National Firearms Agreement

Last updated

The National Firearms Agreement (NFA), also sometimes called the National Agreement on Firearms, the National Firearms Agreement and Buyback Program, or the Nationwide Agreement on Firearms, [1] was an agreement concerning firearm control made by Australasian Police Ministers' Council (APMC) in 1996, in response to the Port Arthur massacre that killed 35 people. [2] [3] Four days after the killings, Australian Prime Minister John Howard told Parliament “We need to achieve a total prohibition on the ownership, possession, sale and importation of all automatic and semi-automatic weapons. That will be the essence of the proposal that will be put by the Commonwealth government at the meeting on Friday...". [4] The laws to give effect to the Agreement were passed by Australian State governments only 12 days after the Port Arthur massacre. [5]

Contents

The NFA placed tight control on semi-automatic and fully automatic weapons but permitted their use by a small number of licensed individuals who required them for a purpose other than "personal protection". The act included a gun buy-back provision.

Negotiation and implementation of the Agreement was originally coordinated in 1996 by Prime Minister Howard. [1] Since then the Agreement has continued to have support from both Labor and Coalition Federal Governments. [6] [7] The Australian Police Ministers Council (APMC), comprising state and federal police ministers, meets at least every six months at which issues including the NFA are discussed. Changes to the NFA require the unanimous agreement of all governments. At a meeting on 21 October 2016, it was agreed to hold a firearm amnesty by mid-2017. [8]

A study found that there were no mass shooting deaths of five or more in Australia from 1997 through 2006; the authors said that it is impossible to prove the agreement was the cause. [9]

Provisions

The Agreement includes a number of provisions. It was agreed to establish a temporary firearm buyback program for firearms that were once legal now made illegal, that according to the Council on Foreign Relations bought over 650,000 firearms. [2] This program, which cost $230 million, was paid for by an increase in the country's taxes. [5]

The law created a national firearm registry, a 28-day waiting period for firearm sales, and tightened firearm licensing rules. [10] The law requires anyone wishing to possess or use a firearm with some exceptions, be over the age of 12. Owners must be at least 18 years of age, have secure storage for their firearms and provide a "genuine reason" for doing so. [11]

Effectiveness

In 1998, the Prime Minister appointed the Australian Institute of Criminology to monitor the effects of the gun buyback. The institute has published a number of papers reporting trends and statistics around gun ownership and gun crime, which it has found to be mostly related to illegally held firearms. [12] [13] A 2013 report by the Australian Crime Commission said a conservative estimate was that there were 250,000 longarms and 10,000 handguns in the nation's illicit firearms market. The number of guns imported to Australia legally has also risen. [14] A 2014 report stated that approximately "260,000 guns are on the Australian 'grey' or black markets". [15]

Research by Philip Alpers of the University of Sydney found that Australia experienced 69 gun homicides in 1996 (not counting the Port Arthur massacre), compared to 30 in 2012. [11] The drop in firearm homicides was not attributed to the national firearms agreement. A 2006 study led by Simon Chapman, also of the University of Sydney, found that after the NFA was passed, the country experienced more than a decade without mass shootings and accelerated falls in gun deaths, especially suicides. [16] Samara McPhedran and Jeanine Baker, [17] researchers for gun lobby group Women in Shooting and Hunting (WiSH), considered whether the NFA had any effect in eliminating mass shootings by using New Zealand (a country with many similarities to Australia) as a comparison and found; “there is little support for the proposition that prohibiting certain types of firearms explains the absence of mass shootings in Australia since 1996”.

Another study by Baker and McPhedran in 2007 did not find a significant effect of the NFA on Australia's homicide rate. While research does show a steady decline in gun-related suicides, the reduction occurred at the same time as an overall reduction in the Australian suicide rate. What's more, firearm-related suicides had been declining in Australia for nearly ten years before the 1996 restrictions on gun ownership. [2] A 2009 study also found that firearm suicide rates were decreasing in Australia before the NFA was passed, and concluded that "The implemented restrictions may not be responsible for the observed reductions in firearms suicide." [18] Baker and McPhedran's 2007 study has been criticized by David Hemenway, who has written that the authors, who chose 1979 as the starting point for their trend analysis, failed to explain why they assumed the gun violence rate would continue to decline. Hemenway also criticized their study for using a counterfactual that assumed that this decline would continue forever. [19]

Suicide reduction from firearm regulation is disputed by Richard Harding in his 1981 book "Firearms and Violence in Australian Life" [20] where, after reviewing Australian statistics, he said that "whatever arguments might be made for the limitation or regulation of the private ownership of firearms, suicide patterns do not constitute one of them" Harding quoted international analysis by Newton and Zimring [21] of twenty developed countries which concluded at page 36 of their report; “cultural factors appear to affect suicide rates far more than the availability and use of firearms. Thus, suicide rates would not seem to be readily affected by making firearms less available."

University of Melbourne researchers Wang-Sheng Lee and Sandy Suardi concluded their 2008 report, "There is little evidence to suggest that the Australian mandatory gun-buyback program had any significant effects on firearm homicides." [22]

More recently, a 2010 study by Andrew Leigh and Christine Neill found that, in the decade after the NFA, non-gun homicide rates fell by 59% and gun homicides fell by the same 59% with gun suicide rates falling by 65%. [23] Howard cited this as showing Australia had been right to adopt the NFA but he omitted to mention the same fall in the non-gun homicide rate. [24] Others have argued that alternative methods of suicide have been substituted. De Leo, Dwyer, Firman & Neulinger, [25] studied suicide methods in men from 1979 to 1998 and found a rise in hanging suicides that started slightly before the fall in gun suicides. As hanging suicides rose at about the same rate as gun suicides fell, it is possible that there was some substitution of suicide methods. It has been noted that drawing strong conclusions about possible impacts of gun laws on suicides is challenging, because a number of suicide prevention programs were implemented from the mid-1990s onwards, and non-firearm suicides also began falling. [26]

A 2015 study found that in the two years following the NFA's enactment, rates of armed robbery and attempted murder decreased significantly relative to rates of sexual assault, but that the evidence was less clear with regard to changes in the rate of unarmed robbery following the law. [27]

In 2016, Samara McPhedran, a Griffith University academic and chair of the International Coalition for Women in Shooting and Hunting, reviewed the literature on the NFA and homicide and reported that of the five studies she found on the topic, "No study found statistical evidence of any significant impact of the legislative changes on firearm homicide rates." [28]

Simon Chapman and colleagues reported in 2016 that there were no mass shootings in Australia between when the NFA became law and May 2016. The same study also found that "there was a more rapid decline in firearm deaths between 1997 and 2013 compared with before 1997 but also a decline in total nonfirearm suicide and homicide deaths of a greater magnitude." For this reason, the authors concluded that it was impossible to say definitively whether the reduction in firearm-related deaths can be attributed to the NFA. [29]

A 2017 study commissioned by Gun Control Australia found that Australian states had significantly weakened gun laws since the NFA was first introduced, with no jurisdiction fully compliant with the NFA. [30] [31] For example, many states now allow children to use guns and the mandatory 28-day cooling-off period required for gun purchases has been relaxed in many jurisdictions, with no waiting period for purchasers who already own at least one gun. [30] New South Wales also allows the limited use of silencers, even though they are supposed to be a prohibited weapon. [31] No state or territory has outlined a timeframe for achieving full compliance with the NFA. [32]

Australia's gun laws remain extremely popular with the public, with little to no will for turning them back. According to an Essential Research poll conducted in 2018, "62% believe Australia’s gun laws are about right and 25% think they are too weak. Only 7% think they are too strict." [33]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gun control</span> Laws or policies that regulate firearms

Gun control, or firearms regulation, is the set of laws or policies that regulate the manufacture, sale, transfer, possession, modification, or use of firearms by civilians.

<i>More Guns, Less Crime</i> 1998 non-fiction book by John Lott

More Guns, Less Crime is a book by John R. Lott Jr. that says violent crime rates go down when states pass "shall issue" concealed carry laws. He presents the results of his statistical analysis of crime data for every county in the United States during 29 years from 1977 to 2005. Each edition of the book was refereed by the University of Chicago Press. As of 2019, the book is no longer published by the University of Chicago Press. The book examines city, county and state level data from the entire United States and measures the impact of 13 different types of gun control laws on crime rates. The book expands on an earlier study published in 1997 by Lott and his co-author David Mustard in The Journal of Legal Studies and by Lott and his co-author John Whitley in The Journal of Law and Economics, October 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Right to keep and bear arms</span> Right of citizens to possess weapons

The right to keep and bear arms is a legal right for people to possess weapons (arms) for the preservation of life, liberty, and property. The purpose of gun rights is for self-defense, as well as hunting and sporting activities. Countries that guarantee the right to keep and bear arms include Albania, Czech Republic, Guatemala, Ukraine, Mexico, the United States, Yemen, and Switzerland.

Firearms in Canada are federally regulated through the Firearms Act and related provisions of the Criminal Code. Regulation is largely about licensing and registration of firearms, including air guns with a muzzle velocity of more than 500 ft/s or 150 m/s and muzzle energy greater than 4.2 ft⋅lb or 5.7 J.

Gun laws in Australia are predominantly within the jurisdiction of Australian states and territories, with the importation of guns regulated by the federal government. In the last two decades of the 20th century, following several high-profile killing sprees, the federal government coordinated more restrictive firearms legislation with all state governments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gun politics in the United States</span> Political concern

Gun politics is defined in the United States by two primary opposing ideologies concerning the private ownership of firearms. Those who advocate for gun control support increasingly restrictive regulation of gun ownership; those who advocate for gun rights oppose increased restriction, or support the liberalization of gun ownership. These groups typically disagree on the interpretation of the text, history and tradition of the laws and judicial opinions concerning gun ownership in the United States and the meaning of the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. American gun politics involves these groups' further disagreement concerning the role of firearms in public safety, the studied effects of ownership of firearms on public health and safety, and the role of guns in national and state crime.

A lone wolf attack, or lone actor attack, is a particular kind of mass murder, committed in a public setting by an individual who plans and commits the act on their own. In the United States, such attacks are usually committed with firearms. In other countries, knives are sometimes used to commit mass stabbings. Although definitions vary, most databases require a minimum of four victims for the event to be considered a mass murder.

Concealed carry, or carrying a concealed weapon (CCW), is the practice of carrying a weapon in public in a concealed manner, either on one's person or in close proximity. CCW is often practiced as a means of self-defense. Following the Supreme Court's NYSRPA v. Bruen (2022) decision, all states in the United States were required to allow for concealed carry of a handgun either permitlessly or with a permit, although the difficulty in obtaining a permit varies per jurisdiction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Suicide methods</span> Means by which a person dies by suicide

A suicide method is any means by which a person may choose to end their life. Suicide attempts do not always result in death, and a non-fatal suicide attempt can leave the person with serious physical injuries, long-term health problems, and brain damage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gun violence in the United States</span> Phenomenon of gun violence in the United States

Gun violence is a term of political, economic and sociological interest referring to the tens of thousands of annual firearms-related deaths and injuries occurring in the United States. In 2022, up to 100 daily fatalities and hundreds of daily injuries were attributable to gun violence in the United States. In 2018, the most recent year for which data are available, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics reported 38,390 deaths by firearm, of which 24,432 were suicides. The national rate of firearm deaths rose from 10.3 people for every 100,000 in 1999 to 11.9 people per 100,000 in 2018, equating to over 109 daily deaths. In 2010, there were 19,392 firearm-related suicides, and 11,078 firearm-related homicides in the U.S. In 2010, 358 murders were reported involving a rifle while 6,009 were reported involving a handgun; another 1,939 were reported with an unspecified type of firearm. In 2011, a total of 478,400 fatal and nonfatal violent crimes were committed with a firearm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gun violence</span> Method of violence

Gun-related violence is violence committed with the use of a firearm. Gun-related violence may or may not be considered criminal. Criminal violence includes homicide, assault with a deadly weapon, and suicide, or attempted suicide, depending on jurisdiction. Non-criminal violence includes accidental or unintentional injury and death. Also generally included in gun violence statistics are military or para-military activities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gun ownership</span> Status of owning a firearm

In 2018, the Small Arms Survey reported that there are over one billion small arms distributed globally, of which 857 million are in civilian hands. The survey stated that American civilians account for an estimated 393 million of the worldwide total of civilian held firearms, or about 120.5 firearms for every 100 American residents.

The State of Texas is considered to have some of the most relaxed gun laws in the United States. Public concerns over gun control in Texas have increased in recent years as Mexican drug cartels continue to commit violent crimes closer to Texas' stretch of the Mexico–United States border. They have also increased due to the number of incidents, including misuse of firearms stolen from other sources.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mass shooting</span> Incident involving multiple victims of firearm violence

A mass shooting is a violent crime in which one or more attackers kill or injure multiple individuals simultaneously using a firearm. There is no widely accepted definition of "mass shooting" and different organizations tracking such incidents use different definitions. Definitions of mass shootings exclude warfare and sometimes exclude instances of gang violence, armed robberies, familicides and terrorism. The perpetrator of an ongoing mass shooting may be referred to as an active shooter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Defensive gun use</span> Use or presentation of a firearm for self-defense, defense of others or protecting property

Defensive gun use (DGU) is the use or presentation of a firearm for self-defense, defense of others or, in some cases, protecting property. The frequency of incidents involving DGU and their effectiveness in providing safety and reducing crime are controversial issues in gun politics and criminology, chiefly in the United States. Different authors and studies employ different criteria for what constitutes a defensive gun use which leads to controversy in comparing statistical results. Perceptions of defensive gun use are recurring themes in discussions over gun rights, gun control, armed police, open and concealed carry of firearms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Federal Assault Weapons Ban</span> United States federal law

The Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act, popularly known as the Federal Assault Weapons Ban, was a subsection of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, a United States federal law which included a prohibition on the manufacture for civilian use of certain semi-automatic firearms that were defined as assault weapons as well as certain ammunition magazines that were defined as large capacity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Universal background check</span> Background checks for private sales of firearms in the United States

Proposals for universal background checks would require almost all firearms transactions in the United States to be recorded and go through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), closing what is sometimes called the private sale exemption. Universal background checks are not required by U.S. federal law, but at least 21 states and the District of Columbia currently require background checks for at least some private sales of firearms.

A child access prevention law makes it illegal for an adult to keep a gun in a place and manner so that a child can easily access and fire it. Proponents of these laws, such as the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence in the United States, argue that they are effective at reducing accidental gun deaths among children, since they reduce accessibility and thereby risk. The National Rifle Association of America has lobbied against such laws, arguing that they are ineffective and infringe on the rights of gun owners to protect their homes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mass shootings in the United States</span> Incidents involving multiple victims of firearm violence

Mass shootings are incidents involving multiple victims of firearm related violence. Definitions vary, with no single, broadly accepted definition. One definition is an act of public firearm violence—excluding gang killings, domestic violence, or terrorist acts sponsored by an organization—in which a shooter kills at least four victims. Using this definition, a 2016 study found that nearly one-third of the world's public mass shootings between 1966 and 2012 occurred in the United States, In 2017 The New York Times recorded the same total of mass shootings for that span of years. A 2023 report published in JAMA covering 2014 to 2022, found there had been 4,011 mass shootings in the US, most frequent around the southeastern U.S. and Illinois. This was true for mass shootings that were crime-violence, social-violence, and domestic violence-related. The highest rate was found in the District of Columbia, followed by Louisiana and Illinois.

References

  1. 1 2 "Firearms-Control Legislation and Policy: Australia". Library of Congress. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 Wright, Mark Antonio (2 October 2015). "Australia's 1996 Gun Confiscation Didn't Work – And it Wouldn't Work in America". National Review. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
  3. ↑ "AUSTRALASIAN POLICE MINISTERS' COUNCIL". www.austlii.edu.au. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
  4. ↑ Howard, John (6 May 1996). "Hansard Australian Parliament p390" . Retrieved 17 March 2021.
  5. 1 2 Hartmann, Margaret (2 October 2015). "How Australia and Britain Tackled Gun Violence". New York . Retrieved 6 September 2017.
  6. ↑ SSAA National (November 2007). "Australian Labor Party statement". Capital News. Archived from the original on 21 September 2009.
  7. ↑ SSAA National (August 2010). "Australian Labor Party statement". Archived from the original on 28 November 2010.
  8. ↑ The Age, 21 October 2016, States fail to reach agreement on classification of Adler shotgun, current ban remains in place
  9. ↑ Chapman, S.; Alpers, P.; Agho, K.; Jones, M. (1 December 2006). "Australia's 1996 gun law reforms: faster falls in firearm deaths, firearm suicides, and a decade without mass shootings". Injury Prevention. 12 (6): 365–372. doi:10.1136/ip.2006.013714. ISSN   1353-8047. PMC   2704353 . PMID   17170183.
  10. ↑ Ramzy, Austin (5 December 2015). "How a Conservative-Led Australia Ended Mass Killings". New York Times. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
  11. 1 2 Beck, Katie (9 December 2015). "Are Australia's gun laws the solution for the US?". BBC News. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
  12. ↑ "Firearms theft in Australia\T&I no. 230". Archived from the original on 1 February 2009.
  13. ↑ "The licensing and registration status of firearms used in homicide\T&I no. 151". Archived from the original on 30 June 2009.
  14. ↑ Olding, Rachel; Ralston, Nick (23 January 2013). "'Idiot factor' drives gun crime". The Sydney Morning Herald . Retrieved 3 October 2017.
  15. ↑ Jabour, Birdie (13 October 2014). "Australia has 260,000 illegal firearms in circulation, inquiry told". The Guardian . Retrieved 3 October 2017.
  16. ↑ Chapman, S; Alpers, P; Agho, K; Jones, M (1 December 2006). "Australia's 1996 gun law reforms: faster falls in firearm deaths, firearm suicides, and a decade without mass shootings". Injury Prevention. 12 (6): 365–372. doi:10.1136/ip.2006.013714. PMC   2704353 . PMID   17170183.
  17. ↑ McPhedran, Samara; Baker, Jeanine (2011). "Mass shootings in Australia and New Zealand: A descriptive study of incidence" (PDF). Justice Policy Journal. Retrieved 5 February 2016.
  18. ↑ Klieve, Helen; Barnes, Michael; De Leo, Diego (4 October 2008). "Controlling firearms use in Australia: has the 1996 gun law reform produced the decrease in rates of suicide with this method?". Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology. 44 (4): 285–292. doi:10.1007/s00127-008-0435-9. PMID   18839044. S2CID   22624912.
  19. ↑ Hemenway, David (2009). "How to find nothing". Journal of Public Health Policy. 30 (3): 260–268. doi: 10.1057/jphp.2009.26 . PMID   19806067.
  20. ↑ Harding, Richard (1981). Firearms and Violence in Australian Life. Perth: University of Western Australia Press. p. 119. ISBN   0 85564 190 8.
  21. ↑ Newton, George; Zimring, Franklin (1968). "Firearms and Violence in American Life" (PDF). Report Submitted to the National Commission on the Causes & Prevention of Violence. Retrieved 8 February 2016
  22. ↑ "nrostatici / Lee and Suardi 2008" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 February 2016. Retrieved 4 January 2016.
  23. ↑ Leigh, A.; Neill, C. (2010). "Do Gun Buybacks Save Lives? Evidence from Panel Data". American Law and Economics Review. 12 (2): 509–557. doi:10.1093/aler/ahq013. hdl: 10419/36943 .
  24. ↑ Matthews, Dylan (2 August 2012). "Did gun control work in Australia?". The Washington Post . Retrieved 3 October 2017.
  25. ↑ De Leo, D; Dwyer, J; Firman, D; Neulinger, K (2003). "Trends in hanging and firearm suicide rates in Australia: substitution of method?". Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior. 33 (2): 151–64. doi:10.1521/suli.33.2.151.22775. PMID   12882416.
  26. ↑ "Gun Laws and Sudden Death: Did the Australian Firearms Legislation of 1996 Make a Difference? -- Baker and Mcphedran, 10.1093/BJC/Azl084 -- British Journal of Criminology". Archived from the original on 23 October 2006. Retrieved 4 January 2016.
  27. ↑ Taylor, Benjamin; Li, Jing (June 2015). "Do fewer guns lead to less crime? Evidence from Australia". International Review of Law and Economics. 42: 72–78. doi:10.1016/j.irle.2015.01.002.
  28. ↑ McPhedran, Samara (May 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.
  29. ↑ Chapman, Simon; Alpers, Philip; Jones, Michael (22 June 2016). "Association Between Gun Law Reforms and Intentional Firearm Deaths in Australia, 1979-2013". JAMA. 316 (3): 291–9. doi: 10.1001/jama.2016.8752 . PMID   27332876.
  30. 1 2 O'Malley, Nick (5 October 2017). "Australia's tough gun laws have been weakened by the states, new report". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. Retrieved 13 October 2017.
  31. 1 2 Wahlquist, Calla (4 October 2017). "Australian gun control audit finds states failed to fully comply with 1996 agreement". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 October 2017.
  32. ↑ Gothe-Snape, Jackson (12 October 2017). "Should kids have 'permits', 'licences' or no guns at all?". ABC News. Retrieved 13 October 2017.
  33. ↑ "The Essential Report". Essentialvision.com.au. Retrieved 14 August 2022.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.