AC,

I wonder what the same anti gun people would do once the Illuminati's plans for a "new world order" begin to take hold and they realise they have been conned.
I would hope that, just like throughout history, the people will rise and kill off these sick elite group of bastards with their sick world domination plans.
It is a ray of hope and sunshine and something to look forward to.
History has many records of the people rising to the challenge of overthrowing governments.
We need our guns for when the time comes for the people of the day will have to rise to the occasion.

Looking around at the behaviour of southern tourists in our supermarkets, it looks to me that they're misinterpreting the term bear/bare. They bare more than their arms ! Grotesque & even more off-putting !

In 1872 I walked into a Kmart in Brisbane & bought a 22 rifle & a 12 G shot gun. I had not bothered in owning a gun while in the navy, or since, I had considered a couple of Great Danes, & my unarmed combat training adequate to protect my property. However I was about to go sailing, "up the reef" to start with, so decided to take out some insurance.

Those guns were radially available to anyone who walked into a Big W Kmart or a large number of stores anywhere in Oz. From what I've read the murder rate is greater today, when access to guns is more difficult, than it was in 1972, when our guns were as available as guns in the US today.

So what is different today to cause this.

Well we have jammed mane more people into each square mile in our cities. Laboratory tests have shown that rats start killing each other once overcrowding reaches a certain level, could that be it?

Then again we have increased our immigration rate dramatically. We now have many more people from different cultures living together, could that be it?

It certainly can't be the availability of guns to the general law abiding population, although it certainly is not reduced to the criminal element. Could it be that the crims are more likely to use guns, when their victims are unlikely to have them?

Could it be the violence of video games & TV shows? Do shows like CSI have more gunfire than the old Gunsmoke? Is it really true we were killing each other more with guns before they were taken off most?

What ever it is, gun laws have not helped at all. It is without doubt the most stupid act John Howard ever did, & we will keep paying for it about as long as we will be paying for electing Whitlam before him.

No I'm not that old, although some cold mornings my knees do feel like it.

It was actually 1972 I walked into that Kmart.

Hasbeen,

oddly enough I was in the Gold Coast around that time, and even though I am not a shooter, at all, I found myself buying a .22 rifle.
Probably for the same reason; because we could.
To this day, I have never fired a single shot from it, nor from the other one or two guns I have.
I think one is an air rifle, the other the .22, and what appears to be a very old, "bolt action" shot gun, which I bought because of it's visual attraction.
Again I have never fired it as well.
It may sound strange but people find all manner of things attractive or collectable.
I have always been drawn to things I like, obviously cars are at the top of my list, the rest are as and where I find them.
So it is not as people choose to believe, that only a "nut job" collects guns.
This is a human norm, and we vary our choice or area of collectables, according to our level of disposable income.
Because guns have a "macho" image attached to them, maybe it helps people's self esteem to own as many guns as possible.
Ironically these types of people never actually use their guns, but simply clean/polish them and put them back on display, and simply admire them.
These are not the people we need to fear.
It is those who conceal and hide their weapons so as not to arouse any questions or suspicions, from either the good or the bad camps.
I don't believe we should be highlighting the "right to bear arms", as some kind of evil practice.
I believe mankind has the right to do whatever he wants, and as is the case, in life, "sh!t happens".
It has nothing to do with God or his will, nor any other spiritual powers or non-beings.
It's plain and simply the will of the individual.
As you pointed out, many years ago we had a much more liberal system of NO gun control, and I don't recall any problems like we are seeing today.

Stabbings are getting quite popular nowadays. Any hysterics on the horizon to ban the import of cuttlery ? Blenders could be classified as automatic weapons.
If only we had a National Service where stupidity is the target, we wouldn't have to worry about weapons at all !
All that's needed is to go out & harness common sense, plenty of it out there, just stop the social engineers from maligning it !