Steele,

You asked for a straight answer and I gave you one.

"And don't give me BS about not wanting us to take the US path. You want Australians in every home to have a firearm to 'protect themselves' when any fool would recognise putting that many guns into the community and having them accessible enough to stop a burglary would mean a terrible loss of life in our communities through suicide, accidental shootings, school shootings etc."

How do you know what I think beyond what I tell you that I think?

Two girls were brutally raped and murdered in their flat in Melbourne some years ago, the perpetrator later attacked a man with a tyre lever, the victim had a pistol and shot him dead, now I think that you'd get a kick out of the rapes and shudder to think that the rapist was shot dead.

I wonder if my projections are as wild as your's are?

As a matter of interest, why do you think that there were not all the dire things that you predict when firearms were much more common in the community?

Of course they have a gun in every home in Switzerland by law.

That of course is the reason for their murder rate.

Dear Hasbeen,

You wrote;

“Of course they have a gun in every home in Switzerland by law.”

No they don't. Stop making things up.

“That of course is the reason for their murder rate.”

Switzerland has over three times the rate of gun deaths per 100,000 than Australia.

No it does not Issy. On the one hand you believe in guns for all, you reason that guns are need for self defence purposes. On the other hand you will not acknowledge that a proliferation of gun in the community would also result in an massive increase in unjustified homicides, as we see in the US.

I don't believe you would want more murders and suicides, but with your simple reasoning you believe that a proliferation of guns in society could only have the one positive outcome, you can't, or wont, see the negatives which are clear for all to see, even you.

If Australia does as you want, and that unfortunately moves us to the point where America is now, with uncontrolled gun violence, it would be too late to take corrective action to right the situation. The US, despite the terrible outrages the community there is subjected to through gun violence, seems incapable of taking the necessary action to stop it. Much of the blame for gun violence in the US is the result of the actions of the politically powerful gun lobby. Its not going to happen in Australia! No matter how much the likes of the SSAA tries to influence politicians with their wads of cash.

No, Paul, I don't believe in guns for all, only for those who demonstrate a capacity for using them safely.
I believe in the gun laws, without them we would not now have political representation for shooters, hunters, collectors etc.

We would not have the growing number of well-appointed modern ranges.
On our range, the old, slow, manually operated turning rapid fire targets are gone and have been replaced with electronic targets that turn in a flash; the range is being extended to cope with the increase in membership and the disciplines fired.
There is also a Western Action range being built in the same complex (for that is what it is becoming).
There would be none of this without the gun laws and consequent Government grants.
Fifteen years ago our range was in an abandoned state but was still gazetted as a rifle range, it's resurrection is but one of many throughout country NSW.

John Winston Howard, the Father of the Australian Gun Lobby, is to be thanked.

I'm beginning to think that the anti-gun lobby is made up of second class citizens who can't meet the Government's criteria to be trusted with a gun.

Hi Issy,

"for those who demonstrate a capacity for using them safely" We have that now in the existing laws. By tightening gun laws we ensure that only those with a genuine need, and only those that are fully competent have guns in their possession. Self defence is not a genuine reason to own a gun. There is also no need for the possession of semi-automatic, and automatic weapons by the broader community.
No matter how much they say they support gun laws, it is clear the objective of the gun lobby is to water down gun laws wherever possible, and promote the acceptance of more guns in the community.

Curious; "a Western Action range" is that some kind of Dodge City, where you all dress up. Then hide behind water barrels and hay bales, and take pot shots at each other with your six shooters? If I come along can I be the town sheriff, and get to wear the tin star?