In Ken Spring’s Jan. 26 letter, “Beware gun-control measures,” supporting his view about Washington state gun legislation, he stated “In Australia, all citizen’s guns were melted down with no compensation.”
This simply isn’t true. Due to multiple killings and massacres between 1984-96, the Australian government put into place a plan to buy back guns, as the Australian Constitution requires just compensation be given for property taken over. The gun buyback program, from October 1996 through September 1997, bought back (not confiscated) about 1 million firearms.
And guess what — the risk of dying from a gun was reduced 50 percent; gun-related suicides also were reduced. This dramatic trend still holds true today. Between 2010-14, only 30-40 gun-related homicides occurred per year in the entire country. The obsession with guns in this country is disturbing and the proposal of some common-sense legislation in an attempt to at least address some of the most harmful weapons seems sensible.
