More and more people seem to be buying guns in Australia too, particularly handguns. Of course, their pant wetters, who have a lot more political power than ours, think this is a crisis for which something must clearly be done:
“The public can expect the further weakening of gun laws and it looks like the increase in gun numbers within Australia will continue to rise.”
He says that like it’s a bad thing. That’s a feature, not a bug.
The concern, he said, was not just that legal handguns were being poorly locked up, stolen and put on to the black market, but the majority of gun massacres in Australia’s history were carried out by legal gun owners.
Yes, the old you can’t have something dangerous because you’ll probably go ape shit and commit mass murder. That argument got Britain a handgun ban, and of course there hasn’t been any mass killings since.
“Further weakening”? Was there any “weakening” in Australia’s gun laws? I thought that as a rule gun laws don’t get better in those countries, only worse.
Actually, there have been changes to the gun laws in Oz that could be called “weakening” if you squint the right way.
One example: Some states had a waiting period for both first gun purchase, AND subsequent purchases. Repeatedly pointing out the pointlessness of this resulted in the abolition of the waiting period for those that already held a firearms license.
“Further weakening” may include:
Any handgun with a bore larger than .38 was banned, except for Cowboy Action and Metallic Silhouette competitors – there are moves to repeal that, and allow up to .45 again for IPSC and IDPA.
If the “good reason” for possessing a particular firearm is competition in, say, Metallic Silhouette, you cannot use that firearm in any other competition (eg IPSC) and vice versa – there are moves to remove that restriction.
One other change – license applications are now lodged at the Post Office. This supposedly streamlines things. It didn’t, but it will. In general, the discretionary element available to police has been de facto reduced if not de jure.
[…] the majority of gun massacres in Australia’s history were carried out by legal gun owners.
Perhaps, but the one that changed everything shouldn’t have been, it’s clear at least in 20/20 hindsight he’d murdered before and at least debatable the police should have caught him.