cuchulainn
Member
Not an entirely accurate portrayal of Project Exile type or Project Safe Neighborhoods type programs.
from the Sydney Morning Herald
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/11/12/1068329638407.html
from the Sydney Morning Herald
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/11/12/1068329638407.html
Samuels to investigate gun courts
By Robert Wainwright
November 13, 2003
Dedicated gun courts similar to ones in the US may be created as the State Government considers responses to the explosion of firearm crime across Sydney.
The Attorney-General, Bob Debus, said yesterday the retired Supreme Court judge and former NSW governor, Gordon Samuels, will head an inquiry into the gun courts idea.
But Mr Debus said he was dubious about the proposal, as well as the need to follow the lead of several US cities, such as New York, Washington, Seattle, Detroit and Minneapolis.
The NSW Opposition has also called for such a court to be modelled on the recently established drug court in Parramatta and aimed at creating consistency in sentencing for gun crime offences and greater judicial understanding of the issues.
Mr Debus said: "It is easy to see why this model has been so attractive to policy makers, yet great caution must be exercised in applying the American experience to NSW courts."
He said gun ownership and crime is much more widespread in the US than NSW. Preliminary research had revealed no signs that the adult gun courts had decreased gun crime anywhere they were introduced.
Dedicated gun courts similar to ones in the US may be created as the State Government considers responses to the explosion of firearm crime across Sydney.
The Attorney-General, Bob Debus, said yesterday the retired Supreme Court judge and former NSW governor, Gordon Samuels, will head an inquiry into the gun courts idea.
But Mr Debus said he was dubious about the proposal, as well as the need to follow the lead of several US cities, such as New York, Washington, Seattle, Detroit and Minneapolis.
The NSW Opposition has also called for such a court to be modelled on the recently established drug court in Parramatta and aimed at creating consistency in sentencing for gun crime offences and greater judicial understanding of the issues.
Mr Debus said: "It is easy to see why this model has been so attractive to policy makers, yet great caution must be exercised in applying the American experience to NSW courts."
He said gun ownership and crime is much more widespread in the US than NSW. Preliminary research had revealed no signs that the adult gun courts had decreased gun crime anywhere they were introduced.
But Mr Debus said there was "preliminary data" which indicated a possible need for juvenile gun courts. Early studies had shown that gun-related juvenile offences fell almost 40 per cent in the two years after the establishment of such a court in Alabama.
But he again urged caution, saying that a teenager in the US was more likely to die of a gunshot wound than from all natural causes of death combined.
The Opposition spokesman on legal affairs, Andrew Tink, said the Government had stolen the Coalition's policy and was seeking to stall the plan despite the fact that gun crime in western Sydney was "fast approaching that of the US". "The Government is in the process of pinching a policy,"he said.
Copyright © 2003. The Sydney Morning Herald.
Huh
drivel?