Are there statistics on firearm use in Australia?
In a household where a firearm is kept, it is 48 times more likely that the firearm will be used to kill a member of the household than an intruder. In the past decade 116 people have been killed in Australia and New Zealand in 14 massacres where four or more people have been shot. Military style semi-automatic firearms were used by only six of these perpetrators, yet their victims accounted for 74 per cent of the 116 people. There were 84,000 firearms, excluding military firearms imported into Australia between January and December in 1995. Research conducted for the Commonwealth in 1996 showed that 10 percent of Australians own a firearm. Sixteen percent of Australians live in a household where there is a firearm. More information about firearm deaths and injuries in Australia is available in studies conducted by the Australian Institute of Criminology, the Institute of Health and Welfare and the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
