Which Australian gun control law kept this from being a mass shooting...none.

[2aguy]

no.....this seems to have been a targeted shooting in a mall in Australia....

So which vaunted, Australian gun control law kept it from being a mass public shooting....? None of them....the shooter had a gun, the mall is a gun free zone...and so, the only thing that kept this shooter from shooting and killing more people? He just decided not to....

Police hunt Campbellfield shopping centre gunman

Police are searching Melbourne's north after a gunman opened fire at a Campbellfield shopping centre on Monday afternoon, hitting one man in the leg.

Detectives were called to a shopping centre on Sydney Road, Campbellfield, just after 3:30pm and found the man with a gunshot wound.

He was taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries.

Police were told a man armed with a firearm approached the victim in the shopping centre carpark before shooting him a number of times.

 

[Toro]

Didn't gun murders in Australia go down by something like half when they increased gun restrictions?

 

[2aguy]

Didn't gun murders in Australia go down by something like half when they increased gun restrictions?

Actually no. The gun murder rate was going down long before they passed gun control....and as more Americans bought and carried guns during the same time period...our gun murder rate went down faster. Also, New Zealand.....very similar to Australia in demographics.......didn't confiscate their guns and their gun murder rate went down at the same rate as Australia.....

Last week I posted a 3 part series from The Age. An Ausralian paper....it detailed the increase in gun crime in Australia.....after the ban...calling Melbourne, the city of the gun...

 

[2aguy]

Didn't gun murders in Australia go down by something like half when they increased gun restrictions?

Here you go....the new reality in Australia....as more foreign criminals begin to use guns more and more....

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.

But....military weapons?

And despite Australia's strict border controls, the smuggling of high-powered military-style firearms is also a growing problem.