NCJ Number
203342
Date Published
2003
Length
36 pages
Annotation
This paper evaluates the effectiveness of gun buybacks in the reduction of violence in Australia.
Abstract
There is a hypothesized link between gun buybacks and violent crime. It is hypothesized that by making the most lethal weapons (firearms) less available the number of violent crimes will drop and the average lethality of those crimes will also decline. Since there is no domestic production of firearms in Australia and it is difficult to import prohibited guns into Australia because of its isolation and there are no land borders, Australia became an attractive site to conduct an evaluation of their gun buyback program under the National Firearms Agreement (NFA). This chapter presents this evaluation. The buyback program under the NFA was completed in 1997. Between 1996 and 1997, 643,726 prohibited firearms were handed in. Estimates of the buyback penetration range between 40 and 80 percent. Since the buyback there have been a series of “rolling amnesties,” where firearm owners can hand over guns that are either prohibited or not registered without penalty, during a fixed time period. The NFA is a case study in the effects of tightening an already stringent gun control regime with the gun buyback being one of the most distinctive in support of a new prohibition. However, for those interested in gun buyback proposals as a means of reducing violent crime, the results provide little insight. Even though the Australia buyback was large scale and it acquired a substantial fraction of the prohibited firearms, approximately three-quarters, it targeted a low-risk weapon which is opposite of the United States gun buyback program targets. Comments and references