My point is that the more guns that there are in responsible hands the less crime.
Ths is true in America where in 38 of the States concealed carry is lawful after issuance of a licence, these States have had a reduction in serious personal crime and home invasions.

England on the other hand has outlawed pistols for civilian use and since doing so their crime rate has soared to the point where London is now more dangerous than New York.

When NSW was awash with guns, comparitively, our crime rate, as far as holdups went was far less. Home invasions weren't heard of.
During WW II when there were far more guns than cars the crime rate was low.

If our police are well trained how is it that they don't seem to show their skills in competition?
One would think that it would be a good thing for public as well as police morale if the police were seen to be top shots.

The Law gives the citizens the right to self defence so who has the right to deny to them the means of such defence?

Did you realise that during WW2, the number of males in the civilian population aged between 18 and 40 were greatly reduced? Amazingly, this also happened between 1914 and 1918!

Also, during the pre-Columbian period in Mesoamerica, the incidences of physical violence were high and human sacrifice was common? Incidentally, gun ownership was very low at the time.

Although police officers don't have shooting events at their games (ie. http://www.2007wpfg.com/), I have noticed that quite a number of police officers have competed in the Olympics and other civilian championships. Thats truly amazing isn't it?

I also loved the chainsaw gag, I'd love to buy a fully automatic chainsaw with armor piercing blades. I'm going duck hunting.

Guns don't kill people, People with guns kill people.

Hi All

I am a competition shooter and compete in international events. Later this year I will be shooting in one of the biggest competitions in the world in the US. I can't even practice for the events, because the firearms used in competition are banned in Australia. Is that fair?

In regard to self defence, I don't have any of my firearms for that purpose, although I fail to see why I shouldn't. Also banned in Australia are pepper (capsicum) spray, tasers and bullet proof vests. While I don't believe that they are an absolute necessity, why should those items also be banned.

For those who believe that more guns equals more crime - a survey of the FBI that I recently read, found that gun related homicide fell by over 30% from 1992 to 2005. At the same time, there were more than 70 million more firearms sold and registered and gun laws were relaxed while self defence laws were strengthened. If somebody knows the link, please pass it on.

Finally, the first nation to introduce sweeping registration and licensing of firearms was Germany - in 1938 by Adolf Hitler. This was followed by almost every dictatorship or communist government since. Is that where we are headed?

Josh

Josh, while I am not a competition shooter, I am considering becoming an international cockfighting trainer. I understand your pain, I cannot train my bird in Australia either. Hitler was a vegetarian and an environmentalist as well, I am beginning to see a dangerous trend here......

Bugsy

I'm sure Stalin was a wonderful person also. However, it does still seem a symptom of over zealous gaverments to eliminate private ownership of firearms.

Also, whilst I am sure that cockfighting is an honorable pursuit in some areas of south east asia, I would hardly see that as a recognised international sport with Olympic origins. Perhaps you could investigate the topic and present a more reasonable and intelligent arguement next time.

For those who are interested, there are staistics on the US Office of Justice Programs (gov. dept.) website that may prove educational.

Just to note, Canada adopted stringent gun laws similar to Australia's in the mid-90's. Last year the parliment overwhelmingly voted to reverse the legislation due to the fact that in that country, statistics showed that the laws had not impacted on crime. I would recommend that anybody who is interested check out our own statistics. Particularly, there was a statement made by the chief of the Australian Bureau which said that gun related crime had not seen any downward trend as a result of gun legislation since 1996. It also says that mass homicide cannot be quantified due to the fact that it is a freak occurance.

Josh

TurnRightThenLeft, I don’t think that referring to Wikipedia is a reliable method for backing up your claims. Anyone can edit the ”facts” there, and the current version of those “facts” will remain on-line until someone else edits/corrects it. As for my 4wd argument being spurious and “By that logic, we should ban knives, hot water and electricity”, here in our southern state, most knives are suffering bans already, while electricity is being priced through the roof. As for the rest of your claims, other posters have already challenged them so I don’t have to.

Your statement, “Private citizens with guns wouldn't end up going through this much training”, when you compared this to police training is a bit out. Some police only have to qualify once per year to carry a service pistol. Same goes for the RAAF. Sporting shooters can, depending on club availability, shoot most days of the week. I shoot every Saturday as do most of the fellow members of my club.

I think that it would do you no harm to visit your local shooting club and have a go. With an open mind, you might enjoy it and also see that shooters are normal, friendly people, not the imagined gun-crazed-lunatics that the anti-gun-lobby would have you believe. Try it.