.
....."

Research, evidence and numbers should advise and underpin policy, not emotional rhetoric.

Link for Don Weatherburn's article,

Half as many murders, and nobody knows why
Don Weatherburn
June 12, 2010

http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/half-as-many-murders-and-nobody-knows-why-20100611-y3fo.html

Crime rates are lower

No gun massacres in Oz

Keep guns restricted

The New South Wales Greens misrepresent that legal gun ownership relates to firearm abuse, but legal firearms ownership is up while crime, including gun crime, is continuing to drop.

However the available evidence points to drugs being implicated in most crime, violence and ownership of illegal weapons.

That is interesting because the Greens are soft on drugs.

Cornflower

"the Greens are soft on drugs" you say, as if there was a Greens government anywhere in Australia and ignoring the fact that your 'hard on drugs' mates, who do run every government in the nation, have not 'solved' the problem of illegal drugs with their 1930s style prohibition laws.

If you were the least bit serious about this, you'd have your own thread calling for the end to widespread booze and gambling and getting up all those governments who were 'soft on booze' and 'soft on gambling', two elements of much crime in our society.

Heh, heh, the utter gall and hypocrisy of the Greens to be falsely blaming and scaremongering against the many thousands of respectable, law-abiding citizens who are licensed firearms owners, when the Greens themselves are soft on the drugs that are responsible for almost all crime, including gun crime in Australia.