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Court hears man was armed to destroy building (Australian had huge weapons cache - despite gun ban)
ABC News (Australia) ^ | December 27, 2004

Posted on 12/27/2004 11:35:45 AM PST by Stoat

Court hears man was armed to destroy building

A man who threatened to blow up a Gold Coast high-rise on Christmas Eve had enough explosives to level the 15-storey building, a court has heard.

Jonathon Richwood, 43, was denied bail today on charges including depravation of liberty, assault occasioning bodily harm, wilful damage and a range of weapons-related offences.

The Southport Magistrates Court heard that Richwood sealed off a room in the Grand Hotel at Labrador and told police he had explosives and hostages.

The court was told he had a cache of weapons including a home-made rocket launcher, four bombs, four hand grenades, two flame throwers and a shotgun.

Richwood also had enough food to last 20 days, the court heard.

He held police at bay for 17 hours.

The 43-year-old was denied bail on the grounds he represented a serious danger to the public.

He is due to face court again on January 19.



TOPICS: Australia/New Zealand; Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: australia; banglist; crime; firearms; goldcoast; grandhotel; gunban; guns; hotel; hotelsiege; labrador
This is such a telling commentary about gun control...despite Australia's massive, nationwide gun ban, which included the physical destruction of guns (including magnificent antiques) this nut was able to collect:

Australia's crime rate skyrocketed after the gun ban, and it seems that someone who is determined can acquire military-grade weaponry and explosive ordnance that would have been illegal for private citizens to own before the ban anyway.  The only thing that the ban has accomplished is that it has made our Australian friends less safe at home.

1 posted on 12/27/2004 11:35:46 AM PST by Stoat
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To: Stoat
San Francisco are you listening?
2 posted on 12/27/2004 11:40:47 AM PST by IllumiNaughtyByNature (Never underestimate the power of a cacophony of Cowbells played in unison...It shocks the mind.)
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To: Stoat

I keep thinking of the Simpsons, when Springfield becomes an anti-gun community.


3 posted on 12/27/2004 11:44:10 AM PST by sully777 (our descendants will be enslaved by political expediency and expenditure)
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To: Stoat

This can't be. Banning guns should be the end to all violence. Because we all know guns kill people! No more guns. No more guns. No more guns! :)


4 posted on 12/27/2004 11:48:54 AM PST by writer33 (The U.S. Constitution defines a conservative.)
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To: All
It's interesting to note how reality oftentimes ends up being quite different from initial reports.  In this BBC story from December 24, a considerably less threatening picture is painted:
"The 43-year-old man reportedly threatened to blow up the hotel and said he had taken hostages.

However, police said no-one was being held although they found a small amount of "potentially explosive material".

BBC NEWS Asia-Pacific Police end Australia hotel siege

5 posted on 12/27/2004 12:05:04 PM PST by Stoat
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To: Stoat
Enough explosives to level a 15 story building

Two flame throwers

A homemade rocket launcher

Four grenades

A shotgun

Translated from news speak

-a couple of old cans of black powder so damp they fizzle when lit rather than explode

-two old World War II demilled flame throwers that haven't worked in 50 yrs and cant be made to work

-A ten foot piece of schedule 40 PVC pipe

-four surplus demilled WWII "pineapple grenades" inert..no explosives, no blasting cap, no spoon, no pin, available on-line or in surplus stores everywhere.

-a double barreled shotgun ala Elmer Fudd

6 posted on 12/27/2004 1:26:55 PM PST by joesnuffy (Moderate Islam Is For Dilettantes)
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To: Stoat

"Richwood also had enough food to last 20 days, the court heard."

that's it. . . _NOW_ he's crossed the line. . .

/sarcasm


7 posted on 12/27/2004 1:27:13 PM PST by stompk
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To: Stoat
Rodney Ansell, the real-life Crocodile Dundee was killed in a shoot-out with Australian cops in 1999. Other stories had speculated that he suspected they were going to confiscate his firearms.

http://www.freep.com/news/nw/qcroc5.htm
8 posted on 12/27/2004 1:35:25 PM PST by Dan Evans
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To: Stoat

Actually, Australians can legally own guns including 'military grade' weapons entirely legally, despite the apparent and erroneous belief across the United States that we can't.

I'm an Australian. I own guns. Completely and entirely legally. Hundreds of thousands of other Australia's do so as well, and there are millions of legally held weapons across this country.

Don't believe everything the press tries to tell you. A lot of nonsense has been written (in Australia as well as the US) about Australia's gun laws. The laws aren't good ones - they are overly bureaucratic and overly prescriptive. But they are nothing like as bad as people seem to like to present them.

Most of the weapons destroyed for example, were voluntarily surrendered in exchance for cash. They weren't banned - most remained completely legal, in many case, people didn't even need to get a new licence.


9 posted on 12/27/2004 1:38:22 PM PST by naturalman1975 (Sure, give peace a chance - but si vis pacem, para bellum.)
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To: Dan Evans; Joe Brower; neverdem
Other stories had speculated that [the real Crocidile Dundee] suspected they were going to confiscate his firearms.

A true Spartan?

10 posted on 12/27/2004 1:54:39 PM PST by risk
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To: naturalman1975
",,people didn't even need to get a new license."

A hunting license?

(\sarcasm)

11 posted on 12/27/2004 2:06:50 PM PST by TYVets (God so loved the world he didn't send a committee)
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To: sully777

Don't forget the family guy episode where they tried to create a society free of guns in a nuclear wasteland.


12 posted on 12/27/2004 2:15:37 PM PST by krakath
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