ABSTRACT
The Report of the National Committee was published in 1990. More than a dozen specific recommendations regarding firearms were made, including uniform legislation, a national gun control strategy, a computerized firearms registry, and a permanent amnesty for the surrender of unauthorized firearms. The criminological evidence on the subject of guns and their role in crime, both preventing and promoting, is extensive. The police carriage of firearms is an important issue in the gun debate. For in the arguments used by gun advocates for greater civilian access to guns, there is an oft-made point that law enforcement deploys guns, ergo guns need to be accepted by the public as an effective tool of crime control. Australia’s gun lobby – long accustomed to stacking firearm consultative committees and holding sway in legislative bodies – lobbied hard against suggested public health measures. It is difficult to imagine, however, that an Australian-style response to gun violence could ever be transplanted into the United States.
