Dear CS

'Ineptitude' does cover it; in each of the cases that you cite, ineptness, possibly accounted for by lack of training, commonsense and unfamiliarity with firearms, allied, in the case of the pistol-whipping of an already wounded man, with brutality, shows lack of training and derelection on the part of senior officers who were responsible for adequate training; but they, in turn, are also victims of a 'no gun culture' so their lack of performance is understandable.

Your attempt at wit is appreciated but it would be more productive were you to adress the problems faced by small women when confronted by aggressive males with criminal intent.
How can women is this position protect themselves?

Bob Katter has an answer.

What utter garbage csteele, all from an ideology of the whimp.
It is a damn good thing it was not this way when we had to be defended by a bunch of kids in the milita at Kokoda.

Fortunately back then most kids had handled a rifle, & had in fact helped boost the family larder with rabbits. Guns aren't really such a big deal, if you aren't scared of your own shadow.

At 15, as a school cadet officer in the 50s, I was taking charge of a platoon of 30 kids on the rifle range without problem. Those kids could have defended us, as distinct from many kids today who are frightened to even touch a gun.

You & your like have excelled yourselves. Some kids must believe guns have teeth, thanks to scare mongering.

The only reason to disarm the general population is that a lousy government may fear the reaction of a population to some dreadful policy or law it may propagate. It is a wish of the control freak to make the population defenceless.

Today, when the cops are basically trained to collect revenue with a radar on the side of the road, it is only an idiot who expects help from them, in a timely manner, when needed. This is not the fault of the serving officers, but more a result of B grade government. However we now have to be our own first line of defence, in the home, more than at any other time in our history.

morganzola
As a Green vote I have to say I liked Katter on Q&A the other night. As much as he is an eccentric he is the first politician to raise the issue of privatisation, competition, selling off public assets without permission from the people-often to foreign companies, ownership of agricultural land and improving democracy by increasing the participation of citizens. Who else is doing that?

While I wouldn't like the gun ownership laws changed nor do I agree with live exports the party does have some refreshingly good ideas around food security and trade as per the AP website. I do wish though they would stop referring to the party as Katter's AP - it is too conceited and while that is probably not the intention, parties are about people not one person.

Without having done too much reading there is no indication of the AP's policies on same sex marriage (I am guessing against) despite the appearance of personal liberty nor is there much on environmental protection. While business is important the environment is also vital to the future sustainability and wellbeing of communities. And I don't mean the fishing, billy boiling, or 4 wheel driving aspect - that is okay but nothing about protecting old growth forests or river-health etc. Will the AP be like the two major parties and favour interests of big corps over the environment?

Hi pelican. While my personal response to Katter's performance is that he's an angry, I'll-mannered, scientifically illiterate buffoon, that persona is obviously attractive to some people. And as you say, Katter has some interesting, if populist, ideas that have some merit. Indeed, I have developed some genuine affection for the old toad in the 25 years I've lived in Qld.

However, have you seen his party website? If not, I imagine you'd be rather dismayed at their policies concerning environmental protection, same sex marriage, the supposed Christian basis of our culture, not to mention the rather coyly expressed right to personal protection, which doesn't actually mention guns but is consistent with the gun lobby's aspirations to turn us into America.

No doubt they'll have some initial success among the extreme right and those drawn by populist promises, but I still think they'll be a flash in the pan. Ultimately, most of their support will come from the lunar Right rump of Coalition supporters and the One Nation rabble who currently have nowhere to go. I predict they'll follow Pauline's mob down the gurgler, having provided some entertainment along the way.

At best I find Katter an entertaining diversion. I cannot listen to him for too long as his ignorance on many issues is too disturbing. However, I believe we need such a mix in out political system - better diversity than stagnation.

Dear Hasbeen,

Sheesh mate, kids stuff. At 15 I had already put in over two years at a military college in a foreign country, one which was constantly holding memorial services for the dead from the latest graduating year.

But even I am not stupid enough to think the youth of today doesn't present a pool of desensitized killing machines.

In 1997 14 year old Michael Carmeal took a pistol into a prayer meeting and with eight shots hit eight moving targets killing three. He had never fired a handgun in his life.

The following year four New York City cops, all very experienced, shot at one unarmed Amadou Diallo, firing forty-one bullets from barely fifteen feet away; fewer than half hit their mark.

I repeat the point I made in an earlier post, give me a generation of youth without the influences of violent movies and video games then you can come and talk to me about relaxing gun laws in this country.

We as a nation have recognized that the inappropriateness of weaponising each home in the modern world. We have looked at places like America and determined that a gun culture is not what we want for this country.

Until we are prepared to infringe the rights of Hollywood and the gaming companies plus the personal rights of their customers in this country our gun laws should remain.

The world has moved on from when we were young Hasbeen and these laws are an acknowledgment and accommodation of that truth. We may bemoan some of the changes, as I myself have had occasion to do, but we need to accept the sensible accommodations they have forced upon us.

Kokoda and a larder full of rabbits should be remembered fondly but not used to dictate the future.