Australian gun control, failing miserably as usual

[Australian Shooter]

Vairochana, Labor might not be as bad as the Coalition, click on this link belowhttp://www.ssaa.org.au/newssaa/ASJ/ASJ.html, and scroll down to Volume 3: Issue 6 - November 2001 and then click on the link "Politicians' Profiles", a PDF will pop up and go to the section on Kevin Rudd.

 

[fallingblock]

The problem with Kevin...

Hi Australian Shooter.

I think that the problem with Rudd is the institutional anti-gun
attitude of the left and centre of the Labour Party.

That and the fact that the Greens and the (happily nearly extinct)
Australian Democrats are natural allies of Labour for many causes.

Not promoting the Libs at all - I hope Howard receives the worst
defeat of his political career in the approaching election.

I don't perceive Labour as being a good thing for shooters.
Certainly "Mad Mark" Latham was not our friend.

 

[paul the englishman]

You American guys are so damn lucky with your gun ownership laws and should fight tooth and nail to protect those rights.I live in England and believe me,you don't want to ever have the kind of restrictions we have.I am lucky enough to possess some large and small calibre rifles and a number of shotguns,but I can only do so because I am a member of a rifle shooting club,as well as having friends who own farmland.Basically,if you aren't in a rifle club or have no written permission to shoot on private land,you can't own a rifle and pistol ownership has been totally banned for anybody unless you want to own a freakish long-barrelled revolver which again,you can only have if you're a member of a gun club.You have to possess a firearms certificate,and every weapon must be justified for a specific purpose,and you can't own 2 weapons of the same calibre/action,and also,semi-auto rifles cannot be possessed at all unless they are .22 or .17 calibre.On top of all that,even though I have friends with farms in excess of 2,000 acres where I have permission to shoot,I cannot just take my old .303 Enfield for some target practice,because I am only allowed to possess it for use at gun club premises and if I decided to cease my gun club membership,my .303 would be seized by the police and destroyed without any compensation!Also,we have no rights to go into any wilderness or public/government owned land or forests to "plink" or hunt.So,beware Americans,picture your lives controlled like mine is in England!

 

[keeleon]

They MUST have been mistaken. He couldn’t have had a gun. Guns are illegal there!

Get out of my head! I was thinking that EXACT statement.

 

[Black Adder LXX]

See... We need more gun control HERE so our country can be more like *that* :banghead:

 

[Australian Shooter]

The anti-gunners in Australia are also trying to do despicable things other than banning guns outright. They are trying to raise the age that you are allowed to shoot. Currently, in most states of Australia, the minimum age of owning a gun is 18 and the minimum age of being allowed to shoot is 12, this can be done by getting a minor's permit. What the anti-gunners (notably Samantha Lee) are trying to do is abolish this minors permit. This comes after the Inaugural speech made by Roy Smith (NSW MLC) of the Shooters Party about shooting should be introduced to public schools as a sport, just like cricket, AFL, rugby, basketball etc.
What I am saying is, bigots like Lee have to be stopped at all costs.

 

[22-rimfire]

Guns control law are social infection that can not be stopped with medication, only slowed. I wish it were different. USA laws are based on English law as were Australia's foundation of laws. Our children are for the most part taught that guns are evil in schools like drugs and so forth. As time rolls forward, these children take the laws restricting our rights as being the status quo and then when a sensational violent crime is committed with a firearm, the knee jerk reaction is more restrictive laws even if they don't work against criminals or the insane. The people that remember times before the restrictive laws were enacted are becoming a minority and slowly dying off. It does not matter what the truth is. It is all about preserving the government and not about individual rights.

It would be gratifying to see the recently enacted gun control laws disguised as crime control laws in Australia purged before generations of young Australians grow up accepting the law as being completely normal and righteous. Restrictive gun control does not stop with firearms; changes in legal age for shooting, registration, ammunition taxes and restrictions, storage issues, home inspections, knife and blade restrictions, toy gun or replica restrictions and so forth.

It may sound like I'm giving up. I'm not.

 

[Beatnik]

The anti-gunners in Australia are also trying to do despicable things other than banning guns outright.

But incremental, seemingly minor changes are the only real way to enact change like this. You can't go from your situation 30 years ago to a total ban overnight: there'd be too much backlash from the public.

We have groups chipping away slowly at our rights here too - just look at the recent OSHA scandal where they wanted to put such ridiculous restrictions on ammunition that the prices would have gone up to several times what we pay now. Banning through economics.

The thing that you should remember is that it works both ways. We've made great strides in the other direction over here in the last decade. A lot of US States now have to allow licensed concealed carry - that certainly wasn't the case as recently as 1990. But it took time.

Things can change. It just takes a lot of time and effort - and it always seems like it's going too slowly. But just as they slowly started taking your rights from you, so can you work to get them slowly reinstated.

 

[LAR-15]

How many states will abolish the minors permit?

And is it true Tasmania recently banned pump action rifles?

 

[mordechaianiliewicz]

I feel for you guys in Australia. But ultimately, I think it's just a form of control for you. I keep up on y'alls' politics. You have immigrant problems. While they are in many ways worse than ours, and not as bad as France, or Spains' problems, they are significant.

The government has decided to let in a bunch of Chinese and Muslims. Different cultures, different ideas on how to do things. While the Chinese haven't been much of a problem, the Muslims have. They don't want y'all to have weapons or them to in case there is sectarian strife.

But, more importantly, they don't want y'all to have weapons, because if the Muslim thing blows up in your faces, they don't want you guys to be looking for the traitors that caused it.

Atleast that is one explanation of many I've heard. Granted, you say that, and it seems you are deemed a "racist" by most Aussies. Oh well.

What I do know is you guys got screwed in '96 on what was obviously a false flag operation, and if it is ever exposed, heads will role. Make sure it's exposed. The thought of John Howard in an orange jumpsuit with a belly chain taking a perp walk is just priceless to me.

 

[Australian Shooter]

The problem is, a lot, and I mean a lot of people in Australian society is anti-gun. And a lot of people who are licenced gun owners don't care about gun politics.
On a happier note, the number of people who legally own guns is on the rise, and the number of children who participate in shooting sports is also on the rise.

 

[Radagast]

I've not heard anything about Tassie banning pumps, Western Australia has informally banned them, but in return has reduced the restrictions on pump action shotguns.

Queensland Police have stated that anyone in possession of a pump action with a greater than 10 round magazine fitted will be charged, however to do so is not against law as written.

 

[Radagast]

On the positive side, the recent Sydney gun show was the best attended I've seen since '96. My BIL has just taken possession of his new Remington 7615 and is happily tricking it out with all of the AR type goodies he can buy. Life goes on.