Replies

"There are some cultural, religious, military and collector groups that have legitimate reasons to own swords..."

Well ain't that grand. No guns allowed, and the only ones that can have a Sword are Islamists.

Last year or so there was a court case here in the USA cause some grade school kids had a "religious" reason to wear daggers to school.

They won.

Tolerance...Give them an inch and they will take a Kill-O-Metre

I think that you're talking about Sikhs, and their religion DOES require them to go armed with a short blade at all times. They're also required to wear turbans.

If I remember correctly they're some kind of Hindu/Muslim hybrid religion.

Let's make this clear as well.

Guns *are* allowed in Australia. I've only just started posting today, but I've been reading these forums for quite a while, and I actually get pretty disturbed sometimes about the misinformation about Australia that gets posted here at times.

Australia has not banned guns. Simple fact. This has not happened. I got a fair collection myself all held on civilian permits. (I've also got one that I have on a military permit). The reason most of my weapons are on civilian permits is because I think it's important that the laws that allow citizens to own firearms are used.

Yes, we have stricter gun laws than most of the US. Yes, we have registration. Yes, the laws go too far in my opinion.

But they haven't disarmed us. Unless you've got a criminal record, you'll have no real problem owning a gun in Australia.

Owning an assault rifle or a handgun is a little harder - but you can still do it.

I'm not saying our laws are good laws - because they're not. But they don't go anywhere near as far as some people try to suggest they do here at times.