The Australian government has collected from the population record harvest of weapons
During the three-month Amnesty for citizens surrendered more than 50 thousand illegal guns.
Today, Australian authorities has announced the results of a three-month gun Amnesty, which ended on September 30. After counting it turned out that citizens brought to the authorities 51 461 firearm, which was stored in them illegally. If in the first two months, the population disarmed, not very willingly, surrendering a total of about 25 thousand units, over the past month the rate of delivery of the weapon doubled in the end, a record high. Almost half of the one handed weapons — 24 of 965 units — occurred in the most populous state, New South Wales, which is the largest city of the country Sydney. However, the authorities estimate, that’s only a fifth of the total number of illegal firearms, which is still in the country. Therefore, the government has promised to continue to take measures for the withdrawal from circulation of unregistered weapons, that started in the late 1990-ies.
On these measures, the government of Australia went under public pressure after in April 1996 in Port Arthur (Tasmania) was so-called massacre in Port Arthur. 28-year-old Australian Martin Bryant shot from a semiautomatic AR-15 rifle with a telescopic sight, visitors of local cafes, killing 35 and injuring 22 people. As a result of stricter gun laws and few gun amnesties, Australian authorities have recorded a significant decline in crimes involving firearms. If in 1996, the country suffered from such crimes 98 people, in 2014 — 35. If since the beginning of the 1980s to 1996, Australia had 13 mass shootings, which killed 104 people, after 1996 mass shooting.
The recent mass shooting in Las Vegas was caused in Australia a lively discussion: many of the media and public figures said that the US authorities for one reason or another can’t or don’t want to take real action to curb violence with a firearm. “And here again, as after the events in Orlando — we’ll sit and discuss mass shooting in the USA”, — was stated in the broadcast on Australian television. The Australian media has repeatedly criticized the U.S. government for a lack of hard measures. “In the United States too immature a society to allow him to play with firearms, wrote the Australian newspaper the Sydney Morning Herald.— There is not yet got rid of psychology “wild West”. Americans still use their own courts to kill people, and it gives the community a certain message.” After the shooting in Las Vegas, Prime Minister of Australia Malcolm Turnbull said: “the Killer from Vegas had a collection of semi-automatic weapons, which a man like he just couldn’t buy in our country.”