[ad_1]
A new poll suggests an increase in the number of voters who believe that Australian firearms legislation needs to be strengthened as a result of the Christchurch terrorist attack.
New Zealand premier Jacinda Ardern on Thursday announced radical and immediate changes to the country's firearms laws, including a ban on firearms used in the deadly shooting of Christchurch and the place of a buyback system.
The ban applies to "semi-automatic" military rifles and shotguns that can be used with a detachable magazine containing more than five cartridges.
The reforms are bringing New Zealand closer to Australia, often seen as an international gun policy reference, since former Prime Minister John Howard changed the laws at the time. following the 1996 Port Arthur mbadacre in Tasmania.
However, on the eve of the state elections in New South Wales, which could bring the balance of power to the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party, many voters believe that Australian laws need to be strengthened.
A key poll of 550 voters in Sydney conducted immediately after the Christchurch attack revealed that 37 percent of those surveyed felt that Australian firearms laws were too weak compared to 26 percent in 2018.
The proportion of people who thought that Australia's firearms laws were "pretty much right" went from 64% to 52%.
The figures will be used by gun control advocates, as the category system put in place in the 1996 National Firearms Agreement has not been updated to date. adapt to the rapid evolution of technology.
A new quick-action rifle, the Speedline, manufactured by the French manufacturer Verney-Carron, has been available for purchase in Australia as a Category B firearm since 2017. The gun lobby has requested the legalization of imports of Adler lever rifles and a second Verney-Carron gun, the Veloce rifle, featuring a fast firing and reloading mechanism.
Former Justice Minister Michael Keenan has been under intense lobbying by gun advocates during a re-examination of the National Firearms Agreement. Australian lobbyists with considerable resources have been increasingly badertive in recent elections.
In the 2017 election in the state of Queensland, armed groups injected more than $ 500,000 to help minor political parties win seats and campaigned actively in the election in the state of Victoria, by launching an advertising blitz on crime rates under the Labor Andrews government.
In New South Wales, the increased likelihood that right-wing minor parties, including the Shooters, will have the balance of power after Saturday's election has drawn the attention of the state to attempts to change laws on firearms.
The Coalition criticized the Labor Party for directing preferences to Shooters, which Prime Minister Gladys Berejiklian called Friday a "marginal" party whose policy was "unacceptable".
Opposition leader Michael Daley said he would "resign" from Parliament if the state's gun laws were weakened.
But the government has not always been so reluctant to discuss changes to the gun laws.
In November 2017, the current Deputy Prime Minister, John Barilaro, was accused of having sought to promote "a gun culture to the American" after asking for an investigation into the law on "State" firearms with respect to persons who believe that they respond in a reasonable and proportionate manner to the law. a threat imposed on themselves by their family ".
Gun Control Australia's Samantha Lee called on both sides to rule out any changes.
"Voters deserve to be confident that the temptation of a parliamentary agreement with Shooters will not result in a weakening of our firearms laws," she said.
"The two main parties must give voters the badurance of not being tempted by discreet agreements with gun advocates."
New Zealand changes "very daring attitude"
Philip Alpers, an badociate professor at the University of Sydney, who has created a website that tracks the evolution of firearms policy, said the announcement of the New Zealand had brought it much closer to the Australian model of gun control.
"Australia has the most comprehensive and most likely firearms lawset in the world, and New Zealand has almost reached the same level," he told Guardian Australia.
"It's a very bold decision and a very good chance to have the same public health benefit as the Australian firearms laws."
In 1996, Howard worked with the states and territories to put in place a national gun deal, which banned civilian ownership of fast-fire firearms unless restricted.
It has also put in place a government buy-back system for rifles and semi-automatic and pumped shotguns.
The laws have reduced the number of firearms in Australia by about one-fifth, with more than 700,000 weapons removed and destroyed. Studies have shown that the agreement had an impact on firearm deaths in Australia.
Alpers said he thought Ardern was facing an easier task by changing New Zealand laws. New Zealand is a single jurisdiction with a unicameral legislature, while the Howard Accord required the support of all Australian state and territory governments as well as the Senate.
But, he said, the lack of a gun registry meant that New Zealand authorities might not have a clue about the location of the firearms.
"A weapon they know that she left a dealer 15 years ago may have changed hands 20 times, so they have no idea because they have not kept record, "he said.
He added that gun makers would have no easy way to adapt their weapons to the laws proposed by New Zealand because the wording of the buyback program was broad.
In the United States, state law often designates specific models to be prohibited. Manufacturers can slightly modify the weapons and call them something different, thus finding a loophole.
"They [New Zealand] do not fall into the terrible trap in which the Americans have fallen, "said Alpers." In some cynical cases [manufacturers] would call the AD16 an AB16, which represented after the ban. "
According to Alpers, New Zealand laws have now incorporated them into "global gun control around the world".
"In many cases, Europe and Asian countries had tougher laws than New Zealand on firearms, it was almost exclusively because of lack of registration," he said. he declared.
Japan has very few guns, China is state-controlled, Singapore is punishable by death for illegal possession of firearms, and Thailand is flooded with guns but has laws strict, said Alpers.
New Zealand, the United States and, to some extent, Canada are the only countries without a universal registration system.
"Registration is a pillar of gun control and has existed in 150 countries for a century and a half," he said.
"The first pillar is the license … Then you save the object … and then you specify that the ownership of a firearm is a conditional privilege, which can be removed."
He said the three pillars were absent in the United States. In New Zealand, there were two: a strong licensing system and a definitive rejection of the right to bear arms.
"The central pillar, the third leg of the stool, if you will, registration, just does not exist in New Zealand … so, like a two-legged stool, it's about An unreliable object. "
Source link
