The Australian Minister of Justice announced the initial results of their gun amnesty give back that runs from July 1 through September 30. He called it a big success so far.
Approximately 12,500 guns were turned in. The Amnesty means you can turn in a gun without fear of reprisal.
If you are found with an unregistered weapon in your possession, at your home or elsewhere, the fines are stiff. The fines can be as high as 280,000 Australian dollars (about $220,000 USD) or up to 14 years in jail.
But the majority of the guns were long guns or "rubbish guns" a "specialist" in weapons policies in Australia called it. "These have very little value to their owners and less to criminals".
Main thing is the fines for not registering your guns in Australia are extreme and repressive.
A link to an article covering this...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/11/world/australia/gun-amnesty-firearms-surrender.html?_r=0
The specialist they quoted also pointed out that few if any career criminals, drug dealers, smugglers, gangsters, etc. will turn in any guns that are useful to them and that there is in Australia an underground market for weapons.
I don't know if any of these laws effect the "crime rate" in Australia in a downward way. It might. Repressive laws strongly applied often work. The prospect of spending years in jail for owning an unregistered firearm scares folks. The reality of folks going to prison for this does that even more. They have criminalized the very idea of poor folks owning weapons.
That sometimes works. For awhile anyway.
tipoc
Approximately 12,500 guns were turned in. The Amnesty means you can turn in a gun without fear of reprisal.
If you are found with an unregistered weapon in your possession, at your home or elsewhere, the fines are stiff. The fines can be as high as 280,000 Australian dollars (about $220,000 USD) or up to 14 years in jail.
But the majority of the guns were long guns or "rubbish guns" a "specialist" in weapons policies in Australia called it. "These have very little value to their owners and less to criminals".
Main thing is the fines for not registering your guns in Australia are extreme and repressive.
A link to an article covering this...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/11/world/australia/gun-amnesty-firearms-surrender.html?_r=0
The specialist they quoted also pointed out that few if any career criminals, drug dealers, smugglers, gangsters, etc. will turn in any guns that are useful to them and that there is in Australia an underground market for weapons.
I don't know if any of these laws effect the "crime rate" in Australia in a downward way. It might. Repressive laws strongly applied often work. The prospect of spending years in jail for owning an unregistered firearm scares folks. The reality of folks going to prison for this does that even more. They have criminalized the very idea of poor folks owning weapons.
That sometimes works. For awhile anyway.
tipoc