Gun control ends gun violence as surely an (sic)
antibiotics end bacterial infections
In the U.S., the violent gun crime rate went down after the 1994 "Assault Weapons" ban lapsed.
Saddest of all, this isn't even labeled as an opinion piece -- they call this "news", not an Op-Ed.
In Connecticut, after a law was passed requiring purchasers to obtain a license first, homicides dropped 40%. When Missouri repealed a similar law, homicides increased 16%. (http://www.vox.com/2015/10/5/9454161/gun-violence-solution)
Please don't speak in absolutes.
Suicide rates for Australia were 11.0 in 1980, 12.0 in 1995, 12.5 in 2000, and currently 12.0 (as of 2014, the most recent year for which data is available). Which doesn't suggest any obvious improvement circa the gun buyback/control event of 1996.
But it is just a part. You need the other stuff alongside the reduction of access to means and methods.
> Australia were 11.0 in 1980, [...] currently 12.0
Just checking, but are you counting the same thing over all those years? Definitions of suicide change; methods for gathering the data changes.
That makes it hard to compare rates across years.
http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/...
> More broadly, this change in administrative systems highlights how various factors (including administrative and system changes, certification practices, classification updates or coding rule changes) can impact on the mortality dataset. Data users should note this particular change and be cautious when making comparisons between reference periods. The change does not explain away differences between years, but is a factor to consider.