Here, you can legally acquire a firearm for recreational purposes (including collectors) as a professional shooter, and also as a rural property owner. There are still strict guidelines on what sort of gun you can own, and you must be licensed.
I have no problem with these laws. I think there are times when firearm use is appropriate, and our laws pretty much cover those times.
What I have a problem with, are suggestions that the average Australian should be handed a firearm (or at least be allowed to acquire one) in the name of public-safety, or self-defence. Firstly, this reason confuses me. What exactly are people scared of? A common response to that seems to be; ‘In case we’re invaded’ Oh...ok. By whom? ‘Indonesia? Japan?’ Ok. It would be interesting to see Indonesia trying to invade us, in their leaky boats and all. Frightening! They might throw illegally-caught fish at us...
The Japanese? I assume they are given as a possibility due to the events in WW2. Not that they technically tried to invade Darwin then, they just bombed it.Their ground troops fell far short of Australia (Kokoda, anyone?) Apart from that, they have no reason to invade us. We are friendly with Japan now. Even if they did try, would a bunch of us with handguns be the best defence we’ve got?
No, it would not. See, we have GREAT border security. No, not the TV show...the real people. Constantly patrolling our borders are; the Coastguard, the Navy and the Airforce. By the time someone has gotten through those three, the Army would have organised itself, including the oodles of Reservists we have scattered throughout the country. Then the Australian Federal Police could get in on the act, perhaps then even the boys in blue if it trickles down that far.
If it DID get that far (highly unlikely) is a bunch of yobbos with guns going to stop them? REALLY?
*rolls on floor laughing*
Another argument I’ve heard for allowing guns under the name of public safety is that incident still getting a mention in the news, the ‘bikie gang’ kerfuffle at Sydney Airport. According to some, guns would have prevented that. What a brilliant place to have guns – AN AIRPORT! Cripes, we’re not even allowed knitting needles on planes anymore! Aside from that, unless a sniper happened to be standing nearby, any attempt at shooting a single person in a very crowded airport would have been...catastrophic.
‘We used to all have guns, we were very safe then’ Tue, at one stage a much higher percentage of Australians owned guns. You know, when we were a penal colony. We also used to shoot Aboriginals in the head and use rum as currency. Pauline Hanson and alcoholics might enjoy returning to such times...but for the rest of us, it’s a ridiculous notion. We have grown up, not only us, but the entire western world. We USED to have more guns, we also USED to hang women we thought were witches, and various other stupid things. Each country has its own embarrassing history. No need to repeat it...
Self-defence is NOT a legitimate reason to own a gun here. It is in the U.S., and just look at the number of problems they have with that! This isn’t about them though, it’s about Australia. We have no NEED for guns for the purpose of public-safety/self-defence. Australia is one difficult country to invade. We’re surrounded by water, we’re too far for most missiles...and then there’s our brilliant combined defence force!
Even with the small number of unregistered guns floating around, Australia has a very low occurrence of gun-related deaths. Bank robberies? Very few. Mass shootings? One in the past 2 decades.
We’re not America. The right to carry a gun is not in our Constitution. We instead put our efforts behind supporting our trained defence force personnel. Australia is not under threat of invasion or the like. Having a bunch of vigilantes running about in Stubbies with a gun under their arm would only result in a lot of toes being shot off.
