I can't imagine anything more stupid than to disarm the honest citizenry, but then not do the job of disarming the criminals.

I can only hope that the idiots who voted for & support this rubbish are the ones to suffer the obvious result.

I carried a 22 when rabbiting from about 12 years old. We ate many rabbit stews provided by that rifle.

Our school cadets took their army issue rifles home on Thursday afternoons, when we were having a shoot at the range on Saturday. No one turned a hair at over 100 school boys walking, riding or bussing home, with a 303 over their shoulder. Perhaps we were a more mature society in the 50s, than this one we have today.

Like many hundreds of others, at 16 I was taking charge of a platoon of 30 school boy cadets, on the range, on a regular basis.

The only gun injuries ever in our district were accidents, with people with insufficient gun training/experience.

God help us if we ever have another real war, there will be no gun competent quickly formed Militia, like the one that saved our ass in New Guinea during the last one. You should know better Belly.

I am early 50's and when I was 17-30's I could walk in to any gun dealer, buy a gun, buy bullets, load it, carry it to my car and carry it around loaded.

I remember returning from a rabbit hunting trip, went to work for the next six days, while at the whole time had a 22 and a 222, both loaded, hanging on my rear windscreen.

Guns were also a talking piece, so many of us would have them in the car when out in the town, or at the drive in.

Very very few people got shot here in Auss during these years.

Please tell me why, when we now have very strict gun laws, that there are more shootings here in Auss now, than there were before the modern day gun laws were forced upon us.

For the record, I am a responsible gun owner/ user and have no problem with common sense gun control. , and I am also appalled with what is happening in the US, but it has nothing to do with us and if our gun control laws have not worked here, why should such laws work in the likes of the US.

StG,
Yes the topic is about America. Why is it that America has that dubious title re guns ? India & China have loads more people with loads more poverty yet their crime rate doesn't seem to be as high as in countries with supposedly better living standards ? do better living standards foster more violence & discontent ? Is it because the Asians are tougher on violence than Westerners ?
What is the percentage of weapons used in american shootings ? Are they american gun or are they imported ? How do weapons & ammunition get marketed in America ? If self defence is one of the reasons guns are easier to get than what controls the various calibre ?
Is multiculturalism be a major/minor fact in the high volume of guns there ?
Do offenders simply let their frustrations with bureaucracy out on innocent people because the bureaucrats are so well protected ? I don't have answers for any of these questions but I do know that here in Australia the selfish mentality is a serious problem & it is even worse when guns get involved.

St G I truly, have tried to find something to agree within every post, yours is the only one.
I was a sporting shooter.
Have nothing against shooting.
Do all of us understand this is about America?
Do we all know the guns involved in Australia are not legal, and that, almost every drive by shooting is from people not born here.
And every act is criminal.
Back to the thread, individuals words truly honestly frighten me.
They could well have come from the mouth of several mass murderers.
Any one think we should or would even consider murdering our officials or politicians?
AMERICA, not us, sells youths machine guns type weapons.
Them not us have gun culture, no country I know in the western world has that.
Weapons control, such as we have, stops no sporting shooter.
However we see less road signs shot up and dead livestock in paddocks

Any one think we should or would even consider murdering our officials or politicians?
Belly,
that remark is totally & utterly out of order. if you read carefully this was a list of questions which could possibly be reasons for why there are so many problems in America.
I'm fully aware that these questions weren't filtered through rose-coloured glasses but hey, neither is ugly reality.

rehctub,

Regarding shootings in Australia.
Most incidents these days appear to take place between certain gangs who obviously procure firearms through illegal means. The difference between ourselves and the US is that US shootings - although they take place daily between ordinary members of the public simply because they have unfettered access to guns - is that mass shootings of innocent victims unknown to the perpetrator are more likely when access to firearms is easy. It seems that every second week we hear of mass shootings in the US, and like Port Arthur and Dunblane, all it takes is one nutter who wishes to do the deed.