Actually Etech, if you bothered to check those figures with anyone from Australia you'll realise those figures were made up, because those 'over-the-top' knee jerk gun laws have made buggerall difference to firearm incidents here.
Actually there's been a slight downward trend in every Australia state (per-capita), as far as violent crimes are concerned, over the last few years. All local govts do in Australia are things like collecting the garbage & maintain park, consequently law efforcment is a state issue.
Anyway crime rates are so low here its virtually impossible to work out trends like this in the short term, just by going by a chart on the 'Australian Sporting Shooters association' that's reportedly using ABS figures there's only about 80 firearm deaths a year in Australia, which means you only need one armed holdup go wrong & it could mean a %5 change in the annual figures. That page you link said murders had gone up 33% in Western Australia, well if you were Australian you'd know not to take a statistic like that seriously unless it was done over a 20 year period because virtually no one lives in Western Australia, so a 33% increase could mean there was just one extra murder in WA than there was in the year before. Also it could just mean that a new Crown Prosecuter has taken office, & bumbed up a couple of the drunken manslaughters that occurr in the Aboriginal encampments to murder charges. That page you linked mentioned homicides in Victoria, but of course failed to mention there's been a bikie war in Victoria (over the amphetimines trade) & that increase in Victoria is almost wholly due to the bikie war.
You have to remember Australia is about the most urbanised country in the world with with about 95% of the population living in the 3 mega-cities of Melbourne/Geelong, Sydney/Necastle/Wollengong & Brisbane/GoldCoast/Towoomba, consequently buggerall (as in less than 1%) people in Australia have ever owned firearms, hence any new gunlaws like that are bound to have virtually no effect on crime statistics eitherway, except maybe over a very long period.
Now, as far as I'm concerned, that gun 'buy back' scheme was a huge waste of tax payers money which has had no effect (positive or negative) on crime rates in Australia. You have to remember the legislation was only in regards to rifles & shotties, handguns have been illegal in Audstralia since WWI, so any thoughts about criminals being afraid to act before the legislation & not being afraid to act since the ligislation is purelly fanciful. Now it may have have along term negative effect on firearm incidents (accidents & compulsive/impulsive acts), by the simple fact there are less firearms lying arround, but you'll have to get back to me in 20 years time, because it would be simple conjecture, otherwise. Even though I'm cynical about mental health stuff, I still feel that if they had spent that money on mental health funding it would have more of a positive effect on violent crime that simply wasting millions on buying then smelting guns.
You don't wanna end up hurt or dead because the police trusted some drug informant.
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