Australian state to begin gun buyback after Bondi Beach attack

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgjee21eenvo

62 points · 2 comments · view on lemmy.world

2 Comments

shalafi@lemmy.world · -2 pts · 10d (1 reply)

Gun buybacks are worse than useless as they're a total waste. You might not know what you're looking at then you see pics of the guns they are oh-so-proud to have rounded up. What they actually get is a pile of rusty, broken garbage.

Other than being a waste of taxpayer money, a lot of antiques and vintage guns find their way into the mix. Damned shame.

If we had one around here, I'd toss 3 or 5 busted guns on the pile, take the money and have a laugh.

emmy5482@quokk.au · 8 pts · 10d

From Wikipedia.

In 1996, following the Port Arthur massacre, a buyback program was put in place. The program saw the collection of more than 650,000 newly prohibited firearms. During the two years when the program was carried out, 1996 and 1997, the percentage of homicide rates dropped the most in any two-year timeframe in Australia between 1915 and 2004.

The part about newly prohibited firearms is key here.

We wanted them off the street. It worked.