My father had some rifles, and I think I was around 5 years of age when I found where he hid them. Fortunately the rifle I found was too heavy for me to lift.

I however did find some ammunition, taking one bullet, out under the clothes line and hitting it with a hammer, It took two attempts hitting either end before it went bang.

As soon as it went bang I was off and over a 6 foot wooden fence, faster than a mountain goat. Fully expecting my mother to come storming out the house, as she didn't appear, it was safe to climb back down and get rid of the evidence and scrub the black powder mark off the concrete.

The only safe way with hand guns, with children who are as investigative as myself when I was a child, is not to have one in the house.

My heart bleeds every time I read about children accidentally shooting other children or one of their parents.

579,

One wonders why the Government bothered with:

"CRIMES (HOME INVASION) AMENDMENT ACT 1994 No. 84
NEW SOUTH WALES"
http://www5.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/nsw/num_act/ciaa1994n84321.pdf

and why these reports exist
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/sydneys-violent-home-invasions-and-the-ice-factor-20111026-1mjrc.html

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/home-invasions-the-new-fad/story-fn6b3v4f-1226311651859

http://www.bocsar.nsw.gov.au/agdbasev7wr/bocsar/documents/pdf/mr_cjb31.pdf

Dear 579,

You wrote;

“The Americans must be living in diabolical fear when you have to carry a loaded gun in your handbag while in a supermarket.”

I think this was this incident to which you may be referring;

Quote;

A mother has been shot dead by her two-year-old son in a tragic accident at a supermarket in northern Idaho.
Veronica J. Rutledge, 29, was shopping at Walmart with her toddler and three other children when the boy reached into her handbag and her gun went off.
Mrs Rutledge, who was from Blackfoot in southeastern Idaho, had come to the town of Hayden – about 40 miles northeast of Spokane, Washington – to visit relatives.
She had a concealed-weapons permit.
"The child was, looks like to be sitting in the shopping cart with the purse while the female victim was shopping," said Stu Miller from the Kootenai County Sheriff's Office.

End quote

I do not want this for my country.

All good and well until the drunken new years party when the family dramas get a little bit too out of hand. Now its just a punch up and maybe call the cops. But add a readily accessible gun (which it must be or it is useless for self defence) and it is uncle Johnny in the meat wagon and cousin Phil is going to the big house for a long long time.

Not to mention Aunty Mary and her periodic bouts of depression and suicidal thoughts. Up till now its been a few pills or maybe a slash of the wrists. Easily caught and remedied and after a few days treatment she is usually back to normal. But with that gun nearby next time its bang and society mourns another mental health failure.

Not to mention as someone earlier pointed out, children are boundless in their curiosity and mischievousness and will always find a way to get themselves into harmful situations. Where it involves a firearm the results can be catastrophic.

Lastly there is very little evidence that people with guns ever use them in self defence. It is just a lie that gun nuts use to try to justify their sick,idiotic,macho obsession with loud and powerful penis substitutes.

I remember seeing the following poster in the
US a few decades ago:

"IN 1980, HANDGUNS KILLED
77 PEOPLE IN JAPAN.
8 IN GREAT BRITAIN.
24 IN SWITZERLAND.
8 IN CANADA.
23 IN ISRAEL.
18 IN SWEDEN.
4 IN AUSTRALIA.
11,522 IN THE UNITED STATES.

GOD BLESS AMERICA."

Then there was a picture of a handgun with the
American Flag draped over it and the words -

"Stop handgun-crime before it stops you,"
underneath it.

I don't want this sort of problem in my country.

@SteeleRedux,

First off I must reaffirm that I do not have an oar in the water as far as concealed carry is concerned. My earlier post states my concerns.

Even if you are unaware of it, other posters should instantly recognise your argument as the whopping great fallacy that it is. Doubtless you would argue that the crowing of the rooster causes the sun to rise as well.

The contributor to the single and doubtless rare accident (its very uncommonness made it newsworthy) was the foolishness of 'concealed carry' in a handbag. Particularly where the unthinking person put the bag where others, in this case a minor, could access it.

-So it is a human error. The same sort of unnecessary, unthinking human error that can cause a parent to reverse a vehicle over a child. A child to remain in a vehicle unattended, especially where the keys are available. Or someone to be electrocuted by allowing a hair drier to be used in a wet environment.

Enough said, but I daresay more infants have been crushed to death by TVs and other heavy objects. -To get up, the child grabs the doily the TV is resting on and the crush death is made certain by the inability to utter a sound with it on her chest. Plenty of instances of serious harm and death in homes, but not 'sexy' news stories, not the 'shock, horror' the dumbed-down audiences enjoy.

@mikk,

The sort of people you are talking about don't apply for and nor would they get a firearms licence. However they already have access to other means to cause affray and harm. They probably have their illegal weapons anyhow.

Since the Howard inspired 'gun control' was only intended to inconvenience the soft target legal, licensed owners who don't commit the crimes anyhow, your rhetoric rings hollow. The rad fem reference to 'penis substitutes' was always ridiculous. That alone would question your credibility and motivation.