Observation of other developed nations shows that, however.
Let's look at New Zealand, Australia, Britain, France, the Netherlands and Sweden......
New Zealand.....
In fact, according to the country’s latest crime statistics, things
seem to be getting worse.
Rates of injury and death caused by firearms are tracking higher than ever before.
Data released by police under the Official Information Act shows 10 murder or manslaughter deaths in 2022, up until 31 July. There were 11 in total in 2021.
Injuries are also running at a record rate, on track to exceed 300 firearm-related injuries for the first time. In 2021, there were 298 gun-related injuries recorded by police, the highest ever.
https://archive.ph/xwx0B
Netherlands...
Dutch murder total up 6%, Rotterdam the new murder capital with 16 victims in 2022
A total of 133 victims in 128 separate cases were killed by murder or manslaughter in the Netherlands last year, according to preliminary figures collected by
the Telegraaf. Rotterdam will take the dubious title of murder capital of the Netherlands for 2022. Sixteen people were killed by violence there. The city is followed by Amsterdam, where eleven people were killed.
Dutch murder total up 6%, Rotterdam the new murder capital with 16 victims in 2022
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France...
In 2021, savage inter-gang conflicts resulted in 30 murders or attempted murders recorded between June 15 and September 15 alone. Killings in the southern port city are often linked to the drug trade. Charred bodies have been discovered in car boots and children as young as 14 have been among the victims.
Powerful automatic weapons are also prevalent. In August, the city’s prosecutor said the killings were of “extreme cruelty and a complete lack of humanity” and warned that the victims were only getting younger.
French election focus on crime puts Marseille's ganglands in the frame
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Police struggle to stop flood of firearms into UK
Police and border officials are struggling to stop a rising supply of illegal firearms being smuggled into Britain, a senior police chief has warned.
Chief constable Andy Cooke, the national police lead for serious and organised crime, said law enforcement had seen an increased supply of guns over the past year, and feared that it would continue in 2019
The Guardian has learned that the situation is so serious that the National
Crime Agency has taken the rare step of using its legal powers to direct every single police force to step up the fight against illegal guns.
The NCA has used tasking powers to direct greater intelligence about firearms to be gathered by all 43 forces in England and Wales.
Another senior law enforcement official said that “new and clean” weapons were now being used in the majority of shootings, as opposed to guns once being so difficult to obtain that they would be “rented out” to be used in multiple crimes.
Cooke, the Merseyside chief constable, told the Guardian: “We in law enforcement expect the rise in new firearms to continue. We are doing all we can. We are not in a position to stop it anytime soon.
“Law enforcement is more joined up now than before, but the scale of the problem is such that despite a number of excellent firearms seizures, I expect the rise in supply to be a continuing issue.”
The increasing supply of guns belies problems with UK border security and innovations by organised crime gangs. Smugglers have increasingly found new ways and innovative routes to get guns past border defences.
Cooke said that the dynamics of the streets of British cities had changed and that criminals were more willing to use guns: “If they bring them in people will buy them. It’s a kudos thing for organised criminals.”
Simon Brough, head of firearms at the NCA, said: “The majority of guns being used are new, clean firearms ... which indicates a relatively fluid supply.”
He said shotguns were 40% of the total, with an increase in burglaries to try and steal them.
Handguns are the next biggest category, most often smuggled in from overseas, with ferry ports such as Dover being a popular entry point into the UK for organised crime groups:
“We’re doing a lot to fight back against it,” Brough said, adding that compared to other European countries, the availability in the UK was relatively lower.
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The fully automatic military rifle is the weapon of choice for French and Swedish criminals....
France....
Pa
ris attacks highlight France's gun control problems
The arsenal of weapons deployed by the eight attackers who terrorised
Paris on Friday night underlined France’s gun control problems and raised the spectre of further attacks.
The country has extremely strict weapons laws, but Europe’s open borders and growing trade in illegal weapons means assault rifles are relatively easy to come by on the black market.
===============
A police investigation is underway after two people were shot dead, and a third burnt alive on Saturday evening in the southern French city of Marseille. It's the fourth death linked to gun violence this week, a phenomenon which the Mayor Benoît Payan says is out of control.
"In Marseille, you can buy a Kalachnikov as easy as buying a pain au chocolat," he said.
"This has to stop, and the Interior Minister, who is aware of the problem, must make it a key objective."
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"If people are being killed by Kalachnikov rifles, it's because they are too easily sold throughout the city."
Three dead in Marseille shootout: 'guns are too easy to buy' says mayor
Reports of 'heavy gunfire' on the streets of French city of Nimes | Daily Mail Online
Machine-gun shots have been heard on the streets of a French city this evening as it was claimed a 'shootout' took place between rival gangs.
Repeated 'heavy gunfire' bursts were let off in the city of Nimes in southern
France after armed men were seen in the area.
Social media videos showed several people running through the street as shots rang out at around 8.30pm.
Initial reports suggested the shooting could have been linked to gangs operating in the area.
Residents in a suburb of Pissevin district in the city claimed gang members shot at a building occupied by a rival group.
Reports of gunfire in the district have been on the rise in recent months, according to local media
Sweden....
Crime gangs in Sweden: What's behind the rise in the use of explosives?
The frequent use of explosives is a relatively recent phenomenon, and criminologists told The Local that the blasts can be seen as part of an overall rise in violence and growing recklessness in these criminal networks.
Amir Rostami, a police superintendent turned sociologist with a focus on criminal gangs, told The Local that so-called 'street gangs' are showing an increased tendency towards violence, and that this violence was becoming more severe when it took place.
"If previously they maybe fired one shot or shot someone in the legs, today it's more about AK47s, using more bullets, hand grenades and explosions that we didn't see before. I'd say that's the biggest shift we see – they're more reckless, they don't seem to care about the consequences," Rostami said.
Fatal shootings linked to criminal gangs have increased from around four per year in the early 1990s to over 40 in 2018. And while the blasts that have taken place in Sweden have caused no fatalities so far this year, they could be seen as a sign that the gangs are unafraid of causing damage and potentially harming people.
No, Sweden, hand grenade attacks aren’t an ‘image’ problem
In 2018 there were 162 bombings reported to police, and 93
reported in the first five months of this year, 30 more than during the same period in 2018. The level of attacks is
“extreme in a country that is not at war,” Crime Commissioner Gunnar Appelgren
toldSVT last year.
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The use of hand grenades is a purely Swedish phenomenon too, with no other country in Europe reporting their use on such a level, a police manager
told Swedish Radio in 2016, a year after attacks first spiked.
The grenades used almost exclusively originate in the former Yugoslavia, and are sold in Sweden for around $100 per piece. But while only three hand grenades were thrown in
Kosovo between 2013 and 2014, more than 20 have been used in Sweden every year since 2015.
More broadly, homicide has risen in Sweden, with more than 300 shootings reported last year, causing 45 deaths. Though homicide rates had been in decline since 2002, they again began trending
upwards in 2015, as did rapes and sexual assaults, which more than
tripled in the last four years.
Of course, 2015 was also the year in which Sweden flung
open its doors to more than 160,000 asylum seekers, more per capita than any other European country.
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Australia.....
Australia.....
Ms Mallet said she believed the types of offences associated with gang-related crime in Australia had shifted in recent years.
'We're seeing people being shot in the street, total disregard for the public, for families,' she said.
'I think the police are concerned about the different types of violence because the rule book seems to have been thrown out with some of these organised gangs.'
Ms Mallet said the alleged kidnapping of Mr Vuong was 'very frightening'.
'I'm sure that everybody in Sydney and especially that neighbourhood is going to be thrown by this,' she said.
A number of high-profile gang-related crimes have dominated the news in the past 12 months, including the
brutal execution-style shooting of celebrity chauffer Taha Sabbagh less than two weeks ago.
Crime expert compares bloodshed on Australia's streets to Brazil
9/3/22
It's a portrait of the average Australian who operates in the country's illegal firearms market, built from the findings of a 2022 Deakin University study.
In the study, criminology professor David Bright and his colleagues conducted 75 interviews with prisoners across 16 correctional facilities comprising drug traffickers, members of organised crime gangs and armed robbers.
The researchers were attempting to build a picture of the illegal gun trade in the Australian underworld.
They found buying an illegal gun in Australia could be as easy as a trip to the supermarket for those in the know.
Figures show a deep reservoir of illegal firearms exists for criminals to tap into, with police measures only able to recover tiny fractions each year.
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Professor Bright said most of the interviewees came from backgrounds where criminal behaviour and access to guns were the norm.
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"Some of the stories were shocking, I suppose, in the sense of the violence that some of these men had either experienced or had engaged in using guns," Professor Bright said.
"The other surprising thing was just how easily some of these men were able to access firearms."
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The source of illegal firearms
The Deakin University study identified the main ways illegal firearms were procured in Australia.
Very few criminals interviewed spoke of obtaining weapons through the internet or "dark web", with them instead preferring to rely on personal connections.
Guns are commonly obtained from friends and family, as well as from deals where a trusted party has vouched for the potential buyer.
One prisoner was given guns on the condition that he attacked certain people to earn them.
"I had to do two things to get the guns, but that was simple so I didn't really have to do much," they said.
"I just had to shoot at people … I didn't care … I was getting free guns out of it."
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Police use firearms prohibition orders (FPOs) to ban people they believe are linked to organised crime from coming into contact with guns.
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In 2019 — the year after FPOs were introduced — Victoria recorded a nine-year high in firearm assault deaths.
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The latest figures from the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) estimate there are at least 260,000 illegal firearms circulating in Australia.
In its report, it states the number of illegal firearms could be as high as 600,000 if estimation methods from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime were used.
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It means the seizures represent just a fraction of a percentage of Australia's illegal firearms market. And for those convicted of serious gun-related crimes in SA and NSW, not much has changed.
The insular nature of the illegal firearms market has led to increased caution among criminals when trafficking and carrying firearms, but the ease of access remains the same.
"Honestly, the access is pretty easy. I could get access to a gun within an hour of walking out of jail … no problem at all," one prisoner said in the Deakin report.
Paper linked to in above article....
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01639625.2022.2086838
As Melbourne and Sydney reel from inner-city shootings, researchers look to trace where the guns are coming from
==============
More on the 9/3/22 topic.....from above...
He said some of the interviewees spoke of illegal firearm suppliers having "huge caches" of guns, including pistols, shotguns and semi-automatic rifles.
Buying illegal guns 'surprisingly easy' for underworld figures, research finds
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1/6/22
The modus operandi of the hitmen contracted to take out Hamzy associates is to sneak up on the target - often in a public place - and pepper them with bullets.
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OCTOBER 18, 2020 - Rafat Alameddine's former home is shot up in a drive-by shooting
OCTOBER 19, 2020 - Mejid Hamzy is shot dead in Condell Park
JANUARY 30, 2021 - Mustafa Naaman is shot dead in Hurstville in a suspected mistaken identity attack on Ibrahem Hamze
JANUARY 30, 2021 - Mejed Derbas is shot dead in Smithfield
FEBRUARY 15, 2021 - Bilal Hamze's mother Maha Hamze comes under gunfire again in another drive-by shooting at her home in Auburn
MARCH 12, 2021 - A home linked to the Alameddine family in Guildford is shot up
AUGUST 6, 2021 - Alameddine low-level associate Shady Kanj is shot in Chester Hill and found dead by police in Guildford
AUGUST 14, 2021 - Police foil alleged gangland hit on Ibrahim Hamze when they spot stolen Mercedes in North Sydney
OCTOBER 20, 2021 - Salim and Toufik Hamze are gunned down outside their home in Guildford
NOVEMBER 10, 2021 - Drive-by shooting at Guildford home of Alameddine associate. No-one is hurt
JANUARY 6, 2022 - Brother of Bassam Hamzy, Ghassan Amoun, is shot dead at 35 years of age in a brazen daylight execution as he sat in a BMW outside an apartment building in Western Sydney.
How cops made a chilling prediction before crime boss brother killed
New article 9/1/20
Gun violence grips Victoria as deadly shootings double
More than 14 hardened criminals are being found in possession of firearms each week as the state grapples with a rising gun culture that has led to twice as many Victorians shot dead in 2019.
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Anti-gangs division Detective Superintendent Peter Brigham said illegal firearms were routinely unearthed at the homes of drug traffickers and in the possession of “gangster types” chasing image and status.
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In September, a 35-year-old Docklands man was sentenced to at least eight years' jail for heroin trafficking. As part of his plea deal, the former Iraqi national led police to a cache of weapons wrapped in plastic and hidden in a Melbourne drain. They included an SKS assault rifle and grenades.
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And while handguns were proving to be the gun of choice among young men, high powered military-grade firearms were in demand from the city’s outlaw motorcycle gangs
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Gun city: Young, dumb and armed
The notion that a military-grade weapon could be in the hands of local criminals is shocking, but police have already seized at least five machine guns and assault rifles in the past 18 months. The AK-47 was not among them.
Only a fortnight ago, law enforcement authorities announced they were hunting another seven assault rifles recently smuggled into the country. Weapons from the shipment have been used in armed robberies and drive-by shootings.
These are just a handful of the thousands of illicit guns fuelling a wave of violent crime in the world’s most liveable city.
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Despite Australia’s strict gun control regime, criminals are now better armed than at any time since then-Prime Minister John Howard introduced a nationwide firearm buyback scheme in response to the 1996 Port Arthur massacre.
Shootings have become almost a weekly occurrence, with more than 125 people, mostly young men, wounded in the past five year
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While the body count was higher during Melbourne’s ‘Underbelly War’ (1999-2005), more people have been seriously maimed in the recent spate of shootings and reprisals.
Crimes associated with firearm possession have also more than doubled, driven by the easy availability of handguns, semi-automatic rifles, shotguns and, increasingly, machine guns, that are smuggled into the country or stolen from licensed owners.
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These weapons have been used in dozens of recent drive-by shootings of homes and businesses, as well as targeted and random attacks in parks, shopping centres and roads.
“They’re young, dumb and armed,” said one former underworld associate, who survived a shooting attempt in the western suburbs several years ago.
“It used to be that if you were involved in something bad you might have to worry about [being shot]. Now people get shot over nothing - unprovoked.”
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Gun crime soars
In this series, Fairfax Media looks at Melbourne’s gun problem and the new breed of criminals behind the escalating violence.
The investigation has found:
- There have been at least 99 shootings in the past 20 months - more than one incident a week since January 2015
- Known criminals were caught with firearms 755 times last year, compared to 143 times in 2011
- The epicentre of the problem is a triangle between Coolaroo, Campbellfield and Glenroy in the north-west, with Cranbourne, Narre Warren and Dandenong in the south-east close behind
- Criminals are using gunshot wounds to the arms and legs as warnings to pay debts
- Assault rifles and handguns are being smuggled into Australia via shipments of electronics and metal parts
In response to the violence, it can be revealed the state government is planning to introduce new criminal offences for drive-by shootings, manufacturing of firearms with new technologies such as 3D printers, and more police powers to keep weapons out of the hands of known criminals.
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The second part of the series....
Gun city: Gunslingers of the North West
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'Thousands' of illegal guns tipped to be handed over in firearms amnesty
Asked roughly how many he expected to be handed in, Mr Keenan said: "Look I certainly think the number will be in the thousands."
The Australian Crime Commission estimated in 2012 there were at least 250,000 illegal guns in Australia. But a Senate report noted last year it was impossible to estimate how many illicit weapons are out there.
And despite Australia's strict border controls, the smuggling of high-powered military-style firearms is also a growing problem.
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