It must be that time of year again. Almost on a yearly basis, Gun Control Australia does a media release bemoaning the numbers of firearms stolen over an extended period. What they don’t do is delineate a problem.
Carlo Di Falco said “If the numbers of firearms that have been stolen from firearm owners has doubled, then using their scenario of these all getting into the hands of criminals, why hasn’t the gun murder rate doubled? Because legal firearms owners are not a problem.
The latest Homicide Monitoring Program Report (2013/14) states that of the 253 murders that occurred that year, only 32 involved firearms. Expressed as a percentage of Australia’s 24.6 million population, it comes to 0.00013%.
During the same 10-year period, the gun murders have remained stable and had been decreasing for at least 20 years since before the 1996-gun laws. According to the ABS, armed robbery (not all involve firearms) increased 7% in 2016 – the first increase since 2010.
Di Falco went on to say “I applied for a Right to Information request in December 2015 asking Tasmania Police how many stolen firearms have been used in the commission of crime. To date the Police cannot give the Ombudsman the figures despite $ 1.2 million from the public purse being used to fund the Firearms Registry”.
GCA is unable to show cause and effect with relation to stolen firearms.
If they were fair dinkum in relation to preventing thefts, they would support the SFFP calling for mandatory minimum sentences for recidivist firearms thieves and criminals using firearms in the commission of a crime.
This is not as far-fetched as it seems. In the US, convicted felons caught in possession of a firearm face a mandatory 5-year sentence. This is not a bad place to start.
GCA is not interested in stopping firearm thefts, only victim blaming gun owners and unnecessarily frightening the public.
Carlo Di Falco Firearm Spokesman Shooters Fishers and Farmers party
