Editor's note: Philip Alpers is Adjunct Associate Professor at the Sydney School of Public Health, University of Sydney. A policy analyst in the public health effects of gun violence and small arms proliferation, his web site GunPolicy.org compares armed violence and gun laws, country by country. SYDNEY, Australia - Could the leader of a democracy reverse his nation's slide toward the ever more permissive use of firearms and mandate stringent new gun control laws in... (GunPolicy.org)