Gun Laws Outside the U.S.
New Zealand’s Parliament House in Wellington. After the Aramoana massacre in 1990 and the Scottish Dunblane and Australian Port Arthur massacres in 1996, New Zealand’s Parliament imposed tighter regulation. After the Christchurch mosque shootings in 2019, Parliament restricted semi-automatic firearms and magazines with a capacity of more than 10 rounds, by 119 votes to one. Photo credit: Midnighttonight | CC3.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Introduction
Responsible gun owners and non-owners outside the U.S. have a much easier time passing responsible gun laws. This page spotlights why.
Other Resources on Gun Laws Outside the U.S.
Max Fisher, A Land Without Guns: How Japan Has Virtually Eliminated Shooting Deaths. The Atlantic, Jul 23, 2012.
Helena Bachmann, The Swiss Difference: A Gun Culture That Works. Geneva Dec 20, 2012.
Anthony Faiola, UK Gun Control Offers Model for US. Boston Globe, Feb 17, 2013.
BBC News, Why is Violent Crime So Rare in Iceland? BBC News, May 16, 2013.
Judd Birdsall, An American Tribute to British Gun Policy. Huffington Post UK, May 10, 2015.
Christopher Ingraham, You Have to See How Many More People Are Killed by Guns in America to Actually Believe It. Washington Post, Jun 18, 2015.
Laura Smith-Spark, This is What Happened When Australia Introduced Tight Gun Controls. CNN, Jun 19, 2015.
Ana Swanson, An Australian Comic on What U.S. Gun Laws Looks Like to the Rest of the World. Washington Post, Jun 19, 2015.
Zack Beauchamp, A Huge International Study of Gun Control Finds Strong Evidence It Actually Works. Vox, Feb 29, 2016.
Juliette Jowit, Sandra Laville, Calla Wahlquist, Philip Oltermann, Justin McCurry, Lois Beckett, So, America, This is How Other Countries Do Gun Control. The Guardian UK, Mar 14, 2016.
Ron Kampeas, How Israel Stays a "Well Regulated Militia" With So Many Guns Around. Times of Israel blog, Jun 18, 2016.
Karen Kaplan, It's Been 20 Years Since Australia Had a Mass Shooting. How Much of the Credit Goes to Gun Control? Los Angeles Times, Jun 22, 2016. Although one possibility is that stronger gun control measures had the impact of reducing other forms of violence, too.
Olivia Goldhill, How do Police Handle Violence in Countries Where Officers Don't Carry Guns? Quartz, Jul 9, 2016.
Tom Heberlein, Sweden May Have the Answer to America's Gun Problem. Vox, Aug 8, 2016.
Will Oremus, In 1996, Australia Enacted Strict Gun Laws. It Hasn't Had a Mass Shooting Since. Slate, Oct 2, 2017.
German Lopez, This European Comedy Sketch Explains How the World Sees America's Gun Problem. Vox, Apr 4, 2018.
Hilary Brueck, Switzerland Has a Stunningly High Rate of Gun Ownership — Here's Why It Doesn't Have Mass Shootings. Business Insider, Nov 8, 2018. See also the 10 minute video comedy skit by Michael Kosta, Switzerland: So Many Guns, No Mass Shootings. The Daily Show, May 29, 2022.
John Hart, I Gave Up My Gun After the New Zealand Mosque Shootings. Why Are Americans Mad at Me For It? Washington Post, Mar 27, 2019.
The Young Turks, Ben Shapiro Schooled on Gun Control. The Young Turks, Mar 21, 2019. Regarding a 2015 study of, and reporting on, shooting deaths in other countries vs. in the U.S.
John Iadarola, NRA Gets Completely Exposed. The Damage Report, Mar 31, 2019. NRA coaches Australian politicians on how to respond to public shootings, to promote lifting restrictions on gun sales
Azam Ahmed, How American Gun Laws Are Fueling Jamaica’s Homicide Crisis. New York Times, Aug 25, 2019. “Hundreds of thousands of guns sold in the United States vanish because of loose American gun laws. Many reappear on the Caribbean island, turning its streets into battlefields.”
Joel Negin, Philip Alpers, Natasha Nassar and David Hemenway, Australian Firearm Regulation at 25 — Successes, Ongoing Challenges, and Lessons for the World. New England Journal of Medicine, Apr 29, 2021. “A 1996 mass shooting in Australia launched one of the world’s most powerful natural experiments in firearm-injury prevention. This experience provides important lessons for the United States and other jurisdictions with high rates of gun violence.”
Leon Castellanos-Jankiewicz, Mexico Appeals in Case Against Gun Manufacturers. Just Security, Apr 4, 2023. “On Mar. 14, Mexico filed an appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in its civil complaint against seven gun manufacturers and one wholesale arms distributor. Mexico is requesting the panel to reverse the decision of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, which dismissed most of its claims on the basis of the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA, 15 U.S.C. §§ 7901-7903), and because the court concluded that Mexico failed to state a claim with respect to its other counts. The case, which raises important issues of transnational litigation for corporate accountability, has been discussed in Just Security here, here and here.”
Nick Penzenstadler, Hacked Data Reveals Which US Gun Sellers Are Behind Mexican Cartel Violence. USA Today, May 22, 2024. USA TODAY exclusive: Massive data leak ties names of American shops and buyers to thousands of guns recovered at Mexican crime scenes.
A massive leak of Mexican military intelligence has exposed for the first time in two decades U.S. gun shops and smugglers tied to 78,000 firearms recovered south of the border – and which types of guns are being trafficked.
The nuggets of information are among roughly 10 million records hacked by an anonymous collective known as “Guacamaya” and shared with news outlets by the transparency organization Distributed Denial of Secrets, or DDoSecrets. The Mexican Defense Ministry leak previously made headlines for exposing military corruption and surveillance abuse, and now reveals the trace data on American-sold firearms recovered since 2018.
Despite efforts to stem the flow, these American firearms are smuggled south as part of the cycle of Latin-American narcotics headed north. The violence in Central America fueled, in part, by guns also has contributed to the migration crisis at the U.S. border.
As part of the leak, emails relaying U.S. government data between Mexican military leaders and PowerPoint presentations by Mexico’s attorney general show which American straw buyers were tied to the most weapons as of 2022.
Among them is Texan Craig Adlong. He pleaded guilty in 2020 for lying on firearm transaction forms, saying the guns were for his personal use. He purchased 95 semi-automatic rifles at Guns Unlimited in Katy, Texas, making seven visits over two months.
Sixty-six of those firearms were recovered in Mexico, according to the leak.
Reached by phone, Adlong told USA TODAY he was surprised he remained on Mexican officials' radar after serving a six-month prison sentence. He made a mistake, he said, that he has put behind him.
Asked if he worries about acts of violence being committed with guns tied to his name, he said, “Absolutely. You’d have to be an animal not to.”
Of the other six top purchasers, half are linked to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives scandal known as Fast and Furious.
From 2006-2011 agents in Arizona stood down as straw purchasers illegally bought 2,000 guns at shops, intending to use the information to track trafficking patterns and arrest the kingpins. However, agents didn’t deliver the high-level arrests – and in the process, they lost track of hundreds of guns.
One of those guns was recovered at the Nogales, Arizona, crime scene where U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry was killed in 2010 when his tactical unit attempted to arrest a band of robbery suspects.
Hundreds of Fast and Furious firearms have previously been traced to other shootings in Mexico. The new leak indicates hundreds more are still being found.
Partnering with American attorneys, Celorio is going after Barrett, Beretta, Century Arms, Colt, Glock, Smith & Wesson and Sturm, Ruger & Co. in a $10 billion suit that was revived by an appeals court in March.
In a separate suit, they have accused five Arizona gun shops – many of which also appear in the hacked data obtained by USA TODAY, of selling guns that crossed the border and were used in crimes.
Mexican officials are particularly concerned about Arizona and Texas big-box stores near the border such as Academy Sports + Outdoors and Cabela’s because of how often they sell multiple rifles in a single transaction. Those stores sold 727 and 215 respectively of the guns recovered in Mexico from 2020 to 2022.
Corporate representatives for those companies did not respond to detailed questions from USA TODAY.
The documents call out Zeroed In Armory in Pearland, Texas, as the source of 75 recovered firearms. That shop was the center of a gun trafficking ring raided by the ATF in 2020.
Chris Harris, Leaked Data Reveals How the American Gun Industry Profits from Cartel Violence in Mexico. Giffords, May 22, 2024. Summarizes the article above.
CBS News, Mexico’s Legal Battle Against the U.S. Gun Industry. 60 Minutes | CBS News, Dec 22, 2024.
Gun Rights and Responsibilities: Topics:
The section on Gun Rights and Responsibilities examines the following issues: 2nd Amendment explores the history of constitutional law and how it was interpreted; Gun Death Stats and Culture explores why the U.S. has such an unusual gun culture; NRA and Its Influence spotlights the National Rifle Association, given its influence and political power; Gun Laws Outside the U.S. gives perspective on other countries’ gun laws and cultures.
Christian Restorative Justice Critique of the Right: Domestic Policy Topics:
This page is part of our section Critique of the Right, which engages the following topics: Banking and Finance examines the economic and political power of financial institutions; Bioethics discusses abortion policy; Business and Economics examines economic theories, taxes, housing, environment, corporate law, labor law, automation, and inequalities of wealth and power; Civil Unions makes the Christian case for civil unions for all and removing marriage from the culture wars; Criminal Justice examines crime statistics and definition, policing, prosecution, sentencing, prisons, and reintegration; Education examines public education and conservative resistance to it; Environment and Health highlights the many challenges we face related to animals, climate change, food, and health systems; Government Corruption spotlights political compromises and dealings contrary to the public good; Gun Rights examines gun policies and rhetoric; Media spotlights failures of, and possible fixes to, left-wing or left-leaning media; Power and Politics highlights the impact of racial considerations and racism on political campaigns, voting rights, public investments, and other political procedures; Race examines the impact of white supremacy on virtually every aspect of American life.
Christian Restorative Justice Critique of the Right: Philosophical Influences:
