John Howard’s gun buyback scheme had more than one benefit

Did the buyback save lives? As someone with a connection to two of Australia’s worst gun massacres, I’ve always been interested in finding out. But the public debate seemed frustratingly simplistic. Some anti-gun campaigners described firearms owners as “gun nuts,” and seemed to have difficulty understanding how anyone could enjoy gun collecting, target shooting or hunting. Conversely, gun-rights advocates would say things like “guns don’t kill people, people do,” which doesn’t take the debate very far, given that the same can be said for fragmentation grenades, poison gas and surface-to-air missiles…

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