I fear Canada is next!
CANBERRA, April 17 (Reuters) - Australian Prime Minister John Howard
said on Wednesday he would do everything he could to tighten the
nation's already tough gun control laws, saying the scourge of America
was not welcome in the land down under.

The pledge comes after a spate of fatal shootings in Sydney, including
the murder of a police officer, and reports that an illegal handgun
trade was thriving in criminal circles.

"I will leave no stone unturned to tighten the laws as much as I humanly
can," Howard said in a Sydney radio interview.

"Ordinary citizens should not have weapons. We do not want the American
disease imported into Australia."

The conservative prime minister in 1996 forced state and territory
governments to agree to tough new laws outlawing high-powered and
rapid-fire weapons after a lone gunman shot dead 35 people in Port
Arthur, Tasmania in April of that year.

But handguns remain legal in Australia, although strictly licensed, with
all but police, military and security guards facing stiff restrictions
to ownership.

Howard said he had this week asked his officials to comb through current
laws to see whether there was any way the federal government could force
improvements to existing laws, which are the jurisdiction of Australia's
six states and two territories.

"We will find any means we can to further restrict them, because I hate
guns," he said.

"I don't think people should have guns unless they're police or in the
military or in the security industry. There is no earthly reason for
ordinary citizens... to have weapons."

Howard's 1996 reforms were bitterly opposed by hunters and farmers and
key elements of his own conservative coalition that relied on the rural
vote for their support.

Besides forcing states and territories to enforce a national ban on
semi-automatic weapons and high-powered rifles, Howard's federal
government funded a A$300 million buy-back programme to purchase more
than 640,000 firearms from gun owners.

  04/17/02 04:51 ET

So don't friggin buy one!!

It just so happens that I hate liberals, so can we ban them??

The 'scourge of American' and 'the American disease'.  Someone needs to point out to this asshole that they have a higher per capita crime rate than we do, especially since their gun ban of the late 1990s.

'I hate guns'.  Therein lies the real reason for his tirade.  This isn't about law and order or safety, it's about his wanting the country run according to his own emotions.

No reason for ordinary citizens to have guns????????  How about self defense!  What an asshole.

One guy goes on a shooting rampage, so let's punish the whole country.  Sounds like kindergarten.

This is their Prime Minister???  Jeez! Where did he go to school, Harvard?

That's an average of $468.75 per piece, IN AUSTRALIAN DOLLARS, or about $253.13 USD per piece. Not bad for a rusty Marlin Model 60, but criminal for any AR in working order, a decent 1911, or just about any Glock.

Just thought I'd throw that in...  :)

________________________________________________

"I will leave no stone unturned to tighten the laws as much as I humanly
can," Howard said in a Sydney radio interview.


"We will find any means we can to further restrict them, because I hate
guns," he said.
________________________________________________



Another debilitating case of rectal-cranial inversion.

ARH

Scourge of America?  I am so sick of the Euro's and the Aussies and I suppose even the Canucks and Mexicans blaming the United States for [b][i]their[/i][/b] gun crime.

Not saying our crime rate is low, but my God.  Open your eyes and see why yours is so much worse already!


And if this guy is supposed to be conservative I am surely afraid to find out what a liberal is "down under."

What in Gawd's name is tightening laws going to do to a segment of society who doesn't obey them in the first place?  

Not a Gawd Damned thing!

Obviously the Right Honorable John Howard is an idiot.

My message to Prime Minister John Howard:

"Johnny, you can kiss my American A$$.  I will not be travelling to Australia to visit extended family in my lifetime.

Any time I get frustrated with life in America, I can just look to Australia and take comfort in the fact that I am not stuck in your pathetic excuse for a country.

No earthly excuse for ordinary citizens to have weapons?  That's easy for you to say, you hippocrite.  What kind of weapons do your body guards carry?

Meanwhile crime is out of control and your serfs are left to fend for themselves.  Defenseless..."



Email John Howard:

[url]http://www.pm.gov.au/your_feedback/feedback.htm[/url]

Most of their handguns come from China anyway.

Hey Aussy  remember the  Coral Sea?   just poor old American gunman.......
Why your land might be another part of Japan.

Where can I get this guy's picture so I can paste it next to [b]stupid[/b] in my dictionary?

Oh I almost forgot...


Gun crime rates are UP 440% since their last laws took effect!

I'd just like to point out that the majority of Aussies are NOT behind little Johnny on this one and in fact a lot of his other policies. It's an interesting country where there are two major political parties (Labour and Liberal and by Liberal, I mean capital 'L' British Liberal, not the liberal you know. They are actually more like your republicans) and one of them (Labour) are in power in each of the states, yet the federal government is Liberal-run.............

Anyway, to address some points:



That's just Sydney, mate. Everywhere else records much lower gun deaths per capita. However, the central message of your post remains; gun deaths have INCREASED in frequency since the new gun laws.



And this has been a sticking point for a few years now. I agree that gun owners will NOT get what they want for their weapons at all. It's discraceful that someone will end up getting back around 60% (optimistically) of what their guns are worth.





You'll get argument out of me on this one. or out of most people in Aussie for that matter...........



Believe me, the difference between the two major parties is very little. Also, whilst the Liberals are considered to be 'right-wing' and Labour 'left-wing', Liberals aren't THAT conservative and Labourites aren't THAT liberal either. We don't have the extremes in political parties that you guys do over there.

In fact, most of our political parties find a lot of common ground. It's just on a few key issues they disagree on, usually about social reform. Both parties aren't really THAT interested in social reform anyway. They're more interested in business reform with the Liberals being slightly to the right and Labour being slightly to the left.



Now was that really neccessary? Does your government represent all of your views? Of course not. Criticise Johnny and his party by all means but to use that as a basis for abusing Australia itself is unfair. I'm sure you didn't enjoy it when people did the same to you in the Clinton years, where your views were about as far from being accuratey represented as is possible.

Bear in mind that there is a large contingent of Aussies here who vehemently oppose Johnny and his gun policies. We don't all agree with him by any stretch of the imagination. Quite the contrary actually.

Cat:  I think you'll find upon closer study of the political construct of the United States, both of your political parties are left of socialist compared to the worst of our liberals.  It's too bad.  I went to Australia a few years ago and found that most of Western Australia (the people and the scenery, particularly Brisbane) was great, Sydney (no offense if you live there my friend) was a crime-ridden Hell-hole populated by the absolute worst of Euro-eque bleeding-heart socialist pukes (at least the ones I met).  I got harassed in a freakin' club because I was an evil American imperialist.  Australia is dying a quick, but excruciating death by socialism.



To anybody who might know:  What happened to our other Aussie friend?  I can't even remember his sn now, but I believe he was in the military.  He had been a member for a qutie a while and just up and disappeared.

I stumbled upon this site a while back looking for statistics for a report I was doing.  Never used them but their numbers are interesting...

Homepage
[url]http://www.ssaa.org.au/[/url]

Statistics
[url]http://www.ssaa.org.au/gunleg.html[/url]

Numbers are old but Canucks are violent...heh
[url]http://www.ssaa.org.au/CANUSA.GIF[/url]

Cancer
[url]http://www.ssaa.org.au/breastcancer.html[/url]
[url]http://www.ssaa.org.au/prostratecancer.htm[/url]

Someone should take Johnny swimming outside the box jellyfish barrier.

Interesting.


Just out of curiosity, doesn't pertain to the topic, but do Aussies consider Americans "up over?"

You reckon? I don't think our parties have quite the same bent towards welfare that your more liberal parties do. You've got a case in terms of gun-control and immigrants, though.

Oh well either way it's moot, really. Both of our two major parties are run by dim-witted career politicians who never tailor their policies past their 3-year term (min you, is this a new phenomena in any country???). And unlike you guys, we don't have term limits. Johnny has just started his 3rd term as PM...........awful, awful.

Part of the reason why he got in in Aussie's astonishin apathy towards anything political. You think some of YOUR citizens don't care!



You went to the good places but you missed one..........ADELAIDE!!!



As opposed to your slow one? ;)

You're right, though. And I don't live in Sydney so no offense taken. I live in Adelaide. And even if I DID live in Sydney, it's hard to argue against the truth.



Not really. We see ourselves as heading in similar directions as you guys, though.

Lets see....Only the police, military and security people can have guns.  Interesting.  That means nobody can protect themselves.  Also, if the government gets out of control nobody can resist them.  A corrupt politician's dream.

Thank God our forefathers were smart and chose freedom over slavery.  I love the Aussies and Canucks and have a lot of respect for the British but thank God I'm an American.  

FOSTER'S Australian for beer [img]http://www.stopstart.fsnet.co.uk/mica/FoodBeer.gif[/img]

Don't be so sure. I know of NO-ONE who drinks that shyte anymore. It was reasonably popular in the 80's but no-one drinks here anymore.

It's one of the worst brews ever loosed upon the Earth!

The stuff brewed in Canada under the Foster's label is really good stuff, much better than most American beers (except the better micro-brews).




Now I remember the dude.  1feral1.  Does anybody know why he hasn't been posting in a while?

anybody else see the irony in this statement with regards to banning guns?

Top Cat, when he asked about 'up over', he was referring to you being 'down under'.  Humor, you know.

Also, you said only Sydney had an increase.  I need a geography lesson.  Is Sydney in Queensland?

Yeah but those phases don't last long and never amount to anything in the way of new laws. Our laws DID get quite restrictive after Port Arthur, though.

And as for the incident, remember you were in Sydney; I bet the people there didn't bat an eyelid!

I'm aware, thank you. I couldn't think of a smart-arse response at the time. :)



Nah I typed that wrong. ALL states recorded an increase. What I MEANT was that Sydney recorded the largest increase.

Sydney is in New South Wales. Queensland is the state right above it.

So, when somebody in Queensland takes a piss it falls on New South Wales?  [:D]

I would like to come to Adelaide for the races.  I can't remember if F1 still runs there.  ALMS ran at least once there, but it was killed for the future due to politics, from my understanding.

No shit, if you took a look at our river system (Murray-Darling system) it looks like that!

In reality it's the Queenslanders who are pissing on MY state (South Australia) but that's another issue.........



Nope, got moved to Melbourne a few years ago now. We have our V8 touring cars and we hosted a le Mans race for one year. That was cool!



ALMS?

American LeMans Series.

Ah gotcha. :-D

So are there any other questions anyone wants to ask me about Aussie?? :-)

Whatever happened to Tooth's Sheaf Stout?

[img]tolsun.oulu.fi/kbs/beer/jpg/1672.jpg[/img]

Very true!

At the considered risk of changing the course of the thread to beer...which I don't want to do...I agree.  Foster's is piss-water.
I happen to believe this because I spent a few weeks in Oz last year on a biz trip and became intimate with a number of Victoria Bitters (VBs) and Hahn's.

Guys...with ALL due respect, I have been a swiller of beer lo these many decades and I have NEVER had a finer brew than these two.

I have a case of each in my basement fridge right now, courtesy of my good friend from Down Under who is here on a two year assignment and gets his stash and mine from the embassy.

Beer is SO important to the Aussies and the Kiwis too...that they actually fly the stuff in from home so as not to have to live with Yank brews.  In 1984, I was host ship officer for a Kiwi frigate in Pearl.  They were going home and extended their stay three days until a few pallets of Kiwi beer could be flown in from New Zealand for the long trip home.  Now THAT's a love of beer.  Can you just imagine the USN doing that?  Not likely.

Top_Cat are there any organizations like the NRA in Australia?

ARH