Anti-gun lobby's lies laid bare: there's no correlation between gun ownership and crime

The anti-gun lobby is lying when it claims rising numbers of legally owned firearms is dangerous to the Australian public, a fact that is borne out by official figures on crime, from robbery to homicide.

Australian shooters are responding with facts after the anti-gun lobby has repeated the claim in the media during recent debates about hunting legislation in NSW and the coverage of the shooting murders of two police in Victoria by an unlicensed alleged offender.

The Shooting Industry Foundation of Australia (SIFA) has published figures outlining how far from the truth the anti-gun lobby has strayed in its attempts to kill off gun ownership in Australia.

“NSW and national data confirm what past research has long shown: lawful ownership is not a driver of violent firearm crime,” SIFA CEO James Walsh said.

“Even as registered firearms increase, violent crime continues to decline.”

Firearm crime rate per 100,000 calculated from BOCSAR data. Average annual rate per 100,000, calculated across murder, attempted murder, non-domestic assault, domestic assault, and robbery involving firearms

Mr Walsh pointed to research by Dr Samara McPhedran, Principal Research Fellow at Griffith University, who has published new analysis overlaying the long decline in gun-related crimes with the steady increase in legally owned firearms.

“Her research confirms what the data has consistently shown: lawful ownership does not drive violent crime.”

He said SIFA had also looked at figures from NSW that clearly showed crime dropping while gun ownership rose.

“National homicide data further illustrates that there is no causal link between an increase in legal firearm numbers and firearm homicide,” he said.

From AIC reports Statistical Report 52 Homicide in Australia 2023–24. Since 1990, homicides by firearms have reduced to less than half, yet the Australian population has increased by about 65% and firearms ownership (since 1996) is estimated to have roughly doubled

“This claim misinforms the public and unfairly vilifies lawful firearm ownership,” he said.

“It creates a false perception that firearms owned by licensed shooters are a risk to public safety, when the evidence shows otherwise.”

Mr Walsh said the currently figures seemed to underscore the belief among shooters that licensed shooters and registered firearms did not contribute in any statistically meaningful way to crime.

It has been 25 years since any research was done on this aspect, but when it was, only about 9% of firearm-related homicides in Australia involved licensed gun owners, and the same percentage involved registered firearms.

“We must look at and treat legal and illegal firearms as two separate issues, if we are serious about improving public safety,” Mr Walsh said.

“Public policy needs to be driven by evidence, and the evidence clearly highlights that the focus needs to be on the criminal possession and misuse of illicit firearms, not punishing responsible, law abiding, licensed owners.”