erikmalinThe stats put out by Slate completely contradict this news video of Australia after its gun ban:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xh4oHK8Dgck
Slate: “Robberies involving a firearm also dropped significantly.”
News Video: “Since the gun ban, armed robberies have skyrocketed, up 69%. Assaults involving guns rose 28%”
Slate: “homicides by firearm plunged 59 percent between 1995 and 2006”
News Video: “Gun murders increased 19%.”
Slate: “Meanwhile, home invasions did not increase”
News Video: “And in a new phenomenon, home invasions jumped 21%, an increase politicians say they can’t explain because they are still trying to define what a home invasion is, and what the penalty should be.”
Slate: “The drop in suicides by gun was even steeper: 65 percent.”
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, suicide by gun was simply replaced by hanging:
“In 2003 the most common method of suicide was hanging, which was used in almost half (45%) of all suicide deaths. The next most used methods were poisoning by ‘other’ (including motor vehicle exhaust) (19%), Other (15%), poisoning by drugs (13%), and methods using firearms (9%). This distribution was consistent with that of the previous few years. However, over the decade strong trends were apparent such as the increase in the use of hanging, and a decrease in methods using firearms.”
http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/0/a61b65ae88ebf976ca256def00724cde
Here are the total suicide numbers (all methods) from the Australian Bureau of Statistics website:
1993: 2081
1994: 2558
1995: 2368
1996: 2393
1997: 2720
1998: 2683
1999: 2492
2000: 2363
2001: 2457
2002: 2320
2003: 2213
2004: 2098
2005: 2101
2006: 2118
2007: 2229
2008: 2341
2009: 2286
2010: 2361
1993-2003 #’s here:
2001 to 2010 #’s here:
http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Products/8D157E15E9D912E7CA257A440014CE53?opendocument