Editing Gun control (section)

===Australia===
{{main|Gun laws in Australia}}


A 2006 study by gun lobby-affiliated researchers Jeanine Baker and Samara McPhedran found that after Australia enacted the [[National Firearms Agreement]] (NFA), a gun control law, in 1996, gun-related suicides may have been affected, but no other parameter appeared to have been.{{sfn|Baker|McPhedran|2006|}} 

Another 2006 study, led by [[Simon Chapman (academic)|Simon Chapman]], found that after this law was enacted in 1996 in Australia, the country went more than a decade without any mass shootings, and gun-related deaths (especially suicides) declined dramatically.{{sfn|Chapman|Alpers|Agho|Jones|2006}} The latter of these studies also criticized the former for using a time-series analysis despite the fact that, according to Chapman et al., "calculating mortality rates and then treating them as a number in a time series ignores the natural variability inherent in the counts that make up the numerator of the rate." Chapman et al. also said that Baker and McPhedran used the [[Box–Jenkins method|Box–Jenkins model]] inappropriately.{{sfn|Chapman|Alpers|Agho|Jones|2006}}

In 1988 and 1996, gun control laws were enacted in the [[Australia]]n state of [[Victoria (Australia)|Victoria]], both times following [[mass shooting]]s. A 2004 study found that in the context of these laws, overall firearm-related deaths, especially suicides, declined dramatically.{{sfn|Ozanne-Smith et al.|2004}} A 1995 study found preliminary evidence that gun control legislation enacted in [[Queensland]], Australia, reduced suicide rates there.{{sfn|Cantor|Slater|1995}}

A 2010 study looking at the effect of the NFA on gun-related deaths found that the law "did not have any large effects on reducing firearm homicide or suicide rates,"{{sfn|Lee|Suardi|2010}} although David Hemenway has criticized this study for using a [[structural break]] test despite the fact that such tests can miss the effects of policies in the presence of lags, or when the effect occurs over several years.{{sfn|Hemenway|2009}} 

Another study, published the same year, found that Australia's gun buyback program reduced gun-related suicide rates by almost 80%, while non-gun death rates were not significantly affected.{{sfn|Leigh|Neill|2010}} 

Other research has argued that although gun suicide rates fell after the NFA was enacted, the NFA may not have been responsible for this decrease and "a change in social and cultural attitudes" may have instead been at least partly responsible.{{sfn|Klieve|Barnes|De Leo|2009}} 

A 2011 study found that "Australia's prohibition of certain types of firearms" has not prevented mass shootings.<ref name="auto1">{{cite journal |last1=McPhedran |first1=Samara |last2=Baker |first2=Jeanine |year=2011 |title=Mass shootings in Australia and New Zealand: A descriptive study of incidence |journal=Justice Policy Journal |volume=8 |issue=1 |ssrn=2122854}}</ref> In 2016, Chapman co-authored another study that found that after the NFA was passed, there were no mass shootings in the country ({{as of|2016|May|lc=y}}), and that gun-related death rates declined more quickly after the NFA than they did before it. The study also found, however, that non-gun suicide and homicide rates declined even more quickly after the NFA, leading the authors to conclude that "it is not possible to determine whether the change in firearm deaths can be attributed to the gun law reforms."{{sfn|Chapman|Alpers|Jones|2016}}