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Alpers, Philip. 2013 ‘The Big Melt: How One Democracy Changed after Scrapping a Third of Its Firearms - Fall in Gun Violence.’ Reducing Gun Violence in America: Informing Policy with Evidence and Analysis; Part IV, Chapter 16, pp. 207-208. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. 25 January

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Fall in Gun Violence

As policy changes took effect in the wake of the Port Arthur massacre, the risk of an Australian dying by gunshot fell more than 50 percent and stayed at that level (Alpers, Wilson, and Rossetti 2013a).

The number of gun homicides fell from 69 in 1996 (this total excludes the 35 victims shot dead at Port Arthur) to 30 in 2012 (Alpers, Wilson, and Rossetti 2013b).

In the decade before the country's change of direction, 100 people died in eleven mass shootings (Chapman, Alpers, et al. 2006). Following the 1996 announcement of legislation specifically designed to reduce gun massacres, Australia has seen no more mass shootings.

Firearm-related deaths that attract smaller headlines still occur, yet the national rate of gun homicide - which before Port Arthur was already one-fifteenth the U.S. rate - has now plunged to 0.13 per 100,000, or 27 times lower than that of the United States (Alpers, Wilson, and Rossetti 2013c).

Sources cited:
Alpers, Philip, Marcus Wilson, and Amélie Rossetti. 2013a. Guns in Australia: Facts, Figures and Firearm Law (Total Number of Gun Deaths). Sydney: GunPolicy.org, Sydney School of Public Health. http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/compareyears/10/total_number_of_gun_deaths.

Alpers, Philip, Marcus Wilson, and Amélie Rossetti. 2013b. Guns in Australia: Facts, Figures and Firearm Law (Number of Gun Homicides). Sydney: GunPolicy.org, Sydney School of Public Health.
http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/compareyears/10/number_of_gun_homicides.

Alpers, Philip, Marcus Wilson, and Amélie Rossetti. 2013c. Guns in Australia: Facts, Figures and Firearm Law (Compare Australia: Rate of Gun Homicide). Sydney: GunPolicy.org, Sydney School of Public Health. http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/compare/10/rate_of_gun_homicide/31,66,69,87,91,128,178,192,194.

Chapman, Simon, Philip Alpers, Kingsley Agho, and Michael Jones. 2006. Australia's 1996 Gun Law Reforms: Faster Falls in Firearm Deaths, Firearm Suicides and a Decade without Mass Shootings. Injury Prevention 12:365–72.

ID: Q6569

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