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...John Howard, is on record as emphatically stating that self-defense and/or defense of one's family and/or property will never be allowed to be a rationale for owning and/or bearing arms.

It has to be all cultural but I don't understand the reasoning of Prime Minister Howard.

I am an elderly American man and though I do not live in what would be considered a high-crime area, it is the situation that my wife and I would never be able to defend ourselves against even one young "tough" (much less a gang) who was able to break into our house and attack us for our valuables. On the other hand, were such a break-in to occur and we had adequate warning (and we would what with two dogs and an electronic monitoring system), it would be the intruders who would pay with severe lead poisoning since we are exceptionally well-armed with "equalizers."

As for the police protecting us, many American are under the misconception that the police will guard them. Well, no, they won't; they have no legal obligation to do so. They solve the crime after it has occurred, not before.

Knowing what I know, I would be paralyzed with fear if I were to live in a country that didn't allow me to arm myself.

It has to be all cultural but I don't understand the reasoning of Prime Minister Howard.

I doubt that Brian Allen, the Kiwi who protesteth a little too much about being American, would understand Mr Howard any more than you do... in fact, given his attacks on Australians here on FR (not least myself), he probably understands our PM (and for that matter, the entire country of Australia) a great deal less than you do. (Yes, that's code for "Don't listen to a word Brian Allen has to say about Australia or for that matter, Britain... he's a bitter, bitter expat from an insignificant part of the world which bags Australia at every opportunity, yet relies on us for defence.)

That said, I'm not altogether a fan of some of the policies of the Howard Government, but given the alternatives (all of which are unsavoury to say the least), I shall be voting conservative again whenever our PM decides to call an election.

FReegards, KaJac