In terms of the homicide rate, it can be argued that Australia is safer than some other countries. (William West/AFP/Getty Images) In 2011, Harvard's David Hemenway and Mary Vriniotis reviewed the research on Australia's suicide and homicide rate after … In the two decades following the gun reforms, there was a reduction in the annual rate of gun deaths – from 2.9 per 100,000 in 1996 to 0.9 per 100,000 in 2016. The Truth: Claims that Australia’s gun ban caused crime rates to shoot up don’t check out.

In the two years preceding passage of the agreement, the firearm homicide rate in Australia (approximately 0.4 per 100 000 population7) was already 16 times lower than that in the United States.


After the gun ban, violent crime rates were up: Yes, as with the gun-happy United States, the murder rate is down in Australia. Australia's gun buyback in action. Ever since, Australia’s crime rates have been used to argue points on both sides of the gun control debate. Australia rolled out strict gun laws in 1996.

Australia has seen a rise in gun crime over the past decade despite imposing an outright ban on many firearms in the late 1990s. Crime rates in Australia have shot up since a gun ban took effect there in the 1990s. External Link: The rate of gun homicides before and after the Port Arthur massacre. It’s dropped 31 percent from a rate of 1.6 per 100,000 people in 1994 to 1.1 per 100,000 in 2012.But it’s the only serious crime that saw a consistent decline post-ban.

Charges for crimes …