Australians surrender 26,000 firearms as part of the national gun amnesty

[Harry]

http://www.news.com.au/national/australians-surrender-26000-firearms-as-part-of-the-national-gun-amnesty/news-story/7a935e5675ad868c009de1332052f179">//http://www.news.com.au/national/australians-surrender-26000-firearms-as-part-of-the-national-gun-amnesty/news-story/7a935e5675ad868c009de1332052f179

AUSTRALIANS have surrendered 26,000 firearms as part of the national gun amnesty — and they've come in some strange shapes and sizes. Even a hand grenade was handed in.



Police have reported some of the quirkiest guns handed in are among the vintage variety, including a luger pistol from World War I, a Smith and Wesson .455 revolver from WWII and a shotgun from the Vietnam War.



Other disturbing finds include machine guns and a homemade sub-machine gun handed in anonymously in Sydney.

Police have reported some of the quirkiest guns handed in are among the vintage variety, like this one handed in by an elderly Queensland woman. Picture: Pic Jamie Hanson



Police have reported some of the quirkiest guns handed in are among the vintage variety, like this one handed in by an elderly Queensland woman.



"There's guns that've been handed in that would've been used during World War II, guns from the 1850s," Justice Minister Michael Keenan said.



"Among the more unusual firearms handed in under the amnesty have been a Beaumont Adams revolver circa 1856, a WWI era Lee Enfield rifle and two WWII US M1 carbines."



One farmer told the Herald Sun he handed in some of his family's rare weaponry because "there are some real bad buggers out there".



As part of the first amnesty since John Howard's scheme after the Port Arthur massacre in 1996, Australians have handed in approximately 464 firearms a day.



But there's a long way to go until some of Australia's 260,000 illegal guns are out of terrorists' hands.

[Anonymous]

http://www.news.com.au/national/australians-surrender-26000-firearms-as-part-of-the-national-gun-amnesty/news-story/7a935e5675ad868c009de1332052f179">//http://www.news.com.au/national/australians-surrender-26000-firearms-as-part-of-the-national-gun-amnesty/news-story/7a935e5675ad868c009de1332052f179

AUSTRALIANS have surrendered 26,000 firearms as part of the national gun amnesty — and they've come in some strange shapes and sizes. Even a hand grenade was handed in.



Police have reported some of the quirkiest guns handed in are among the vintage variety, including a luger pistol from World War I, a Smith and Wesson .455 revolver from WWII and a shotgun from the Vietnam War.



Other disturbing finds include machine guns and a homemade sub-machine gun handed in anonymously in Sydney.

Police have reported some of the quirkiest guns handed in are among the vintage variety, like this one handed in by an elderly Queensland woman. Picture: Pic Jamie Hanson



Police have reported some of the quirkiest guns handed in are among the vintage variety, like this one handed in by an elderly Queensland woman.



"There's guns that've been handed in that would've been used during World War II, guns from the 1850s," Justice Minister Michael Keenan said.



"Among the more unusual firearms handed in under the amnesty have been a Beaumont Adams revolver circa 1856, a WWI era Lee Enfield rifle and two WWII US M1 carbines."



One farmer told the Herald Sun he handed in some of his family's rare weaponry because "there are some real bad buggers out there".



As part of the first amnesty since John Howard's scheme after the Port Arthur massacre in 1996, Australians have handed in approximately 464 firearms a day.



But there's a long way to go until some of Australia's 260,000 illegal guns are out of terrorists' hands.

One in ten illegal firearms voluntarily surrendered.

[Harry]

One in ten illegal firearms voluntarily surrendered.

Sadly, that's about it, and they're mainly rubbish.

There's still a few weeks to go.  It will be interesting to see what the final tally is.

[Anonymous]

One in ten illegal firearms voluntarily surrendered.

Sadly, that's about it, and they're mainly rubbish.

There's still a few weeks to go.  It will be interesting to see what the final tally is.

Triads, biker gangs, street gangs will not turn in their weapons..



The ones that do turn in their illegal weapons are the ones society has to fear the least..



It's a futile exercise.

[Harry]

Most of the bad guys obtain their weapons by stealing them from law abiding people.  Legal import and supply is quite restricted (another advantage of not having a land border with anybody).



The problem with the unregistered weapons is they are usually unsecured, hence easier to steal, and easier to fall into the wrong hands, be they criminals, kids, people restricted via mental illness, or whatever.  Storage restrictions on registered firearms are quite strict, requiring the use of approved gun safes, etc.  Registered gun owners are subject to random storage inspections (in theory, at least).



It's a way of reducing the flow of firearms into the wrong people's hands.  Nobody is suggesting it's a be-all-and-end-all solution, it just restricts supply.

[Anonymous]

Most of the bad guys obtain their weapons by stealing them from law abiding people.  Legal import and supply is quite restricted (another advantage of not having a land border with anybody).



The problem with the unregistered weapons is they are usually unsecured, hence easier to steal, and easier to fall into the wrong hands, be they criminals, kids, people restricted via mental illness, or whatever.  Storage restrictions on registered firearms are quite strict, requiring the use of approved gun safes, etc.  Registered gun owners are subject to random storage inspections (in theory, at least).



It's a way of reducing the flow of firearms into the bad guys' hands.  Nobody is suggesting it's a be-all-and-end-all solution, it just restricts supply.

That's not necessarily the case in Australia or here.



a submission from the NSW Police took a different view.



It said its Strike Force Maxworthy, established in 2012 to investigate illegal firearms arriving from overseas, found 140 ammunition magazines for Glock pistols had been imported by mail, ready for reassembly.



Twelve assembled Glock pistols were recovered in raids. This compared with 25 handguns stolen in NSW in 2013-14.



"When compared to the number of handguns identified as having been illegally imported through operations such as Strike Force Maxworthy, the figures for firearms thefts do not appear to support the contention that they are a major source of firearms fuelling gun crime in NSW," the NSW Police submission said.



Roderic Broadhurst, professor of criminology at ANU, told Fact Check it is impossible to know how many guns are smuggled.



He said that on "dark net" websites like Silk Road, guns were "big ticket" items, which could be sent in bits by post.



"Many weapons nowadays, apart from perhaps the barrel, are made from plastic – not too easily detectable by X-ray machines and so on," he said.



"The reality is you can't inspect every box, every container, and you'd be doing pretty well to do 4 to 5 per cent, because the volumes are huge."



He said guns could also now be made on 3D printers.



http://www.abc.net.au/news/factcheck/2015-05-26/source-of-illicit-guns-in-australia/6483762">http://www.abc.net.au/news/factcheck/20 ... ia/6483762">http://www.abc.net.au/news/factcheck/2015-05-26/source-of-illicit-guns-in-australia/6483762

It's not that difficult to get an illegal handgun here or in Australia if you know where to look..



And criminals know where to find sources..



And I don't buy that owners of illegal weapons are more careless about securing their weapons..



That doesn't make sense..



If they are illegal, they would have them hidden and harder to steal than a legal firearm in a gun locker in open view that could be carried out to a truck.

[Harry]

Like I said, the goal is to restrict supply.  Everybody acknowledges you can't stop it completely.



The impetus for the gun laws and the first amnesty was a massacre at Port Arthur in Tasmania, where a mentally disturbed guy killed 35 people and wounded a couple of dozen others.  That was the last of a number of mass shootings that had taken place during the preceding 15 years.  In the 20 years since the new laws came in there have been no mass shootings at all, so something's working.

[Anonymous]

dark net" websites like Silk Road, guns were "big ticket" items, which could be sent in bits by post.



"Many weapons nowadays, apart from perhaps the barrel, are made from plastic – not too easily detectable by X-ray machines and so on," he said.



"The reality is you can't inspect every box, every container, and you'd be doing pretty well to do 4 to 5 per cent, because the volumes are huge."



He said guns could also now be made on 3D printers.

Most definitely.  The  RCMP busted a couple near here for making a shit load of machine guns.

http://globalnews.ca/news/3690529/seized-machine-guns-allegedly-manufactured-at-alberta-machinist-shop/">http://globalnews.ca/news/3690529/seize ... nist-shop/">http://globalnews.ca/news/3690529/seized-machine-guns-allegedly-manufactured-at-alberta-machinist-shop/

[Harry]

And I don't buy that owners of illegal weapons are more careless about securing their weapons..



That doesn't make sense..



If they are illegal, they would have them hidden and harder to steal than a legal firearm in a gun locker in open view that could be carried out to a truck.

The storage specs for a registered firearm are very strict.  The safe has to be built to an approved design, if the safe weighs less than 150kg it must be bolted to the structure of the building at multiple points, ammunition has to be stored separately, and so on and so forth.



It goes far beyond "hiding" the firearm, which might be as trivial as leaving it in a kitchen drawer.

[Angry White Male]

Same in Canada, Harry, at least with handguns...  Pretty restrictive storage and transport laws here, and the punishments are harsh for breaking them.



Long guns, on the other hand, are fairly regulated, and don't require much thought or work in storage or transport.