Actually suzeonline, every one I get I have to demonstrate 'genuine reason' or 'genuine need' for. That is interpreted very heavily by WA Police where I live.

Its the redundant and pointless over-regulation that irks me, and apparently its designed out of contempt for me and my values, because they deliberately ignored the ideas of people who actually knew anything about the subject.

ChrisPer, I understand your frustration if you happen to like guns.
However, if a gun owner who applied for his/her gun in good faith and pressed all the right buttons when he/she applied for it, can still become depressed or very angry sometime in the future.

It is so much easier for a depressed person who owns a gun to just pull it out and shoot themselves while in a depressed state of mind, or kill someone or several people along with them.

Yes, there are other ways to commit murder or suicide, but not so many other ways that are quicker and easier, or can kill so many at once.
I have nursed people with shotgun wounds too- and it was awful!

It is theoretically possible that a person who satisfied all of the conditions to become licensed could one day do harm to herself or others but the likelihood is low.

Similarly it is possible for a Council bus to suddenly career off the road one day to flatten you, however the likelihood while low, would be a damn sight higher than the licensed gun owner doing a nutter in the first example.

Who says? Numbers says.

That is why reason and facts should guide our decisions, not emotions. Being risk averse is not an option, it would mean that no-one would leave the bed in the morning.

Of course when the revolution comes you could ban anything you like, but most people are too attached to their freedom to let you do that.

Meanwhile, it does matter that the Howard gun buy-back was a waste of a huge sum of money that could have been put to better use. Likewise, not only is there a lack of evidence that the Howard inspired gun laws have reduced crime, but the control framework is poor, and the administration is inefficient and enormously wasteful of public and private funds.

Streamlining to remove redundant and weak controls and to increase efficiency is urgently needed and is necessary to release expensive trained police personnel for their real job of detecting and apprehending criminals.

Wow. Cornflower's a gun nut.

Who'd a thunk it?

suzeonline:"It is so much easier for a depressed person who owns a gun to just pull it out and shoot themselves while in a depressed state of mind, or kill someone or several people along with them."

Suzeonline,
If I said we should not allow women to own kitchen knives, panadol, rope or vacuum cleaner hoses because they are subject to post-natal depression and PMS and might suicide or maybe even murder their children, it would be properly condemned as stupid sexism. You, I and millions more walk in front of trucks and cars in traffic, even leading small children, and trust that not only will the drivers not TRY to kill us out of 'depression', they will not even do it accidentally if we just take care. I suggest this is evidence that the risk of your projection fantasy is acceptably tiny in real life.

People almost all go through their lives not killing each other. Only for the firearm, useful and symbolically important to us but symbolically 'bad' to you, do you overblow this imagined risk so much that public policy should be based on it.

Now please examine my suggestion. I am not asking for more people to carry guns, or for licensing to be abolished; I am asking for the same level of benefits of control while removing the regulations and costs that do not contribute to it, where possible and based on evidence.

suzeonline 'How many times have we heard about criminals obtaining their guns from 'gun cabinets' in people's homes? How many times have we heard of people who own guns using it as a murder weapon or as a suicide weapon?'

Answer to first question - since the laws were toughened regarding safe storage of firearms, very few. Also, more guns have been stolen from police stations and unattended police cars than from private owners so should we take away police guns too?
Answer to second question, since Port Arthur ONE licensed gun owner committed murder (the Tobin shooting), no licensed shooters suicided. Maybe you are thinking of unlicensed owners with illegally owned firearms. Or maybe you are just making wild statements because you don't like guns so no-one should have them.

CJM, what's a gun nut? I have a gun grub screw that holds my compensator on, but no gun nut.