19 primary aged children and 2 teachers were shot and killed by a gunman Salvador Ramos, who opened fire with a handgun, and a AR-15 semi-automatic rifle at Robb Elementary School Texas USA. Yet another tragic mass killing in the United States. Despite these horrendous murders happening on an almost daily bases lax gun laws are the norm in America. The powerful National Rifle Association (NRA) who claim civil rights status use like minded politicians to block attempts at gun law reform.

Every time this happens there is a lesson for Australia, we must be ever vigilant to block those that seek to weaken our robust gun laws. Several far right micro political parties including, Shooters Party, One Nation, Liberal Democrats and United Australia Party seek to undermine our tough gun laws, introduced post Port Arthur. Under the guise of standing up for "gun owners rights" these people would given the opportunity, would white ant our gun laws to the point where our citizens would be as vulnerable as Americans to mass murder at the hands of crazed gun owners.

The so called Liberal Democrats have this to say;

"Australia's law-abiding firearm owners are treated poorly by federal and state governments. Ever since 1996, shooters have been faced with an ill-conceived National Firearms Agreement and persecution for engaging in their sport or using firearms"

The other far right parties espouse similar sentiments. They and others who seek to destroy Australia's gun laws, should be reminded that until yesterday Salvador Ramos could well have been classified as a law-abiding firearm owner.

Paul,
Yes a tragedy indeed but let us not forget that on a World rating the USA is a safe country with a low murder rate that would be the envy of the 50 countries that have a higher one.
Even nearby PNG with tough gun laws has twice the rate as the US.

Why do you concentrate on only one country?
How about South Africa with a murder rate six (6) times higher than your favourite target?
Or is it that black lives don’t matter?

This happens because the "educated" bureaudroids in authority only listen to "social experts".
No-one appears to converse with the everyday people who have to live with the mostly insane policies dreamed up by the above !
We see the same idiocy being played out in Local, State & federal Govt. The only saving Grace in Australia is that we still have reasonably civil society but the way things are going right around us it should not come as a huge surprise if the copy cats get feral in the not so distant future !

Hi Issy,

A "nothing to see here attitude", how many innocent children have to die before America becomes worthy of mention in your eyes, how far up your rankings do they have to climb before they overtake others you deflect to, PNG and South Africa, hardly developed countries with sophisticated populations.

My point, there is a correlation between mass killings and a perverted adherence to gun ownership, and consequently lax gun laws, that is clearly demonstrated in the United States. The difference between Australia and the US, in the US gun nuts have the political power to stymie any semblance of gun control. I believe there are similar people in Australia, and that is demonstrated by the extreme attitude of far right micro political parties I mentioned. We must be ever vigilant that these nut jobs never rise to prominence, and get the opportunity to implement their gun agenda.

The point, Paul, is that you have nothing to say about the horrendous murder rate in other countries, development has nothing to do with it.
It suits your political agenda to point to the US whilst ignoring the far more dangerous countries.
I am reminded of the time the Shooters’ reps in the NSW Parliament tried to have the firearms laws toughened in regard to the criminal use of firearms only to be stymied by the Greens opposition to the proposal.
Give the Greens credit on this occasion as they stuck by their mates.

Dear Is Mise,

Stop being juvenile.

The thread was kicked off talking about the horrific school shooting in the US.

Since 2009 there have been 288 school shootings in the US. The country you put up to counter Paul has had just 8.

What do you suggest happens to start reducing this toll?

http://edition.cnn.com/2018/05/21/us/school-shooting-us-versus-world-trnd/index.html