No firearms in Australia

[2aguy]

And of course this is another article on gun free Australia…and their increasing problem with guns….

Australia Sees Spike in Gun Crime Despite Outright Ban

Charges for crimes involving firearms have increased dramatically across the island nation’s localities in the past decade according to an analysis of government statistics conducted by The New Daily. It found that gun crimes have spiked dramatically in the Australian states of Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania. In Victoria, pistol-related offenses doubled over the last decade. In New South Wales, they tripled. The other states saw smaller but still significant increases.

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Law enforcement said the rising gun crime was in relation to increased efforts to crack down on guns, especially those used in the drug trade.

“In recent years police have been more proactive in their targeting of illegal weapons, particularly in relation to known or suspected criminals,” New South Wales Detective Superintendent Mick Plotecki told the paper. “We often find a link between firearms offences and mid-level drug crime.”

Regardless of the reasons for the jump in gun crime, the numbers reveal the true size of Australia’s illegal gun market. “Taken together, the data suggests that despite our tough anti-gun laws, thousands of weapons are either being stolen or entering the country illegally,” The New Daily said. “The fourfold rise in handgun-related charges in NSW in the past decade points to the existence of a big illegal market for concealable firearms that seems to have been underestimated in the past.”


Wow….who'd have thunk………guns are used by criminals in the drug trade…who get the guns despite the gun confiscation by the Australian government…..hmmmmm….

 

[2aguy]

And from the original story……

Spike in handgun crimes reveals nation’s secret problem | The New Daily

Our investigation found:

• NSW: in 2014-15, there were 3463 firearms charges, up 83 per cent on 2005-06
• Victoria: in 2014-15, there were 3645 firearms-related charges, up 85 per cent on 2005-06
• SA: in 2014, charges for possession and trafficking of guns are up 49 per cent on 2010-11
• Tasmania: in 2014, charges for unlawful gun possession were up 32 per cent on 2005-06

The big picture: What the numbers indicate
There are several ways to interpret the data: either the rate of offending has risen dramatically in the past decade or the problem was always much larger than previously understood.

The data also indicates that police have taken a more proactive and hardline approach to enforcement in recent years and are uncovering more offences than ever before.

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But he conceded more firearms and gun parts are being imported illegally and that there had been an increase in the number of weapons stolen from registered owners.

 

[2aguy]

And Europe…guns are easy to get there too….

Running guns to the heart of Europe: 'Need a Kalashnikov in Belgium? No problem'

But for all the new resolve of the European Union to tighten borders and close loopholes in laws that already effectively ban private ownership of rapid-fire assault weapons, Nemac, Milan and a jaded Serbian policeman doubt it can end the trade.

The Serbian police officer, who is involved in counter-trafficking operations, said investigators uncovered maybe a third of shipments at best. The problem was the sheer volume of weapons, he explained, recounting a tale of a man who told customs officers at Serbia's border with the EU that he was a musician and had nothing to declare but his old accordion.

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Indeed, there is some irony that Brussels, self-styled "capital" of the European Union and also home to the NATO military alliance, has become a marketplace for such hardware.

"If you have 500 to 1,000 euros you can get a military weapon within half an hour," said Bilal Benyaich, an expert on Islamist radicals at the city's Itinera Institute think-tank.