It doesn’t matter if you’re robbed by a man with a hammer, knife, meat cleaver, machete, ax, sawed-off shotgun or hand gun if you are un-armed. You are a victim.

Via The Truth About Guns:

Welcome to Australian gun politics, courtesy the hive mind at wikipedia: “Self-defense is not accepted as a reason for issuing a [gun] licence, even though it may be legal under certain circumstances to use a legally held firearm for self-defense.” The chances of having a legal gun around the place with which to defend yourself? “Currently, about 5.2% of Australian adults (765,000 people) own and use firearms for purposes such as hunting, controlling feral animals, collecting, and target shooting.” So not very high then. Infinitesimal in urban areas. Where the crime is. Duh. Clock this from the scribes at dailytelegraph.com.au: “SYDNEY is under siege from gangs of heavily armed robbers terrorising shopkeepers, pub staff and residents . . .

Meat cleavers, machetes, sawn-off shotguns and axes are among the weapons used in recent weeks as thugs smashed their way into so-called “soft targets” – mostly service stations, bottle shops and licensed premises – demanding cash, wallets, jewellery and mobile phones.

Details of more than 50 of the most violent incidents have been released by police this month.

However they are just the tip of the iceberg, with as many as a dozen more reported every 24 hours according to logs of the police encrypted radio network . . .

The surge in the number of hold-ups is a major concern for police because it bucks a downward trend that has seen the lowest rates for armed robbery in years.

Also alarming is the increase in gangs and lone bandits hitting multiple targets in a single night.

The above is the result of the Liberal dream of fewer guns in the hands of law abiding citizens, thanks to Australia’s aggressive firearm buy back program started in 1996.

An extensive study was performed by the British Journal of Criminology in 2006 and measured the effectiveness of the program after a decade had passed.

Via the Sydney Morning Herald:

HALF a billion dollars spent buying back hundreds of thousands of guns after the Port Arthur massacre had no effect on the homicide rate, says a study published in an influential British journal.

The report by two Australian academics, published in the British Journal of Criminology, said statistics gathered in the decade since Port Arthur showed gun deaths had been declining well before 1996 and the buyback of more than 600,000 mainly semi-automatic rifles and pump-action shotguns had made no difference in the rate of decline.

The buy back program had no effect.

“Homicide patterns (firearm and non-firearm) were not influenced by the NFA, the conclusion being that the gun buyback and restrictive legislative changes had no influence on firearm homicide in Australia,” the study says.

In his first year in office, the Prime Minister, John Howard, forced through some of the world’s toughest gun laws, including the national buyback scheme, after Martin Bryant used semi-automatic rifles to shoot dead 35 people at Port Arthur.

Although furious licensed gun-owners said the laws would have no impact because criminals would not hand in their guns, Mr Howard and others predicted the removal of so many guns from the community, and new laws making it harder to buy and keep guns, would lead to a reduction in all types of gun-related deaths.

One of the authors of the study, Jeanine Baker, said she knew in 1996 it would be impossible for years to know whether the Prime Minister or the shooters were right.

“I have been collecting data since 1996 … The decision was we would wait for a decade and then evaluate,” she said.

The findings were clear, she said: “The policy has made no difference. There was a trend of declining deaths that has continued.”

Flash forward to 2011 and continue with the TTAG story .

Via The Telegraph.au:

Four men armed with knives, machetes and pool cues are wanted over the robbery of a hotel at Taree West on Wednesday in which a 54-year-old employee was assaulted and locked with two patrons in a store room as assailants ransacked cash registers.

In two separate incidents last week, knife-wielding men robbed a convenience store at Griffith and a Bulahdelah service station, while at Berkeley in the Illawarra two men threatened a shopping centre security guard with meat cleavers before escaping with money and cigarettes.

Again, if you are un-armed, it doesn’t matter if the man robbing you has a pool cue or a machete. You are at a distinct disadvantage and a victim.

Of course, the Sydney police have what they think is helpful advice.

It comes as police urged shop keepers, hotel staff and the public caught in the middle of a hold-up to do whatever the assailants asked – not to be a hero and not to make sudden movements.

Don’t make any sudden movements. Got it.