Paul Peake One off the anti-gun lobby's principal tactics is the promotion of highly selective statistics. Carefully chosen figures which appear to vindicate its anti-firearm philosophy form the basis of many of the movement's claims and these in turn are often promulgated by an accommodating media. A review of the evidence shows, however, that a significant percentage of the handguns brought into the country over the past three years have in fact gone to various law enforcement agencies, while the number of firearms imported for civilian use has actually declined considerably.
Closer inspection reveals a very different picture, however.
Similarly, Queensland Police contract No. E540 for 1,500 pistols was awarded to the same company in April, 1998. The impact of these two very large purchases can be clearly seen in Table 1. Anecdotal evidence from police sources around the country suggests that as many as 9,500 of the 14,500 semi-automatic pistols eventually destined for service use have already been received with upwards of 8,000 going to New South Wales and 1,500 to Queensland. Beyond the handguns involved in the NSW and Qld contracts, however, several other Australian jurisdictions are presently testing a range of potential replacements for their current service issue firearms.