Full article here.AUSTRALIAN gun rights advocates are fuming over a report suggesting the number of firearms stolen in Australia has more than doubled in the past decade.
It comes as shock figures show the number of guns owned by just one Australian — in the small village of Moonbi, north of Tamworth — reach as high as 312 guns in New South Wales alone.
Gun Control Australia obtained data under Freedom of Information laws and published their findings in a report titled Firearms Theft in Australia 2007-2017.
The findings concluded that in the past 10 years the average number of firearms stolen annually in Australia has nearly doubled from 1700 thefts in 2007-2008 to nearly 3300 in 2016-2017. Over the 10 years, almost 27,000 firearms were stolen.
The figures show that most of the thefts have come from within private residential properties and most were never recovered.
“These figures show the great bulk of weapons (75 per cent) are being stolen from residential properties, often in the heart of our bigger cities,” Greens MP David Shoebridge told news.com.au.
The same FOI laws helped The Greens launch the TooManyGuns.Org website with the How Many Guns Are In Your Suburb? locator providing NSW residents with startling information on gun ownership by postcode.
Suburbs with the highest gun ownership per individual include Moonbi (312), Little Bay (305) in southeastern Sydney and Mosman (285), in Sydney’s elite north shore.
“Stolen guns are fuelling the illegal gun market,” Gun Control Australia chair Samantha Lee told news.com.au.
“There’s a lot of reasons why the public should be concerned,” she said, citing an increase in accidental injury or death.
“The Prime Minister continues to ride on the coat tails of John Howard without doing anything to stop the wreckage of our gun laws. It’s about time the Prime Minister came out and did something about the destruction of gun laws in Australia.”
