There has been one mass shooting in Australia.
According to the Gun Violence Archive, the United States has already seen more than 200 mass shootings.
The latest shooting, where an 18-year-old suspect fatally shot 21 people, including 19 children at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, has once again renewed a national debate about stricter gun regulation.
We may look to other countries to see if tighter gun laws work. In 1996, the Australian government passed the National Firearm Agreement, a sweeping set of gun regulations. The number of gun-related homicides decreased from 1996 to 2015.
The country had seen 14 mass shootings before 1996, one of which led to gun reform. The worst mass murder in Australia's history took place in Port Arthur in 1996.
Experts say we can draw some links between the drop in mass shootings and the reduction in gun-related homicides.
Two public health researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, Elena Andreyeva and Benjamin Ukert, conducted a study on the subject. Their paper from last year suggests that the NFA decreased firearm mortality by 60%, including homicides and suicides.
Ukert told Business Insider that the NFA is unique in that it tackles many different problems at the same time.
The study compares gun deaths in different Australian states. It shows that the NFA was more successful in states with higher rates of firearm deaths.
The variables controlled by Andreyeva and Ukert were gender, age, economic status, and previous gun laws. They did not see a decrease in suicides since the NFA. The regulations may have had a bigger effect on homicides. According to the study, there has been a reduction in murders by guns in Australian states.
Other research has come to similar conclusions. Australian gun policies correlated with declines in firearm homicides according to a 2016 paper. They acknowledge that there are other factors at play, but also say that the NFA was at least partly responsible for the national reduction in firearm deaths.
According to their research, the US can learn a few things from Australian gun regulation.
Australians are required to wait 28 days before buying a gun, due to rigorous background checks.
The regulation would have a larger effect if it was hard to buy guns legally in crimes driven by passion.
Every Australian state is covered by the NFA. Prospective gun owners must obtain a permit and license, be at least 18, undergo a firearms safety training, provide a genuine reason for buying a gun other than personal protection, and provide documentation about storage arrangements for their weapon.
There are differences in gun culture between Australia and America, which could make the NFA less effective in the US.
Guns are very accessible in the US and gun control is politically polarizing. Guns are a deep-rooted part of American life, as the number of registered gun stores outnumbers Starbucks and McDonald's locations in many US cities.
Gun control in Australia is not as much of a debate as it is in the US. The Labor Party and the National Coalition have both expressed their support for the law, which requires a unanimous vote.
After the 1996 shooting, the public gave up a lot of their guns. The number of civilian guns in the country was reduced by 20% due to Australians selling over one million firearms to the government. The data does not account for every firearm in the country, like those bought on the black market.
The black market for guns in Australia was made smaller by the NFA, since an ocean surrounds the country and makes it more difficult to import guns illegally. Even if US states imposed strict gun control, firearms could easily flow in from other states.
The states would probably need to come together and the regulations would need to be at the federal level.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
