Banning guns won't ban the violence

In regards to the Annie Iverson Gower Fence Post article on gun laws in Australia (Feb. 19).

She is correct with her facts, but she didn't tell you all of the facts. The Australian government offer to buy back guns was a success, but they would seize your guns if you didn't turn them in. So, you think to yourself, get some cash for my guns, or have the government take them from me. Yes, after the buy-back program "gun crime" did drop, but the overall homicide rate did not.

This was due to a few things. According to the way the government "reports" crime, "gun crime"' dropped 47 percent, but all "other" crime did not. This includes crimes committed with any other weapon like knives, ice picks, baseball bats, and swords. Homicides were still happening, just with other weapons. So after the ban, homicides with guns decreased, while homicides with "other" weapons increased. So using the term "gun violence" or "gun crime" can be misleading.

The term "mass shootings" is also misleading. The term means, more than four in any one area. So after the gun ban in 1996 there may not have been any more "mass shootings" in Australia, but it still had no effect on the overall homicides committed with other weapons. The homicide rate was climbing before 1996, and is still climbing after the ban.

The overall suicide rate made up 78 percent of all homicides committed with guns from 1985 to 2000. So that's a fact anti-gun people don't tell you -- when someone commits suicide with a gun, it is counted as a homicide or "gun violence." So if you commit suicide with an overdose of pills, it's counted as just a suicide.

In the U.S., more than half of all homicides with guns are suicides, half of that half is "gang violence." The overall homicide rate in the U.S. is pretty low. You have a greater chance of being struck by lightning than to be shot with a gun.

I'm not saying guns are the answer to solve all the problems, but I would like to think that we should give "we the people" the option to defend ourselves.

Why do you think shootings happen in the places they do? The criminals go where they know people can't defend themselves, like a school campus! I don't mean any disrespect to anyone, but I think we have to do what's right. The gun laws are already in place, everything was done legally, and it still didn't stop someone from committing those horrible crimes.

Banning guns will not stop the violence. People with violent tendencies will always find a way.

James Vass

Fox Lake