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Comment by coenhyde | Hacker News Reader

The thing is, even in Australia we didn't try to take the guns. We just said, "give us your guns, and we will give you above market rate money. Oh and btw it is illegal to own a gun that isn't registered."

If your buy back program offers a higher rate than the market (black or otherwise). Then the buyback program will suck up the guns.

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Yeah, I was replying about the confiscation comment.

Aren't there still a lot of unregistered guns in the rural areas? I had a friend who lived over there and said that was fairly common.

Yeah there are some unregistered guns particularly in rural areas. But they don't really enter the market, they are kept as prized possessions by their owners. There isn't a black market for these weapons that is easily accessible. Maybe if you're in one of the biker gangs you might have enough rep to get access but the mentally unstable 18 year old certainly can not.

Unless they know where to steal it from (like at Newtown). Or if one of those existing owners snaps.

Sure all possibilities. But the point about policies and laws is to effect change in aggregate. We have all kinds of laws that try to prevent bad stuff from happening, but it still happens. Just because we can't stop all, doesn't mean we shouldn't stop some.

What this logic does do, is give opponents a reason to bring up the slippery slope. If the laws don't stop it, then there will be more laws to try - ever increasing regulation with marginal impact.

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