Originally Posted by
SakoBavarian
Yeh I know what you mean there and I'm sure are still a few kicking around but after port arthur they had a nation wide gun amnesty and every semi auto was crushed. Under extreme circumstances a special license could be taken out for 5 shot semi auto shotguns but other than that they're all gone. It sucked for my old man because he had his brother who had died semi auto shotgun which had to be crushed because he didnt have a good enough reason to keep it. I'm still pissed about that.
Having said all of that, as of about a year ago I got into archery and there are no restrictions at all on bows (except crossbows) so its very easy to get around with one of them. Which is why I use that as much as my rifle now.
On what you said though in NSW over the past year there have been a lot of bikie gang shootings which caused a big uproar with the greeny wankers trying to take our guns away (they jump at any chance). But to the police's credit they stood up and said that over 95% of all firearms related offences are committed by unlicensed people with illegal firearms so there is no reason to restrict us legitimate users any further.
Thats what really bugs me with the 1 in million to wreck it sorta thing.
Sometimes you have to look at what results DON'T happen. From a brief internet search, it appears that Australia had a "slight" (fairly negligible) dip in the homicide rate after the 1997 gun ban and has had a relatively unchanged homicide rate since then.
Put in other terms, the Australian gun ban reduced the homicide rate a very little bit at first and has done nothing else to reduce the homicide rate since then. It's great that you're willing to give up certain classes of firearms to help prevent murders in Australia but the homicide rate (at least in a quick internet search) doesn't seem to have been affected very much by your giving up that firearms freedom.
I am not trying to criticize you but instead point out that the "talking point" from the anti-gun people in your country obviously isn't supported by statistics or evidence. IOW, their claim simply doesn't stand up to scrutiny.
