No Mass Shootings: The Myth of Australia’s Gun Control Policy

Many people are pushing for the United States to model it’s gun policy after Australia with extremely strict gun control as well as gun confiscation. They point to Australia having “no mass shootings” since 1996 when these laws were enacted.

I would like to tell you how the media, gun control advocates and liberals are again wrong with this agenda, as well as explain to you a bit more about the Australia phenomenon. First, regardless of what the media and liberals tell you, mass shootings have occurred in Australia. Let’s look at just the last 3 years.

In 2011, there was a mass shooting in Hectorville. In 2014, one in Hunt, and again in 2014 one in Wedderburn (which was a 4 hour siege of a neighborhood).

“But wait, that’s only 3 since 2011! We’ve had 29 in America alone in that same time period!”

This is also a bit of trickery with numbers and comparing statistics. Yes, there have been 29 in America since 2011, and I do not dispute that. But let’s dig deep into numbers- Australia only has 23 million people living in it (with a large amount of those very spread out). But let’s just stick to quantity and not density. The United States has nearly 14 times as many people, at nearly 320 million. So if you compare apples to apples, if Australia had as many people as the United States and the ratio of mass killings to total populace remained the same, Australia would have 42 mass killings compared to 29 in the United States. That is 13 more!

Finally, if someone really wants to kill someone, they will find a way. Let’s look at the recent Cairns child killings in Australia where someone killed 8 children with a knife. Or the Quaker Hill Nursing home arson in Australia that killed 11 by fire. Or the Lin killings, also in Australia, that killed 5 with a hammer.

The facts are this: gun control doesn’t work, and pointing towards programs on other countries that are statistically manipulative does not solve the problem. Bad people will still find a way to get guns or kill by other methods. I would much rather people have the right to own a gun and give them the capacity to defend themselves than take away that right and leave them defenseless from those that will kill or harm regardless.