Katz:
Total Firearm-Related Deaths:
USA: 10.27
Australia: 2.94
The law abiding people haven't offed enough criminals yet.
What's really happening in Australia?
In light of some recent press reports, I've done some research that you'll probably find valuable.
The anti-gun community has questioned the NRA's statements that Australia's crime rates have risen due to their recent gun bans. The NRA reported some dramatic findings, including that the armed robbery rate rose 44% within 12 months of the ban. Anti-gunners are now saying that the NRA is wrong because Australia's murder rate is down. Who is right? I'll give you the details and sources here.
In simplest terms, the NRA is correct (albeit a few minor discrepancies). To confuse matters, the anti-gunners are also technically correct, but they're clearly distorting the big picture.
Both sides are quoting the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). Fortunately, ABS's web site posts all of these key statistics. (Their home page can be found at Australian Bureau of Statistics and the statistics in question can be found at Error 404 +-+A+Statistical+Profile/2C2A842ACC44F31DCA2567220072E990/ (Error 404) ).
The gun ban occurred in 1996. So we're most concerned with what happened to crime rates in the following 12 months. The NRA claimed the following statistics (from 1996 to 1997):
Armed-robberies rose 44%
Assaults rose 8.6%
Homicides rose 3.2%
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) at the above web addresses, the following statistics are shown (from 1996 to 1997):
Armed robberies rose 44.7% (6,256 to 9,054).
Assaults rose 9.1% (114,156 to 124,500).
Murders rose 2.9% (312 to 321).
This would lead us to believe that the NRA slightly underestimated the rise in armed robberies and assaults and slightly overestimated the rise in the murder rate. These small discrepancies might be accounted for in the fact that crime statistics are often changed by small amounts later in the year as more data becomes available. Whatever the reason, the NRA's statistics are well in line with the latest data available.
The anti-gunners insist that murders are down. According to the ABS, they're correct - but only if you look at the data from the next year. There were 321 murders in 1997 and 284 in 1998 - an 11.5% decrease. The NRA is correct that the murder rate increased from 1996 to 1997 and the anti-gunners are correct that it fell from 1997 to 1998.