Once again it proves that Australians have been thrown to the wolves by our
gun grabbing politicians. Just another news article clipping received from
the Sporting Shooters (our NRA) on the increases felt in every state in
recent times following the outlawing of firearm ownership (and any item at
all) for defensive purposes

Graham Brown
Mobile: 0411 630 538
PO Box 202 Margate Qld 4019 Australia
[email protected]
____________________________________________________________
I would remind you that extremism in the defence of liberty is no vice. And
let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no
virtue!

Barry Goldwater US politician. Speech, San Francisco, 17 July 1964

>From: SSAA <[email protected]>
>Reply-To: [email protected]
>To: [email protected]
>Subject: NEWS – Vic crime rate soars
>Date: Sat, 07 Apr 2001 08:15:32 +0930
>
>Herald Sun – Victoria
>Crime rate soars
>By PETER MICKELBUROUGH, chief police reporter
>04apr01
>
>VIOLENT robberies have hit an all-time high, with more than 100 attacks
>every week in Victoria. The use of knives and syringes as weapons of
>terror has also doubled in the first months of 2001, compared with the
>same time last year.
>Almost 450 robberies were reported to police in January and the trend
>continues every month.
>At this alarming rate, 5000 people will fall victim to robberies this
>year.
>Workers at convenience stores, service stations and public transport are
>among the worst-hit targets.
>
>One shattered service station owner told police he was quitting his
>business after being held up seven times.
>
>Senior police told the Herald Sun the crime wave was being fuelled by
>desperate drug addicts. A heroin supply drought had forced addicts to
>take more violent measures to pay for their habits.
>
>”They’re not career criminals as we used to know years ago,” said
>Assistant Commissioner (general policing) Noel Perry. “They’re
>opportunists (robbing) to meet their habit.”
>
>The Herald Sun has learned about $500,000 a month is being stolen in
>robberies, with the
>average theft worth $1078.
>
>Knives and syringes as robbery weapons are running double this year,
>with the use of guns 20 per cent higher than at the same time last year.
>There were 464 armed attacks between December last year and February.
>Mobile phones are a growing target and car theft is also running higher,
>up 16.3 per cent this financial year.
>
>Detectives from Embona Taskforce — set up to combat rising attacks on
>vulnerable targets — have arrested 266 people since August last year.
>
>Of those, 181 (143 men and 38 women) were charged with 276 armed
>robberies. Eighty per cent said they robbed to buy drugs.
>
>”There’s been a dramatic increase over the last three months,” Mr Perry
>said.
>
>When you look at the purity of heroin, it’s down dramatically over those
>three months and
>therefore there’s obviously a correlation between purity of heroin and
>armed robberies.”
>The fall in heroin availability and purity – from up to 80 per cent last
>year to up to 10 per cent – has pushed the price up five-fold since last
>October.
>
>”We charged a bloke this month with some 20 armed robberies on so-called
>soft target
>convenience stores,” Melbourne Embona detective Sgt Wayne Dean said.
>”And he said to me he had been on a $200-a-day habit. “His habit hadn’t
>increased but the price of drugs had increased to $1000 a day. This
>meant he had to do more armed robberies to buy the same amount of
>heroin.”
>
>Glen Waverley Embona Det-Sgt Tony Carr said street-level dealers were
>now doing armed robberies because they can’t get the heroin to support
>their own habits by dealing.
>
>You’re not necessarily dealing with hardened criminals,” Det-Sgt Carr
>said.
>”You’re dealing with people who may have a couple of minor priors for
>shoplifting who have just jumped straight from that to armed robberies.”
>
>Embona taskforce leader Supt Doug O’Loughlin said the number of serial
>offenders was rising. Taskforce members at Frankston recently arrested a
>group of three men and charged one with 29 armed robberies, one with 13
>and the third with three. Despite being repeatedly robbed, Supt
>O’Loughlin some store operators failed to protect their staff.
>”What we’re worried about here is there is a fair bit of complacency out
>there,” he said.