Firearm News
NZ Begins Buy-back of Assault Weapons
20 June 2019
Reuters
WELLINGTON - New Zealand's government on Thursday launched a multimillion-dollar, six-month "buy-back" scheme to compensate owners of powerful but newly banned semi-automatic weapons prohibited in the wake of deadly attacks on two mosques in the Southern city of Christchurch.
Finance Minister Grant Robertson and Minister of Police Stuart Nash said in a joint emailed statement that NZ$208 million ($135.97 million) had been set aside to compensate owners of the banned... (GunPolicy.org)
Police Secrecy and Tracking Illicit Firearms
14 June 2019
ABC News (Australia)
How did the accused Darwin gunman, parolee Ben Hoffmann, get his hands on a shotgun and allegedly kill four people?
Likely with relative ease — according to the public health professor behind the world's largest catalogue of evidence on gun violence, firearm law and gun control.
The 12-gauge pump action shotgun was seized at the time of Hoffman's arrest, and police later confirmed its serial number matched a weapon stolen in 1997.
That scenario — a long-armed... (GunPolicy.org)
9 June 2019
Bangkok Post
"If you have a gun, shoot me," shouted Preecha Kunthong before he was hit with several bullets between the eyes and killed on May 19 in Saraburi's Muang district while buying a packet of instant coffee.
The 59-year-old man, who had that morning gone to breakfast with a friend at the local market, allegedly fell into an argument with the shooter as he stood in line at a convenience store opposite Saraburi Hospital.
This story isn't an unusual one in the country with... (GunPolicy.org)
Swiss Gun Referendum Background
20 May 2019
EuroNews
Switzerland — one of the most heavily armed countries in Europe — voted to comply with stricter European Union gun laws in a referendum Sunday.
While Switzerland doesn't belong to the EU, it is part of the bloc's Schengen Area which is a zone that can be visited without a visa or passport by citizens of 26 European nations.
Following terrorist gun attacks in Paris and Brussels in 2015 and 2016, the EU tightened gun rules, known as the "EU Gun Ban", the bloc... (GunPolicy.org)
PM Ardern on Gun Control in US and NZ
15 May 2019
Washington Post
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern spoke out this week about a matter that has long puzzled many foreign observers of the United States: the country's inability to rein in gun violence.
Speaking to CNN's Christiane Amanpour, the prime minister said: "Australia experienced a massacre and changed their laws. New Zealand had its experience and changed its laws. To be honest with you, I do not understand the United States."
Ardern was referring both to a 1996... (GunPolicy.org)
Ex-Firearm Dealer Gets 11 Years for Smuggling 'Mass Kill' Guns
14 May 2019
Australian Associated Press
A Victorian man who imported "mass killing machines" has had years added to his prison sentence after an appeal.
Paul Robert Munro, 65, was originally ordered to serve at least six years behind bars for importing a dozen Thureon machine guns, capable of firing 1000 rounds a minute.
But on Tuesday the Court of Appeal revealed it had increased his non-parole period to 11 years.
The maximum 10-year sentence handed down by the County Court last May was also increased to... (GunPolicy.org)
Gun Violence in Homicide Report Database
13 May 2019
Stuff (New Zealand)
An unprecedented Stuff investigation has identified every homicide in New Zealand in the past 15 years, revealing the vast majority of those who kill with guns are unlicensed and their weapon of choice is often a .22 calibre rifle or shotgun.
The Homicide Report, which has been nearly three years in the making, is the country's first publicly searchable database of homicides. It encompasses 1068 men, women and children killed from January 2004 to March 31, 2019.
The... (GunPolicy.org)
1 May 2019
Stuff (New Zealand)
The Homicide Report relies on information from more than 800 coronial findings, hundreds of court documents, police sources and news stories from Stuff's archives.
We categorised each case according to the victim's age and gender, their relationship to the killer, cause of death, location and a host of others.
We then analysed them to look for significant groupings of homicides with similar characteristics that might reveal some underlying problem or cause.
The... (GunPolicy.org)
Trump ATT Decision Was Built On an NRA Lie
29 April 2019
Washington Post, Opinion
President Trump announced on Friday — during a speech that pandered to special-interest groups and was symbolic of his administration's disdain for multilateral agreements — that the United States would "unsign" the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), a landmark agreement that regulates the international trade in conventional arms.
It took more than five years of negotiations to develop the ATT, and I spent those years as a consultant in the treaty process, working with... (GunPolicy.org)
Record Number of Australians Enrolled to Vote This Election
23 April 2019
SBS News
A record number of Australians have enrolled to vote at the 18 May federal election, according to the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC).
The total of 16,424,248 people, which accounts for 96.8 per cent of the eligible voting population, tops the number of people enrolled to vote ahead of the 2016 federal election by around 750,000.
Those numbers are "something all Australians can be proud of" and is unlikely to be matched anywhere in the world, Electoral... (GunPolicy.org)
NSW Dealer Accused of Trafficking
11 April 2019
Sporting Shooter / SSAA
Shane Simpson, gun shop owner and presenter on Hunting The Menu, is accused of being a major underworld weapons supplier and of selling firearms used in crimes across Australia, including the executions of two of Sydney highest-ranking organised crime figures.
The Daily Telegraph reported police allege arms dealer Shane James Simpson operated out of a gun shop in Port Kembla near Wollongong and sold guns which were used in the murders of two of Sydney's most... (GunPolicy.org)
Illegal Firearms Dealer Charged, Hundreds of Guns Seized
11 April 2019
ABC News (Australia)
Key points:
- NSW Police seize 300 firearms from licensed gun dealer, who has been charged with 40 offences
- Dealer accused of being a 'professional facilitator' of organised crime networks across three states
- Accused has not applied for bail or entered a plea in court
A licensed firearms dealer in New South Wales has been charged with more than 40 firearms offences and had more than 300 guns seized from his business in what NSW Police have described as one of the... (GunPolicy.org)
NSW Gun Dealer Arrested for Selling Guns Illegally
10 April 2019
Illawarra Mercury
A Port Kembla firearms dealer has been arrested, and more than 300 weapons seized from his business, after he allegedly sold guns police say were used to shoot dead at least one Sydney underworld figure.
Shane Simpson was taken into custody after officers raided his firearms and hunting store - Simpson Sports, on the corner of Wentworth and Fitzwilliam streets - about 8.30am on Wednesday.
The Mercury understands police arrested the 46-year-old licensed firearms dealer... (GunPolicy.org)
Public Health Response to Suicide In Japan Leads to Decrease
8 April 2019
Reuters
AKITA, Japan - Taeko Watanabe awoke one cold March night and found a trail of blood in the hallway, a bloody cleaver on her son Yuki's bed and no trace of him in the house. Then police discovered a suicide note in his bedroom.
"They found him in a canal by the temple and wrapped him in a blanket. After an autopsy, he came home in a coffin. I fell apart," she recalled, eyes welling up as she sat by a photo of Yuki and a Buddhist altar laden with flowers and Fuji... (GunPolicy.org)
Poor Data Collation of National Registries in Australia
3 April 2019
Sydney Morning Herald, Opinion
When I was tiny I wore a rabbit-skin coat and ate rabbit two or three times a week, courtesy of my father and his 22-calibre hunting rifle.
My parents had gone back to the land in that 1970s idealistic way and we lived in a log cabin - hand built by Dad - surrounded by scrubby bushland in the hinterland of the NSW south coast.
Later when my parents went their separate ways and moved back to the city, Dad's gun came with him.
The wooden rifle sat propped against the... (GunPolicy.org)
Gun Law Change Fast-track has 'Outpaced' Gun Lobby
2 April 2019
Radio New Zealand
The speed with which the government has fast-tracked changes to firearms laws has left the gun lobby in a spin, according to an Australian academic.
By the end of next week, politicians expect the Arms Amendment Bill to come into force.
It will ban semi-automatic weapons and military style semi-automatics, with the exception of shotguns and low-calibre rifles.
Parts, magazines and ammunition which can make a gun illegal will also be banned, and there will be tougher... (GunPolicy.org)
No Other Party Has Hammered Our Gun Laws Like This One
1 April 2019
Sydney Morning Herald, Opinion
Last Friday the leader of the Shooter, Fishers and Farmers Party, Robert Borsak, headed a press conference seeking to distance his party from One Nation. Borsak claimed his parties' gun policies are not as extreme as One Nation's and are more "dead centre".
Yet one only has to look at the impact the party has had on Australia's gun laws and the party's current and past gun policies to see that a different story emerges. In October 2017, Borsak told the Herald that he... (GunPolicy.org)
Licensed Guns and Homicides in Uganda
30 March 2019
Daily Monitor (Uganda)
Kampala- At least 16 people have been shot dead by licensed guns since the start of the year, a search through publicly available information shows.
Five of the victims were shot dead by security guards after they were involved in arguments with the guards or were accused of committing crime, while the rest were killed by policemen on accusations of being criminal suspects.
With the killing in cold blood of Ronald Ssebulime last weekend still fresh, however, it is... (GunPolicy.org)
Consensus on New Zealand Gun Control
29 March 2019
Policy Forum (Canberra)
In the wake of the worst terror attack in New Zealand's history, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has shown outstanding leadership on gun control, building a consensus for reasonable reform that other leaders have much to learn from, Michael Picard writes.
New Zealand's response to the Christchurch mass-shooting shows that a country can find unity, rather than division, on gun reform. Strong and definitive leadership, a balanced approach to reforming gun laws, and... (GunPolicy.org)
Gun Culture and Data in Thailand
12 March 2019
Channel News Asia (Singapore)
Gun homicides in Thailand are striking. To prevent them we should look beyond the numbers and headlines at what is fuelling these incidents, says research director for the University of Sydney's Gunpolicy.org, Michael Picard.
BANGKOK: Thailand arguably has a gun problem, but sensational headlines about the country being a regional, even global, leader of gun violence are misleading and dubious.
Though it's difficult to know the extent of the issue for sure, both... (GunPolicy.org)