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While they're looking at their government banning machetes, they seem to have forgotten about how they lost their guns.
And it seems that once you lose the guns, everything else eventually gets banned as well.
From the wikipedia page on Australia's gun laws, they don't seem too much worse off than much of Europe, but still need to "mother may I?" owning pretty much anything with extra steps to get "better" stuff.
I don't know if it actually happened but there was talk about banning pint beer glasses somewhere in the UK because pepole break them and use the shards as knives in bar fights. There was a push to try to replace them with plastic or silicone pints instead,
ReplyDeleteI dunno but I don't want to live in a place where I can't get a proper pint of bitter. In a proper glass pint.
-swj
In the David Drake "Northworld" trilogy, the hero ends up on a very peaceful planet. Where, when the place is attacked, he responds with anything he can get his hands on (like a chair against a tank.
DeleteAh, crap.
DeleteTo continue, the hero gets kicked off the planet because he is a weapon. Everything around him can be used as a weapon because he is the weapon.
Objects don't matter. Mindset matters.
I've read the first book of that series and bought the compilation volume, it's on the pile to be read.
DeleteAs an Aussie, I can add a little to this conversation.
ReplyDeleteAustralia does not have an equivalent to the Second Amendment.
Constitutionally, gun laws reside with the states, but when the Federal government says "Do this, or you won't get funding for x, y, or z", most states fall into line, usually with alacrity if it restricts firearms ownership.
As a result, in West Oz, the latest incarnation of firearms laws (effective as of April 1st, 2025) means:
- Carry (concealed or open) is banned
- Fully automatic firearms are banned
- Semi-automatic rifles are effectively banned
- Semi-auto and pump shotguns are effectively banned
- Handguns are limited to 0.38" bore or smaller with limited exceptions for some competitive uses
- Magazines holding more than ten rounds are banned
- Individuals are limited to ten firearms total, and only then if they compete in "internationally recognised firearms competitions", otherwise the limit is five
- Security system required at storage location (higher level, with video, required for handguns or more than five)
- Mandatory safe for storage with specifications that no manufacturer met when the law was imposed
- Permit to acquire is required
- Person to person sales are banned
- Working on your own legally owned firearms is banned (some interpret this to include cleaning)
- Lending a firearm (even to a license holder) is banned. Touching another's firearm is deemed lending.
- Transporting a firearm (only allowed to be directly to/from a shooting location such as a gun range, or to/from a gun smith/store) requires unloaded, trigger lock, magazines unloaded, gun/ammo/magazines to be locked up separately, not reachable by vehicle occupants, and not readily visible form outside the vehicle.
- Written permission from a land holder is required for hunting rifles/shotguns. Handgun hunting is banned. Owners of properties more than 1500 hectares (3700 acres) can approve up to 15 people to hunt on their property. Smaller holdings cannot issue permission letters.
I am sure that I am missing a lot, simply because the new law has more than 400 sections, and explicitly allows the Police Commissioner to create regulations as he sees fit, with the result that things change weekly.
Thank you! Wikipedia just skims the federal level and doesn't go into the details of the states and municipalities.
DeleteAll you can really say is "better than England" and not very loud.