Australia: "Anti-gun lobby takes a shot at Olympic shooters"

[cuchulainn]

from the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

http://www.abc.net.au/tasmania/news/mettas-10apr2003-1.htm

Anti-gun lobby takes a shot at Olympic shooters

An anti-gun lobby group says Australia should forego competing in five Olympic and Commonwealth Games shooting competitions to allow for a much broader ban on handguns.

Roland Browne of the National Coalition for Gun control says changes to handgun laws proposed for every state and territory do not go far enough.

"The reasons that these reforms fall short is that the gun lobby has convinced the government that there is a need for high-powered semi-automatic handguns in Commonwealth and Olympic Games sports," Mr Browne said.

"People can compete with single-shot handguns in just about all Olympic and Commonwealth Games sports."

"The events that require high-powered semi-automatics, Australia should forfeit our involvement, we should not wait for this issue to be determined on the tide of public opinion following a mass shooting."

The Sporting Shooters Association of Australia says the proposed handgun ban already goes further than first anticipated and the rights of legitimate sporting shooters must be protected.

©2003 ABC

 

[P95Carry]

Can we smell yet again, the continued stench of paranoia and freedoms repression.

Of course as everyone knows ... ''get guns off the streets'' and we will all be safe!

Pity they always leave out the criminals ...... and just screw Mr Nice Guy. :banghead:

 

[ahadams]

oh well, one of these days Indonesia is going to do what they almost attempted 20 years ago and invade the Aussies, and then we'll see how the hoplophobes handle things...

 

[Kevlarman]

Wait a minute... don't Olympic events usually use .22 pistols? Since when was that considered high powered?

 

[general]

AAAHHHHH!!!!!!... repression! get it off me! get it off me!
I live near the OTC, maybe I'll go talk to the shooting team and see if they have an opinion on this, been meaning to tour their indoor range anyway......
Oh well, more medals for us

"The events that require high-powered semi-automatics, Australia should forfeit our involvement, we should not wait for this issue to be determined on the tide of public opinion following a mass shooting."

I wonder, aren't they getting a wave of public opinion on the soaring crime rate?
just my .02$

 

[Bruce in West Oz]

Just a bit of an extension, with a Tasmanian slant -- Tasmania being the first State to actually release the new gun-grabbing legislation:

The Mercury, Tas
Anger on two fronts over new gun law
By MICHELLE PAINE
10Apr03

HORDES (sic) of pre-1900 firearms held by some Midlands landowners would have to be registered under new gun legislation, the Tasmanian Firearm Owners Association said yesterday.

Meanwhile, the National Coalition for Gun Control said the bill was a
"spectacular failure" because gun-owners would simply swap one class of
lethal semi-automatic handguns for another.

Firearm Owners president John Green said the buyback scheme should
extend to unregistered guns so people holding on to "their grandfather`s World War I firearms" would hand them in.

However, people had collections dating back to before 1900 which were
basically harmless, he said.

"There hasn't been a shooting with an antique gun since Ned Kelly's time," said Mr Green.

"It`s the old adage: registration turns to confiscation. This won't tackle the problem of guns owned by criminals or the ones people have sitting in the back of the cupboard that could fall into the hands of kids or criminals."

Mr Green said the requirement to register pre-1900 guns would also devalue collections sometimes used as superannuation. The Tasmanian legislation tabled on Tuesday is in line with national changes initiated after the fatal Monash University shooting in October.

National Coalition for Gun Control chairman Roland Browne said the amendments were a spectacular failure in removing handguns from the
hands of civilians.

The group wants all high-powered, semi-automatic handguns banned.

"In the short term there will be 1000 fewer handguns in Tasmania because
short-barrelled handguns and those with a magazine capacity of more than
10 rounds will be prohibited,"Mr Browne said.

He said owners compensated in the buyback scheme would simply buy another semi-automatic handgun.

"We will substitute longer-barrelled, high-powered, semi-automatic handguns having10-round magazines for shorter-barrelled, high-powered, semi-automatic handguns with magazines of more than 10 rounds," he said.

He said the longer barrel to be made legal was even more lethal because
it was more accurate.

I can't add anything to this because my blood pressure is peaking and I'm sure Oleg would not appreciate my choice of Aussie invective and obscenities!

Bruce

 

[0007]

pre-1900's collections...

Bruce, tell all your friends that if any of them want to store their collections until such time as all of the bliss-ninnie-tyrant-pinhead-
#&*$%@#()!!!'s running your country are dead, I'd be more then happy to fill some of the empty space in my second safe with them. I promise to take them out and let them breathe free air at least once a year. In fact, I'm still working on gettting some Martinis from the guy we talked about last year...

 

[Wheels 'n' Guns]

Australian Murder up 20%

Just recently the Australian Institute of Criminology released the data for "Homicide in Australia: 2001:2002 National Annual Report" in which it is revealed that murder has increased by 20% in the past year!!! Yes!!! up 20%!!! It is Report #46. Multiple murders were up, Murders of Children went up. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if our Gun-Hating Prime Minister Howard released a statement proclaiming that it proved his harsh gun laws were working, as "Firearms Murders" reduced slightly... (as they had been doing for the last 20 years). It seems our Prime Minister thinks that it is somehow "better" to be killed by a Cricket bat, a Brick, a Knife, Car exhaust, or a Pillow, than by a Gun. Perhaps some of our HighRoad Members can explain to our P.M. that if you are dead, you are dead. Or, is there a deep Religious belief in his mind, that if one is Murdered by a Gun, one goes straight to Hell, but if another method is used, such as knife, or fist, it is still possible to get into Heaven. What Religion does our P.M. believe in?

 

[Deadman]

high-powered, semi-automatic handguns

Handguns are high powered now?

 

[Bruce in West Oz]

Handguns are high powered now?

By law, anything other than a rimfire or a shotgun is classified as "high powered". Well, if the rimfire is a semi-auto, or the shotgun is a semi-auto or pump action, they are classified as "prohibited weapons" -- but that's a different story.

What Religion does our P.M. believe in?

Christian -- Anglican I believe, but don't quote me on that. He is, however, obsessively anti-gun -- though many say this stems from his wife, Janette, who apparently lunches regularly with one of Australia's leading anti-gun advocates.


0007

Ta, mate

Bruce