In 1996 Australia passed the National Firearms agreement in response to the Port Arthur Massacre. Since then overall homicide and suicide rates have gone down and the economy has grown. Even with these benefits, Australia must continue to work on the relationship between the law enforcement and the people to make a stronger society (Sarre 306-307). The year before 1996, Australia’s homicide and suicide rates were climbing. That year there were three hundred eleven murders, and ninety-eight of those involved guns. In the 2000’s, the population increased from around eighteen million to at least twenty-three million, and the murder rate dropped to two hundred thirty-eight murders, thirty-five of those involving guns. There were also a high number of suicides, around the 70’s there were three and a half suicides for every hundred thousand people. Then after …show more content…
Small guns alone has provided Australia with millions of dollars a year. Australia has come to be the 6th largest exporter of weapons, including rifles, revolvers, pistols, and ammunition. Not too long ago, Australia was the 20th leading exporter behind countries like the United States, Russia, China, France, and Germany. Philip Alpers is a public health researcher at the University of Sydney, he explains that Australia also imports a lot of firearms because they don’t really manufacture those specific guns for themselves. Australia has managed to produce enough guns to make up for the more than six hundred thousand ones that got destroyed in the mandatory buyback (Landers). Another area affected is tourism. Australia was ranked in the top ten for happiest places to be in, along with Switzerland, Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Canada, Finland, Netherlands, Sweden, and New Zealand. One thing many countries in the top ten have in common are that they have strong social safety nets. People tend to travel to places where they would feel safe living in