Agree with most of this Brendan, and congratulate on your commonsense approach! The hysterical anti gun lobby must by now have the feeble-minded convinced that guns have an ability to act independently, minus a human finger on a trigger?

And are out there stalking potential targets on mindless whim and caprice? And a real worry if you ever see a gun driving a car, for a potential drive by shooting or just lurking in some dark alleyway as a prelude to robbing some passerby or late night storekeeper?

And as nonsensical as the vision of any firearm taking independent action! I long held, it is not guns, regardless of their action, that commit crimes but rather the finger on the trigger!

And given one only needs a single shot to commit suicide, or maybe an automatic action would allow someone to kill themselves several times over? Moreover, the drop in suicide rates has everything to do with locked gun cabinets, rather than removing semiautomatics from law abiding hands, which by the way, reportedly have the same gun related crime rate attributed to them as serving police?

Moreover, I believe some laws need to be completely reversed, given victims less rights today, than those who attack them!

In the news this morning, the story of a woman being attacked by an iron bar wielding neighbor, staggering to her feet and fighting for her very life, or virtue or both?

Only to be arrested by over-vigorous police persons, who after handcuffing her and bundling her, with alleged unnecessary force into a ambulance, seemed to have interviewed the iron bar wielding perpetrator and accepted his side of the story? That he was just defending himself against a madwoman?

For mine he should have been interviewed in a hospital bed, with a 25 cal round just removed from his belly? And given I would allow legally licensed law abiding citizens to carry a small calibre (two shot) handgun for personal protection? We need a proscribed persons register, which if had been standard practice prior to Port Arthur, could have prevented the massacre?
Alan B.

Craig,

Apology accepted. I started shooting at the age of 15,and it was my main pastime until about 20 years ago. I shot the odd rabbit, fox and ducks, but my main interest was target shooting. I shot full bore rifle with consistent success up to 1,000 yards; not so good with pistols, which I used on 25, 50 and rapid fire silhouette. Shotgun for ducks, quail, and foxes, flat out after them in a ute with spotlight. So, I do know a little about guns. Shotguns are not as easy to use as you think. The last fox I brought down had go be finished off with a spade as it copped one only pellet in its back leg. Shot guns are pretty ineffective over 50 yards, and the shot spread is only about 1 metre. I could hit a human head size target at around 700 metres with my 7.62mm target rifle, and the target would not be aware of my presence. The shotgun might be OK for very close killing by police or military, but a rifle is the deadlier weapon. As for recoil, a 12 gauge has a pretty good boot too, but recoil with any firearm is no problem for experienced shooters who know how to hold the weapon correctly. In my view, this Adler shotgun is no more 'dangerous' than a double barrel in the handers of anyone who knows what he is doing. Dangerous game, like elephants, which tend to stand up to shooters, are general felled with a bolt action rifle of .375 to .40 calibre with a kick like a mule. The now ancient Lee Enfield .303 could have its bolt worked very quickly by those trained to use it to fire 10 shots in no time flat. The idea that a lever or pump action is dangerous by definition is bumph.

I bought my first rifle when I was 16 years of age. I did not need a licence, because firearm licences did not exist. Rifles and shotguns could be hired from gun stores. Every major department store had a "sporting" department that sold firearms and ammunition.

School cadets could be seen walking down the street, or sitting on buses and trains, with Lee Enfield .303 military rifles on their shoulders, and nobody batted an eyelid. I was a school cadet, and we used to walk into class and stack our .303's against the classroom wall. Our school armoury had around 100 rifles and four BREN light machine guns.

Many suburban men's hairdressers sold firearms and ammunition as a sideline. These could be inspected by any pedestrian, as they were usually placed in the storefront window, even at night. Ammunition was available from many corner stores and rural petrol stations.

If guns cause crime, then crime involving firearms must have been right out of control when I was a kid.

But in those days, there were no school stabbings, no school "invasions", no school shootings, and no school massacres. Kids did not kill kids. Taxi's did not have plexiglass shields. Public buses were not escorted by security guards in cars. There were no security guards in schools to protect teachers from pupils like there are now in six Sydney schools.

Kids did not drop bricks on cars from highway overbridges. Ambulance personnel were held in great respect by everybody and they were not subject to assaults as they are today. Graffitti wasn't everywhere. Frail pensioners were not attacked in their homes and robbed of their pension money. Car jackings, home invasions, drive by killings, sieges, and kidnapping were practically non existent.

Any person with half a brain can figure out, that if your society is going off the rails, then the smart thing to do is to focus upon those aspects of your society which have changed. Not to always blame a factor which always present when crime rates were very low.

So where has it all gone wron Lego?

Lego, good comment there.
So very true.

For all who are paranoid about rapidity of fire, I regularly fire six aimed and effective shots in Rapid Fire matches within the prescribed times, the fastest of which is 5 seconds, and the 6 shots have to go within the 5 secs (holding the gun with one hand only) my regular times are 4.5 to 4.75 secs.
The pistol that I use is a replica of the 1873 Single action Colt; single action means that I have to pull the hammer back manually for each shot before pressing the trigger.
If I 'fan' the pistol then it's 6 shots in 3 secs. but that's using two hands and accuracy goes out the window.

There are plenty of young blokes that are faster than I am.