continued.

If authorities are real in their concerns I am sure they would be drawing a more obvious connection between gangs, drugs and violence, and they would be prioritising the closure of those porous borders too. It would be easy and low cost to apply more technology to screening of containers.

Drug trafficking is one of Australia's biggest and most successful businesses, with many millions changing hands annually. There is no doubt whatsoever that these amounts of money and other benefits that gangs can deliver result in corruption to the very top of society. There are federal politicians who are known to be involved. To take a past example, the father of multiculturalism Labor's Al Grassby was alleged to be involved with the Mafia and drugs in Griffith.

'Gun control' is absolute bunkum and I wonder about the motivations of those involved in promoting it. It is convenient to keep the chattering masses and slack media outlets occupied though. Cynical politicians can pretend to 'solve' problems with more regulations too. -Must be only coincidental that the new laws have no impact on the root causes and the drug trade continues to make millions.

ONTHEBEACH...

I'm done with this topic. We could argue ten days from Sundays and nothing would be achieved by any of us. You don't know how the coppers work, and I don't understand nor appreciate why it is, the coppers cop a constant hammering from the bloody public ! Mate you got a beef with the law, see your dedicated politician !

Beach, that was some rant against the coppers etc. I as civil libertarian, and you a member of the ultra right, allows me to understand your frustration with the democratic process we operate under in Australia, I am sure you would be relieved to live in a police state where the rights of citizens are completely ignored and head kicking is the norm. However that is not the society we choose to live in, we cherish the checks and balances democracy gives us.
Not often do I find myself defending the police, but on balance I much prefer the police force we have in NSW, (Sydney) and the laws that govern it, than what operates as such in many other parts of the world. The policing of Sydney, in my opinion, is generally commendable when compared to similar forces in other large cities of the world. Our police are far from perfect in many regards and some of your ranting has some justification, but to say police should not be aware of whom in the community has a licensed dangerous weapon is ridiculous, intelligence is part of good policing, and to be forewarned, is to be forearmed.

I am at a loss to understand why, in the days when personal pistol licences were issued in NSW that there was not mayhem by all those people who carried concealed pistols.
I don't know the exact numbers but a mate and I, both licenced pistol dealers added to our incomes by running a service in our respective areas doing a yearly inspection on such pistols.
For a set fee we did any necessary repairs (of which there were very few) test fired and supplied fresh ammo and returned the pistol cleaned and oiled.
Never had a customer that went off the rails.

G'day Is Mise,

As you are unable to explain "the Shooters Parties interpretation of "genuine reason" and all I can find is the following from the police info on a gun licence application I am at a loss to understand personal protection as it is not given as a genuine reason to apply for a licence.

Genuine Reasons
Sport / Target Shooting
Recreational Hunting / Vermin Control
Primary Production
Vertebrate Pest Animal Control
Business or Employment
Rural Occupation
Animal Welfare
Firearms Collection

Which one covers that personal protection aspect you and the gun happy mob favor?

Paul1405,

You are just stirring. Your concern about the NSW police is comical. What about the lie being spread on the Greens site? See here,
onthebeach, Sunday, 18 January 2015 7:21:20 PM

o sung wu,

I hope that when you re-read my posts you will come to realise that I am chasing my usual themes, specifically the taxpayer getting value for money from the taxes, and accountability. My assessments, criticisms and suggestions are focussed at the policy level.

General comments
While it might not impress everyone, I am not prepared as a citizen to stand by while governments continue to spruik and waste money and police resources on the farce that is 'gun control'. It is damned deceitful of politicians and government to put cheap populism and pleasing tabloids and media-savvy nuisances with undisclosed secondary agendas to serve, ahead of being frank with the public and basing policy on evidence, not emotion.

To get in in advance of those who are expert in muddying the waters, there is sense in licensing, which is the only robust control available. While licensing will not deter offenders, it provides the means to convict and penalise that small element who do wrong. There is also sense in not allowing fully automatic firearms. However the facility to do that was already in place and being acted upon before Howard.

There is an over-supply of absolute rubbish written about gun control. As taxpayers and as citizens we owe it to ourselves to examine it critically. Where that is done it is impossible not to conclude that it is a fraud being perpetrated on the public by lazy politicians who play politics. John Howard was never a statesman, but he was superb at wedge politics, deflecting awkward questions and finding whipping boys to blame in lieu of being accountable.