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More guns and bigger arsenals than ever: Australia’s not out of range yet
news.com.au ^ | 28th April 2016 | Emma Reynolds

Posted on 04/27/2016 11:00:20 PM PDT by naturalman1975

AS Australia marks 20 years since the Port Arthur massacre, guns still pose a massive threat to our nation.

There are more firearms in the country than ever before, more are imported, and owners are amassing larger arsenals in their homes.

Gun policy expert Philip Alpers, Adjunct Associate Professor at Sydney School of Public Health, warned this morning that boasts Australia has “solved the gun problem” are premature.

When John Howard introduced the National Firearms Act in 1996 after Martin Bryant’s devastating mass shooting, he swore we wouldn’t “go the American way”, and many believe he has been vindicated.

“People are so proud, in some cases, over-proud,” Prof Alpers told news.com.au. “They don’t realise there’s quite a lot of potential out there for gun-fuelled mayhem.”

(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...


TOPICS: Australia/New Zealand; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: australia; banglist; guns; muslium
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People who have paid attention to what I have posted over the years on FR (and there do seem to be some of them) will be aware that I have often found myself responding to people who seem to have been lead to believe that 'guns are banned in Australia'. There are reasons why I respond to those claims and this article is part of the reason why.

Guns aren't banned in Australia - though we do have some stupid restrictions - but there are a lot of people who would like them to be. And every time the myth is repeated that 'guns are banned', it feeds their belief that this is both a worthwhile and achieveable goal.

And now we have a Prime Minister who is desperate for votes, with an election less than two months away who is leaping onto the populist bandwagon - he knows conservatives are either not going to vote for him, because he's not a conservative, or are going to hold their nose and vote for him, because he's better than Labor - so he's not worried about our votes. He's lost them or he's got them - in most cases, not all. He needs an issue he can try and capture more of the soft middle with. I doubt he'll actually do anything or make any actual changes - but I'd prefer he wasn't even talking about them.

1 posted on 04/27/2016 11:00:20 PM PDT by naturalman1975
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To: naturalman1975

Bump for later


2 posted on 04/27/2016 11:18:18 PM PDT by tubebender (en)
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To: naturalman1975
“The majority of gun owners are law-abiding people who need them as legitimate tools. As with terrorism, you have to legislate for the minority.”

Gosh darnit, when it comes to terrorists we are told the laws shouldn't be harassing the majority of law-abiding asylum seekers/suspected illegal entrants.

3 posted on 04/27/2016 11:27:13 PM PDT by Oztrich Boy ("History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce." - Karl Marx)
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To: naturalman1975

Where would I find a synopsis of the gun regs for Australia?

I’m not doubting your word.
I simply want to see what the restrictions are.

In VietNam I had the pleasure of being stationed in close proximity to some Diggers.
They didn’t strike me as the sort that would put up with being disarmed easily.


4 posted on 04/27/2016 11:31:58 PM PDT by shibumi (Vampire Outlaw of the Milky Way)
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To: naturalman1975
Sounds like you need a license to own a gun.

Wasn't the buy back program really a form of confiscation since it wasn't voluntary?

5 posted on 04/27/2016 11:41:58 PM PDT by fortheDeclaration (Pr 14:34 Righteousness exalteth a nation:but sin is a reproach to any people)
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To: naturalman1975

Some guns aren’t banned in Australia, but most are.


6 posted on 04/27/2016 11:42:29 PM PDT by ozzymandus
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To: shibumi
Where would I find a synopsis of the gun regs for Australia?

Good question. It differs somewhat from state to state and most of what I see on the net is wrong or at least leaves out some important details. That's part of the problem.

Wikipedia isn't that bad. Gun laws in Australia if you read it's two first sections National Firearms Agreement and Firearms categories but I'd add the following explanation to that.

The basic firearms licence is an A/B licence - for all intents and purposes A/B weapons are treated the same, making the division between those categories pretty meaningless.

And Category C licences are not that hard to get - the Wikipedia article gives the impression they are more restricted than they actually are. Same with handgun licences. Category D licences are also a little easier to get than Wikipedia implies, but that is genuinely hard.

My own summary:

We have universal licencing and registration of all firearms. Getting a basic licence (A/B) is easy as long as you do not have a recent criminal record, getting a C or H licence is doable for most people with a bit of work. Buying a new gun even if you are licenced involves navigating a lot of pointless bureaucracy that serves no purpose, but can be done. The right to self defence is complicated - you do have the right to self defence including the right to use a weapon in self defence if the threat is serious enough but there is no right to carry a weapon for self defence 'just in case' - you need to have a reason to feel under imminent and real threat, so very few people routinely carry a handgun even if licenced.

7 posted on 04/27/2016 11:46:24 PM PDT by naturalman1975 ("America was under attack. Australia was immediately there to help." - John Winston Howard)
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To: fortheDeclaration
Sounds like you need a license to own a gun.

Yes. And different licences for different classes of guns that get harder to get as the gun is deemed to be more powerful (whether it really is or not - the categories are pretty crude.)

Wasn't the buy back program really a form of confiscation since it wasn't voluntary?

For the most part it was voluntary. Most of the firearms handed in were ones people could have continued to own (although in some cases, they would have had to upgrade their licence - but they tended to grandfather most people in that situation unless a check turned up an old criminal record). The buyback didn't make any distinction between weapons handed in voluntarily or that were required to be - it was no questions asked - so we don't know the exact breakdown, but most weapons handed in were basic hunting rifles and shotguns.

Because of the laws concerning selling firearms secondhand (that already existed) and their requirements for background checks, private sales between individuals had been difficult for years, and dealers tended to give very poor prices. The buyback was a once off opportunity to get fair market price for old firearms. I took in a bunch for an elderly neighbour - a bunch of 22s he had just never got around to getting rid of even though he hadn't shot them for years. Quite a lot of people used the money they got to buy more up to date guns.

8 posted on 04/27/2016 11:52:57 PM PDT by naturalman1975 ("America was under attack. Australia was immediately there to help." - John Winston Howard)
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To: ozzymandus
Take a look at this gun shops range for a good idea of the breadth of what is allowed in Australia.
9 posted on 04/27/2016 11:54:46 PM PDT by naturalman1975 ("America was under attack. Australia was immediately there to help." - John Winston Howard)
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To: naturalman1975

Thank You!


10 posted on 04/27/2016 11:56:29 PM PDT by shibumi (Vampire Outlaw of the Milky Way)
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To: fortheDeclaration
1.Indeed you do. But it's only $80 a year. (It used to be $50, but our poor State Premier/Treasurer was forced reluctantly to increase all fees after mean Tony Abbott took back the millions in free Federal dollars given by Federal Labor before the last election)

2. Naturalman man disagree with me, because you might have avoided confiscation if you jumped through a lot of extra hoops. but I say, yes basically non-voluntary

11 posted on 04/27/2016 11:58:05 PM PDT by Oztrich Boy ("History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce." - Karl Marx)
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To: naturalman1975

bttt


12 posted on 04/28/2016 12:01:17 AM PDT by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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To: naturalman1975
What percent of households are armed in Australia?

I've seen numbers for the US range from the 30s to the 50s. Since these are based on voluntary surveys, I expect those numbers are a lot lower than the real one.

13 posted on 04/28/2016 12:46:46 AM PDT by Ken H
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To: Oztrich Boy

That is why in the U.S. we refuse to have our guns registered, we know it leads to confiscation.


14 posted on 04/28/2016 1:12:40 AM PDT by fortheDeclaration (Pr 14:34 Righteousness exalteth a nation:but sin is a reproach to any people)
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To: Ken H
What percent of households are armed in Australia?

Hard to get exact numbers on that, but around 10% seems to be the consensus.

15 posted on 04/28/2016 1:49:16 AM PDT by naturalman1975 ("America was under attack. Australia was immediately there to help." - John Winston Howard)
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To: Ken H

I told my children, and I tell my grand daughters. NEVER tell anyone, your teacher, your doctor - anybody whether your mommy and daddy, or your grand poppy owns and has guns. It is none of their business.


16 posted on 04/28/2016 2:13:47 AM PDT by Gaffer
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To: Gaffer

Wise counsel.


17 posted on 04/28/2016 3:06:10 AM PDT by Ken H (Best election ever!)
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To: naturalman1975

“threat to our nation”

Another strident pants-wetter heard from.


18 posted on 04/28/2016 4:47:14 AM PDT by Jack Hammer
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To: naturalman1975

Well easiest thing to do is convict people there who use guns to protect themselves like in home invasions. Has happened.


19 posted on 04/28/2016 4:53:34 AM PDT by SkyDancer ("Nobody Said I Was Perfect But Yet Here I Am")
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To: tubebender

Let me get this straight.

Australia is a model for gun control and confiscation because of their relatively low murder rate and insignificant number of mass murder.

But now we are being told, that Australia has more guns than ever before?


20 posted on 04/28/2016 5:06:57 AM PDT by School of Rational Thought
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