WHERE GUNS ARE BANNED

Gun crime explodes
By Marnie O’Neill
The Sunday Telegraph (AU)
May 06, 2007
http://www.news.com.au/sundaytelegraph/story/0,22049,21678380-5006009,00.html

SYDNEY is in the grip of a wave of gun crime, with a weapon fired or
used to menace innocent residents six days in every seven.

Police figures show there have been no fewer than 40 incidents involving
guns across the metropolitan region since the beginning of last month.

The presence of guns in so many recent crimes is at odds with the State
Government’s repeated insistence that the incidence of gun crime is
continuing to fall dramatically.

The armed robbers, carjackers and home invaders have not discriminated
between districts of the city, striking everywhere from Double Bay to
Sydney’s west, from the southern to the northern suburbs.

On April 17, a security guard opened fire on two masked men after one of
them had pointed a gun at the guard outside a factory at Arncliffe.

The following day, three men held up a hotel at Guildford, in western
Sydney.

They assaulted a male staff member and punched a female patron in the face.

On April 20, a man brandishing a handgun walked into a Fairfield
jewellery store and forced the owner to fill up a backpack with
expensive trinkets.

On April 24, residents of Marlow, on the Hawkesbury River, were
evacuated after reports that an “agitated” man carrying a sawn-off
shotgun had been stalking several properties.

A subsequent search of the 49-year-old man’s Wisemans Ferry home
allegedly netted an unregistered, shortened firearm and several rounds
of ammunition.

Police Minister David Campbell expressed concern over the incidents but
said police raids 10 days ago had resulted in eight armed robbery
suspects being taken off the streets.

“Any level of gun crime in NSW is unacceptable, and police are working
hard to catch those responsible,” Mr Campbell said.

“Police arrested eight armed-robbery suspects and charged them with at
least 19 offences.

“Armed-robbery gangs are a plague on our streets, and it’s pleasing to
see our police making breakthroughs and getting serious criminals behind
bars.”

Mr Campbell said the Government had taken “giant steps” towards
reducing the number of illegal guns on Sydney’s streets and “the thugs
who carry them”.

Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research figures showed crimes involving
firearms had dropped by 44 per cent since 1997, he said.

Shooting offences had fallen by 40 per cent since 2001, and shooting
incidents involving handguns had dropped by about 62 per cent over the
same period

The Second Amendment IS Homeland Security !