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