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Going Down, Down Under

by GOA founder Sen. H. L. Richardson, (Retired)
Lets study the horror of whats happening to our Australian, English, Canadian and
South African gun owning friends. The Aussies, like us, are a gun owning population; or
should we say, were. The Australian continent is a vast, arid land, populated with only
19 million people. It also has an abundance of varmints, a pest problem of major
proportions. It is little wonder that practically every rural house contained a firearm,
used for the control of these bothersome critters.
The crime rate in Australia has been historically low: 1.8 per 100,000. It is an isolated
country with no borders for the illegal to slip across. It has been rightfully referred to as
a sleepy, peaceful land. That is, until the leftist government implemented a draconian
gun confiscation policy.
For years, the Labor party [socialists] and the Liberals [conservative] were closely
balanced a six-percent swing one way or the other could change their parliament. A
small but vocal group of hard leftists split off and formed the Australian Democrat Party.
They held few seats in Parliament; however, they have been mouthy, and the driving
force behind the anti-gun movement.
On April 28th 1996, a maniac shot 35 people in Port Arthur. The media went ballistic,
screaming about the evil of assault firearms. Australians were shocked. Nothing like
this had ever happened in sleepy, peaceful Australia. The shrill cry and incessant anti-
gun propaganda paid off and, in just 12 days, Federal resolutions were passed and the
states enacted them into laws.
What did they enact? Did they just go after ugly guns, those military look-alike assault
weapons? Think again! They outlawed every semi-auto, even those pretty duck guns,
the Browning A5 and the Remington 1100s. They even struck down pump shotguns;
the Winchester model 12 and the Remington 870 are two examples. The law read Any
pump shotgun with a magazine capacity of 5 rounds or less.
Do you own a Browning BAR rifle? Banned. How about a Winchester Model 100? Out of
luck, all semi-auto hunting rifles were outlawed as well. They didnt miss a one.
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You may ask, Surely they left 22s alone, didnt they? Nope, the criteria the
government used was simple. If its a semi-auto, its gone. If caught with one of these
illegal firearms, the crime was considered serious, punishable by multiple years in
prison.
The Australian government offered to buy back all of the listed firearms. They then
imposed a 1% tax on everybody to raise the money necessary to secure the illegal
firearms. The massive 500 million buyback program was quickly, but poorly,
implemented. Of the estimated 7 million firearms, roughly 40% are now prohibited.
Close to 2.8 million firearms should have been surrendered to authorities. Was it a
success? Hardly. Less than 25%, or 640,000 weapons, were turned in.
Gun Control and left-wing politicians said great things about the new law. A university
of criminology professor stated, It is probable that the crime rate will drop by up to 20
percent.
Nothing of the sort happened, in fact just the opposite took place. In 1997, just 12
months after the new laws went into effect, across Australia homicides jumped 3.2
percent, armed robberies were up a whopping 44 percent, assaults up 8.6 and in the
state of Victoria there was a 300 percent increase in homicides. Prior to the new
dictatorial anti-gun laws, statistics showed a steady decrease in armed robberies with
firearms; now, there has been a dramatic increase in break-ins, especially against the
elderly.
In 1998, in the state of South Australia, robbery with a firearm increased nearly 60
percent. In 1999, new figures reveal that the assault rates in the state of NSW has risen
almost 20 percent.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the crime rate for burglary in America is now
substantially less than Australia, Canada, and Britain. The data from a comprehensive
study from the University of Chicago [Lott, Mustard] showed that in these same three
countries, people were home almost half of the time when the burglaries were
committed.
In the US, it was less than 13%. Fear of firearms in the American home was the reason
given.
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Again, in Australia, Canada and Britain, all handguns were already severely controlled.
Failure to yearly re-register in a prompt manner could bring law enforcement to the
doorstep to confiscate the firearm.
Reasons must be given why anyone needs a license. The government lists only 10
reasons for owning a firearm protection of self and family is not considered a
reasonable request!
Guns arent the only things prohibited.
In 1998, a new law was passed outlawing an assortment of knives. The fine for owning
a classic Bowie knife? Up to $10,000 or two years in the crow bar motel. Owning
handcuffs is prohibited. Caught with one of these items, the fine is up to $11,000 or up
to 14 years in prison.
Hunting anywhere other than private property is now extremely difficult, where one
must have written permission by the owner. One has to acquire a permit from
government to hunt on government-controlled land. The Australian government is
under no obligation to honor hunting requests and it is common for permits to be
refused.
American hunters, especially those who hunt on western public lands take notice!
Someday soon we will face the same problem on federal and state lands.
The anti-gun movement is the creature of the most radical leftist elements of the world
wide socialist movement. The tactics are the same, with only slight propaganda
alterations to fit each country. Its not surprising that the internationalist nose of the
United Nations poked its way into the gun issue. The Sport Shooters Association of
Australia stated that they had been aware of a connection between the United Nations
{UN} and Australias new so-called national gun laws. Look no further than the UN
Security Councils pronouncements; they endorsed sweeping gun control measures,
including a ban on private ownership of assault rifles.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan called for ways to reduce the global stockpile of some 500
million handguns, rifles, shotguns and assault weapons.
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We gun owners are not just fighting for our gun rights; we are fighting for all our
freedoms. The Second Amendment just happens to be the lynch-pin.