The Big Picture Policy Blog

So much of public policy is reactive, and the recent dire IPCC report evidencing that we have just 12 years to avoid a potentially irreversible climate crisis should be enough to spark an unprecedented reaction. In the wake of the 1996 Port Arthur shooting, the Australian government introduced sweeping changes to its gun laws, most notable amongst which was a government buy-back scheme that, in the twelve months it was in place, bought back and destroyed more than 1 million firearms that had recently been made illegal, funded by a one-off increase in the Medicare levy paid by Australian citizens to raise the required A$500million. There was strong opposition in some quarters, but the conservative Howard government pressed ahead with the policies; in the seven years following the buy-back, gun-homicides fell by roughly 42 percent, and gun suicides fell even further, by almost 57 percent. The policy was controversial and costly, but it was an undeniable public good, and has since ...