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8/18/2019 John Howard's Gun Control Petition Not Backed by Evidence
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The Hon Robert Brown MLC
Parliament of
New
South Wales
Legislative Council
Shooters
and
Fishers Party
MEDI RELE SE
Gun Control Petition Not Backed By Evidence
8 April 2016
NSW The Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party MLC Robert Brown hit back at former Prime Minister
John Howard's plans for a petition
to
tighten gun control laws.
Mr Howard's petition to tighten firearm laws is simply not backed by evidence, Mr Brown said .
Mr Brown highlighted evidence from a systematic review study in the journal Aggression and Violent
Behavior showing that there was no significant impact on firearm homicide rates by Mr Howard's gun
control measures. The study as published on March 22.
A recently-published systematic review study by Samara McPhedran
of
Griffith University showed
th
at
there has been 'no significant impact ..on firearm homicide rates' from Mr Howard's firearm control laws.
Our argument all along was that these firearm control laws and buybacks would not affect the firearm
homicide rate, and now we have the statistical evidence
to
prove it It's a shame that we had
to
wait 20
years for the research
to
show we were right, he said.
No study found statistical evidence
o
any significant impact
o
the legislative changes
on firearm homicide rates . Findings from this review provide insights into strategies
nd
policies that
m y
,
nd m y not
, be effective for reducing lethal firearm violence.
McPhedran,
S
(2016). A systematic review of quantitative evidence about the impacts of Australian legislative reform on firearm homicide.
Aggression and Violent Behavior, 28 64-72. doi: 10.1016/j.avb.2016 .03.012
The study can be downloaded here: http://doi.org/1
0 1
016/j.avb.2016.03.012.
Mr Brown appeared on an SBS Insight program dedicated to firearm laws on Tuesday with Mr Howard.
I can understand why Mr Howard wants
to
bring up this topic again - he wants
to
protect his 'legacy' , but
in
reality the firearm laws are too onerous as they stand and have not lowered the firearm homicide rate.
Law-abiding firearm owners are not the problem, criminals and illegal guns are the problem.
Mr Brown said that his party had been trying
to
introduce a bi
ll to
combat gun crime since 1998, but the
major parties have shied away from this reform.
The Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party
in
New South Wales have been trying
to
introduce a bill
to
establish mandatory sentences for firearms used
in
crime, but nobody has been willing
to
support it for
almost 20 years.
MEDI
CONTACT: Robert Brown MLC
2 923 2573
Parliament House
Phone: 02 9230 3059 Fax: 02 9230 2613
Macquarie St SYDNEY NSW 2000 email: robert. brown@ parliament.nsw.gov.au