Gun laws work in Australia

Why can’t Republicans grasp the idea of gun safety? It was stunning how quickly the Australian government coalesced around gun safety in 1996, after 35 people were killed in one incident. Their new laws banned the sale and imports of all automatic and semi-automatic rifles and shotguns, forced people to present a legitimate reason and wait 28 days to buy a firearm; then they held a massive, mandatory gun-buyback.

The government confiscated and destroyed 700,000 firearms, reducing the number of gun-owning households by half. In return gun homicides fell 60% and Australians have only had to go through the agony of a mass murder, just once, in the 26 years since, compared with America’s 218 mass murders in the past 26 years. The obvious solution is to never vote Republican again.

John Hoffmann

Carbondale