Hillary Clinton said that a gun buyback measure similar to the one implemented in Australia “would be worth considering” at the national level on Friday.
Clinton was asked at a New Hampshire town hall whether she thought an Australian-style policy could be implemented in the U.S.
“Recently, Australia managed to get away, or take away tens of thousands, millions of handguns. In one year, they were all gone. Can we do that? If we can’t, why can’t we?” A New Hampshire man asked Clinton.She then goes on to claim she doesn't know details of the Australian policy. But that's just a Clintonian way of floating an idea without having to take responsibility for it, if the idea has negative consequences for her.
Unlike the voluntary buybacks in the United States, Australian buybacks of 1996 and 2003 were compulsory, compensated surrenders of particular types of firearms made illegal by new gun laws.
The 1996 "National Firearms Buyback Scheme" took 660,959[2] long guns, mostly semi-automatic rimfire rifles and shotguns as well as pump-action shotguns, and a smaller proportion of higher powered or military type semi-automatic rifles. Because the Australian Constitution requires that the Commonwealth may only take private property in return for "just compensation," the Government increased the Medicare Levy, from 1.5% to 1.7% of income, for one year to finance compensation. The buyback was predicted to cost A$500 million.[3]
The payments from the Commonwealth were conditional on the States and Territories introducing firearms laws and regulations consistent with the National Firearms Agreement, though some inconsistencies remain. No licences for self-defense are allowed under these laws.
The 2003 handgun buyback took about 50,000 licensed target pistols. New handgun laws made illegal target pistols of greater than .38 calibre and handguns with barrels less than 120mm (semi-automatic) or 100mm (revolvers) such as pocket pistols. As a result of consultation with Australian peak sporting groups an exception was granted for pistols greater than .38 calibre used for Handgun Metallic Silhouette and Western Action competitions, but not for the popular sport of IPSC.[4]As I said, Hillary is worried about negative consequences, so she has allowed herself some vague wiggle room.