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CLASS President, Peter
Whelan, is critical of Tim
Fischer's conclusions on "Howard's Legacy" in
the
Australian Financial
Review
The
Australian Financial Review
has
published a letter from
one-time Howard government minister
and deputy Prime Minister, Tim Fischer,
commenting on John Howard's
"Legacy". CLASS President
Peter Whelan has refuted
Mr. Fischer's conclusions in
a letter to the Editor of
the Financial
Review.
"Mr. Tim Fischer of Boree
Creek (AFR letters, Jan 2nd
2008) is correct in one
aspect of his comments on
the Barry Jones article (AFR
Dec. 28 2007); no analysis
of the Howard years would be
complete without considering
John Howard’s 1996 gun laws.
However, Mr. Fischer’s view
of the results is totally
incorrect, when comparing US
and Australian statistics.
In Australia, “gun deaths”
had fallen by 50% in the 15
years before the 1996 gun
laws, as other methods of
murder and suicide
increased. There was no
change in that trend after
the 1996 gun bans. It is
clear that such bans have
had no effect on criminal
activity, but have severely
restricted the freedom of
law abiding firearms owners
to pursue their sport.
Latest data from the
Australian Institute of
Criminology indicates that
murder increased by 14% in
2005/06, with most murders
not involving guns, but
knives, blunt objects and
brute force. The previous
record high murder rate was
in 2001/02, when it
increased by 20%.
With serious assaults
occurring at 5 times the
population increase, the
murder rate in recent years
may have been much higher,
but many victims were saved
by timely medical
intervention. If only the
money wasted on gun crushing
had been invested in the
medical system, the whole
community would have been a
lot better off.
In the case of USA, data
released by the FBI (in
2006) showed violent crime
rates had fallen
dramatically in the period
since 1991, with murder
dropping by a massive 43%.
John Howard was ill-advised
when he demanded that
perfectly good firearms
owned by law abiding
citizens should be collected
and crushed. In no other
country had gun bans or
firearm registration been
shown to reduce crime. If
anything it diverts valuable
police resources from
tackling real criminal
activity.
In most western countries
(e.g. New Zealand and
Canada) licenced gun owners
may own and use
semi-automatic rifles and
shotguns which are banned in
Australia. In China and
Korea, children can still
play with toy guns which in
Australia are classed as
“prohibited replica
handguns”.
The Coalition lost one
million votes in the 1998
federal election;
coincidentally that was the
approximate number of
licenced gun owners!
The National party has been
in decline ever since. For
example in Qld the Nationals
after 1996 lost 30% of their
members and 60% of their
funding. Many Liberal party
branches across the country
folded after those 1996 gun
laws.
It should be noted that as a
result of “Howard’s Legacy”,
voters in each of the States
and Territories which had
Coalition Governments in
1996, voted them out at
subsequent elections; in NSW
the Labor Government
increased its majority.
Perhaps Mr. Fischer would
like to explain why he
refused to stand up for the
rights of farmers, hunters,
target shooters etc. to go
about their activities
without such massive amount
of government interference.
Peter Whelan
President
Coalition of Law Abiding
Sporting Shooters Inc
CLASS Action.
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