re: "LEGO"

uh....yeh...society is getting more ugly, violent and dangerous all the time....so.....even *more* reason for people to be armed if not heavily armed.....wouldn't you say, eh?

oh...BTW...for those interested....
the Port Arthur massacre....a *staged* HOAX?
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=786707531369564&set=gm.10152498788748633 ;

Dear LEGO,

Congratulations on putting together a post that argues your point of view without derision.

Allow me to put a counter argument.

John Howard's gun control laws were primarily addressed at tackling spree shootings that had culminated in Port Arthur Massacre. While every life lost to guns is important the thought that innocent people could be victims in such an arbitrary fashion was what horrified this nation. It wasn't a matter of them being in the wrong place since Port Arthur was a tourist attraction not some industrial estate in a violent, depressed suburb. They were not there in the middle of the night nor did they have any other reason to be concerned for their safety. Yet they were gunned down in their droves.

The Milperra Massacre between the Banditos and the Comancheros left 6 bikers dead but also a 14 year old girl who was an innocent bystander. It was her death that prompted the changes to the NSW gun laws.

Family killings are less acceptable in the public's eye because often it is defenceless woman and children who are involved, but even here the perpetrator is targeting specific members.

It is the lone wolf sprees that most horrify people because the killer targets completely random, innocent people with the only reason being that the opportunity to take a life presents itself. The public can imagine themselves or their loved ones being caught, through no fault of their own, in a similar situation and there is little they can do to protect them from it.

Howard's gun control measures have been spectacularly successful in halting completely this type of crime.

Another feature of this style of killing is that the ethnicity of the perpetrators is overwhelmingly white. Over 75% of all multiple shootings by a lone assailant in the US are carried out by white males.

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Further of the 431 multiple shootings from 2005 till the end of 2012 less than a quarter were gang related.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/07/24/interactive-map-the-us-shooting-epidemic.html

What are particularly horrendous are the school shootings in the USA. I had a quick look at the elementary and high school spree shootings with 3+ victims killed. All the perpetrators were white except for one who was native American. So for fairness I have included university shootings. The following is a list from 1960 onwards including the shooter's ethnicity.

Charles Joseph Whitman, an American engineering student and former U.S. Marine, who killed 16 people and wounded 32 others in and around the Tower of the University of Texas in Austin, August 1, 1966.
Ethnicity: White

Olean High School shooting occurred on December 30, 1974. The gunman, 17-year-old Anthony F. Barbaro, an honor student and member of the school's rifle team, indiscriminately shot at people on the street from windows at the third floor of the school building. Three people were killed and another 11 people were injured during the shooting.
Ethnicity: White

California State University massacre committed by a custodian, Edward Charles Allaway, on July 12, 1976. 7 people died.
Ethnicity: White

Cleveland School massacre, January 17, 1989. The gunman, Patrick Purdy, shot and killed 5 schoolchildren, and wounded 29 other schoolchildren and one teacher, before committing suicide.
Ethnicity: White

University of Iowa shooting, November 1, 1991. The gunman was Gang Lu. He killed four members of the university faculty and one student, and seriously wounded another student, before committing suicide.
Ethnicity: Asian

Lindhurst High School shooting occurred on May 1, 1992. 20-year-old Eric Houston, was a former student at Lindhurst High Schoolkilled three students and one teacher, and wounded nine students and a teacher before surrendering to police.
Ethnicity: White

Frontier Middle School shooting occurred on February 2, 1996. 14-year-old Barry Dale Loukaitis, killed his algebra teacher and two students.
Ethnicity: White

San Diego State University shooting August 15, 1996.Three professors were killed by masters degree student Frederick Martin Davidson.
Ethnicity: White

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Heath High School shooting Monday, December 1, 1997. Fourteen-year-old Michael Carneal opened fire on a group of praying students, killing three and injuring five more.
Ethnicity: White

Mitchell Scott Johnson and Andrew Douglas Golden on March 24, 1998 at Westside Middle School, Arkansas. The two boys shot and killed total of five people, four female students and a teacher. Ten other people, nine students and one teacher, were injured.
Shooter 1 - Ethnicity: White
Shooter 2 - Ethnicity: White

Columbine High School massacre April 20, 1999. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold murdered a total of 12 students and one teacher. They injured 24 additional students, with three other people being injured while attempting to escape the school. The pair then committed suicide.
Shooter 1 - Ethnicity: White
Shooter 2 - Ethnicity: White

Appalachian School of Law shooting January 16, 2002. Three people were killed and three others were wounded when a former student, 43-year-old Nigerian immigrant Peter Odighizuwa, opened fire in the school with a handgun.
Ethnicity: African

Red Lake High school massacre occurred on March 21, 2005. 16-year-old Weise shot and killed seven people at the school, and wounded five others.
Ethnicity: Native American

The Virginia Tech massacre, April 16, 2007. Seung-Hui Cho, shot and killed 32 people and wounded 17 others before committing suicide
Ethnicity: Asian

Northern Illinois University shooting February 14, 2008. Steven Kazmierczak killed five people and injured twenty-one, before committing suicide.
Ethnicity: White

University of Alabama three people were killed and three others wounded in a shooting on February 12, 2010.
Ethnicity: White

Chardon High School February 27, 2012. Three male students died.
Ethnicity: White

Oikos University April 2, 2012. 7 killed by 43-year-old One L. Goh, a former student at the school.
Ethnicity: Asian

Sandy Hook Elementary School December 14, 2012 Adam Lanza killed 20 children and 6 adult staff members.
Ethnicity: White

Please note there is not one African-American shooter among them and the vast majority are white. Can we have a discussion on why this should be so?

SteeleRedux, "Howard's gun control measures have been spectacularly successful in halting completely this type of crime"

How?

You and others cannot show how John Howard's redundant bureaucratic procedures and paperwork might do that.

It is known that Bryant for example didn't obey the laws then and he certainly wouldn't now. That is what criminals do, break laws. A heap of paper and procedures don't stop the middle Eastern bikies (criminals who can't ride bikes)in Sydney from committing drive-bt shootings and nor would Bryant be deterred. Bryant drove illegally (no licence) in his unregistered cars to buy that illegal gun that had been surrendered to police in a police amnesty. Bryant didn't bother with a firearms licence and he wouldn't have been awarded one anyway, which he would have known.

Howard's 'gun control' doesn't stop or even mildly deter a Bryant. Billions of taxpayers' $$ wasted sooling police onto ordinary law-abiding, licensed citizens. How does that make sense?