Bugsy,

Here's one for starters, after the first 6 months on a 12 month Probationary Licence one may purchase (if permission is given) two pistols.
Either a centre fire (powerful) and/or an air pistol (not powerful) or a black powder pistol (powerful) but not a .22rf pistol (not powerful).

Or one can buy a .22rf pistol and/or any of the others above except a centre fire pistol.

So one can buy a .357 Magnum and a .44 Colt Dragoon, both very powerful pistols but not a .357 Magnum and the very weak, by comparison, .22rf.

No one in Government has yet been able to give a sensible reason.

"One person in Chicago is shot every 2.8hrs"

Poor bastard.

Is Mise, I am fairly happy with Australia's gun laws, but would prefer we have guns only available for military, farming and law enforcement purposes.
There is no need for gun clubs or shooting 'for pleasure' in our society.

I don't need to provide any references or stats for my opinions....unless I give wild stories about lightning strikes....

Suseonline, "There is no need for gun clubs or shooting 'for pleasure' in our society"

There is no need for anything in 'our' society. That is the extension of your authoritarianism, that everything relies on the State for approval. Big State idealism. Citizens should be thankful for what they are allowed to do, eh? Or more likely, what Suseonline says they should be permitted to do.

It is the stance of the totalitarian left.

How come Howard's gun control didn't stop Sydney's Martin Place gunman, Man Haron Monis from unlawfully obtaining and criminally using an illegal firearm?

What about Curtis Cheng, who was shot in cold blood with an illegal weapon, how do you explain that 'gun control' was ineffectual there too?

As for the outrageous claims here that mass homicides in the US are daily events, I am damned sure that is just Obama and others whipping up fear for political purposes.

It does not require any figuring to arrive at the conclusion that mass homicides are they are traditionally and commonly understood, the San Bernardino and Sandy Hook tragedies as examples, are rare and unusual events in the US. Although I imagine they are on the rise. Perhaps that says something about the social experimentation that the leftists like Obama have been dabbling in.

What conflating those very particular events with other general crime does is deny funds for the independent rigorous research that such murders require.

Cynical, manipulative Obama and the Democrats are doing exactly what John Howard did at the time of Port Arthur, distract attention away from the unique crime and in Howard's case, deny the victims, their loved ones and the Australian public the opportunity for a Royal Commission into the tragedy. That doesn't benefit the public at all.

Onthebeach, I am just happy we don't have the same gun laws as the US, who are now beyond saving.
Nothing you raving 'righties' can say will change my opinion, and that is all it is, my opinion, not anyone else's.

You stick with your opinion...all the while with your head in the sand as far as gun laws go. The gun murder statistics in both the US and Australia are quite easy to read and understand for most bright people....left or right.

Suseonline,

You should be thankful that Australia doesn't have the social and cultural problems that contribute to those extraordinary high levels of violence apparent in 'Afro-American' and Hispanic areas of the US.

Not something that Obama wants to talk about.

You need to admit the obvious fact that 'gun control' is directed exclusively at confiscating legal firearms from lawful, licensed owners and is not concerned at all and nor is it effective against anyone who doesn't comply with laws, that is, offenders.

That was the surprise(?!) for John Howard's 'gun control': that offenders don't apply for licenses (wouldn't get them anyhow); they import their own illegal guns; they don't register guns (the firearms registry is a white elephant as other countries found before Howard); and of course they use them to break more laws.

BTW, how do you figure that Bryant (Port Arthur) was able to obtain and use a firearm that had been previously been surrendered to police in an amnesty? So much for 'gun control', bans and gun confiscations preventing criminals. Any wonder then PM John Howard was determined to block any independent inquiry into the Port Arthur murders. It is awful to even contemplate, but there is nothing, nil, nada, in Howard's 'gun control' that would stop or even deter another Bryant and he has minimal IQ (also relevant to the commission of the offences).