The Aug. 29 letter on the rise of gun crime in Australia does not accord with the published statistics. They are available at the Australian Institute of Criminology's website at facts and figures: www.aic.gov.au.
All crime rates in Australia have been on the decline over the past decade, including homicides, armed robberies and home burglaries. Only assault has been increasing. Gun crime especially has declined since the gun buybacks (long arms 1996, handguns 2002), however there is still some academic dispute whether this is actual reason for the decrease in gun crimes across the board.
What is undisputed, however, is there have been no wholesale gun massacres using semiautomatic weapons since 1996.
Colin Campbell
Communications manager
Australian Institute of Criminology
Canberra, Australia
