Despite 19 Years of Evidence to the Contrary, NRA Warns Australia "There Will Be Blood"

In 1996, following a gun massacre that took the lives of 35 men, women, and children, and wounded another 23 in Port Arthur, Australia, the federal and state governments there took joint action in the form of new gun ownership regulations.

The National Firearms Agreement initiated bans on certain types of semi-automatic and self-loading rifles and shotguns.  Gun license applicants were required to pass a safety course and to show a "genuine reason" for owning a gun.  (Self-defense was not considered a sufficient reason.)  An applicant could be refused if there was "reliable evidence of a mental or physical condition which would render the applicant unsuitable for owning, possessing or using a firearm."  A waiting period of twenty-eight days was put in place before a license could be issued and permits were required for each weapon purchased.  New storage requirements, inspections, and greater restrictions on the sale of ammunition were added.

Australia implemented a national buyback program for weapons newly added to the country's banned firearms list that resulted in the surrender of 700,000 weapons.

Since 1996, gun-related deaths have fallen by approximately 7.5 percent every year.  Suicide by gun is down 65 percent.  Homicide by gun has remained below 50 nationally in each of the last ten years.   In 2010-11, America's homicide by gun rate was 370 times higher than Australia's.  But the most telling statistic may be this:  In the 17 years prior to the 1996 agreement, Australia saw 13 mass shootings.  The number since the agreement was passed to the present?  Zero.  

what eye thynk:  Our NRA, God bless there little gun loving hearts, wants to fix that.  

In an article charmingly titled "Australia, There Will Be Blood" published earlier this month in the NRA publication America's 1st Freedom, the NRA warns that Australians were "robbed...of their right to self-defense and empowered criminals. There is now a growing consensus among impartial researchers that disarming Australia's citizens did not make them safe."

Who these supposed "impartial researchers" are is a mystery; but going from one mass shooting every sixteen months to zero in nineteen years would seem to rebut the promise of bloody times ahead.  

Judging by the NRA's Twitter feed, their claim of a "growing consensus," doesn't fare any better.  Australians lined up to reply to the NRA with tweets like those from CameronJWood88:

 "#NRA Please, for the love of everything good, stop addressing Australia! Keep your blood money in the U.S.!"

 (the polite end of the spectrum.) and TonyNicho:

 "I think I can speak on behalf of many in Australia when I say F**k off NRA."

 (the not so polite, but more numerous locution).

Don Weatherburn, the Director of the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research in New South Wales did tell the Sydney Morning Herald in 2005 that in the instance of armed robberies Australians did not feel the gun buyback program made them safer.  Mr. Weatherburn spoke to Mashable Australia about the  NRA's recent article and said not only were his quotes ten years old but were taken entirely out of context.  He confirmed that there is no proof the gun buyback reduced Australia's armed robbery rate, but, he said that was not its purpose.

But, hey, what's a guy like Wayne LaPierre to do? President Obama praised Australia in a recent speech focusing on common sense gun regulations like universal background checks that are favored by the vast majority of Americans, and the NRA couldn't let that go unanswered.  So they got caught twisting the facts a little.  The important thing to Wayne and his organization is that they got to wave their communal assault rifle in the air to demonstrate their solidarity with the rabid gun carrying nut cases who are afraid to shop for cereal at their local A&P without a fully loaded arsenal strapped to their backs.  

And that's all that counts...not you, not me, not our safety or that of our families, not what most Americans want, and certainly not evidence like that being tallied in Australia.  But then, what can you expect from the crowd who keeps their brain in an ammo box?