Posted on 04/30/2006 10:06:16 AM PDT by neverdem
After Port Arthur, Australia set off a universal gun-control revolution
TODAY we remember the Port Arthur murder victims in church services and vigils, prayers and concerts, books and documentaries. The cross listing their names overlooks the memorial garden, a quiet place for contemplation and tears in honour of those so brutally slain on April 28, 1996.
Another memorial to those killed and wounded on that awful day is less visible or tangible but powerful nonetheless: Australia's nationally uniform gun laws. Out of horror and insanity, something positive and rational was forged.
Ten years later it is hard to believe the indifference to public safety embodied in the old gun laws. In those days civilians could buy military weapons and there was no limit on the number of guns an individual could stockpile. NSW, Queensland and Tasmania had no registration for rifles and shotguns, so it was impossible for the police to know if someone had a gun (or 10).
A judge in a domestic violence case might order that firearms be seized, but in the absence of registration the perpetrator could claim not to have any guns and the matter would end there. In other states and territories the laws were stricter, but could be evaded simply by travelling to one of the three permissive states to shop for weapons.
Throwing out this rickety framework was a pioneering step for Australia alongside Canada, which was also overhauling its law in the wake of a massacre by an alienated and angry young man with easy access to military assault rifles. Both countries have experienced a drop in gun violence as a result.
In Australia and Canada, policy-makers involved in the reforms said they were reading "the mood of the nation". During the past decade this same mood has spread throughout the international community, with significant gun law reforms passed or proposed in dozens of parliaments.
Gun law reform now is similar to domestic violence reform in the 1980s, when country after country realised their policies were antiquated and indefensible. South Africa, Britain, Nicaragua, Montenegro, Germany, Cambodia, Mauritius and Brazil have recently toughened their gun laws. In Belgium, Paraguay, Liberia, Guatemala, Burundi, Portugal, Senegal, Macedonia and Argentina (among others) the reforms are under way.
Particularly striking is the case of Brazil, which has one of the highest rates of gun violence, with nearly 40,000 gun deaths in 2003. That year the gun law was tightened, with spectacular results. Gun deaths dropped for the first time after 13 years of rising continuously; by the end of 2004 the rate had fallen by 8per cent, which translated into more than 3200 lives saved.
The gun control revolution has also reached the UN, where a process to reduce the proliferation and misuse of small arms kicked off in 2001. The UN process is developing global norms to regulate the world's estimated 650 million guns and has produced an international agreement on the marking and tracing of weapons. We expect further progress from the five-year review conference to be held this June in New York.
These UN conferences are attended by government officials, non-governmental organisations supporting tougher firearm regulation and the National Rifle Association of America.
One of the most powerful lobby groups on Capitol Hill in Washington, the NRA appears to be no less influential on the US delegation at the UN. Even very modest declarations on small arms are opposed by the US. For example, a resolution expressing concern about the effect of weapons proliferation on humanitarian activities and development was passed with 177 votes in favour and one (the US) against.
The NRA has characterised this small arms process as a mission "to confiscate civilian firearms worldwide and impose on Americans the lesser, inferior, global standard of freedom". The UN and my own organisation, the International Action Network on Small Arms, are known as "the enemies of freedom".
According to NRA board member (and former congressman) Bob Barr: "That's really their ultimate agenda: to bring the United States down from the pinnacle of freedom to simply being another one of these socialist states." This last is a reference to Britain, Australia and Canada, countries dubbed by the NRA as "formerly free nations".
Such ranting by American gun loons may seem to be a long way removed from Australia, unless you remember our own Gympie-based version screaming on television in May 1996: "The only currency that you can purchase freedom back with is blood!"
Then and now, whether in Queensland, Tasmania, Texas or elsewhere, we have paranoid, hate-filled people living in our societies. All the more reason to have strong controls on guns.
Rebecca Peters is the director of the International Action Network on Small Arms. She led Australia's National Coalition for Gun Control from 1992 to 1997.
"By the way, you got a picture of this female? I need one for the gallery."
A small pic (not small enough, though) at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebecca_Peters
Woops, I just had to ask. I suspect a third gender. Definately something with lots of time on its hands. If the suspect is married and has 5 children I'll be force to eat crow, but I think I'm safe. Consider this, Rebecca: would the world be a safer place if you were barefoot and pregnant? With apologies to long haired women, and or pregnant mothers everywhere who have a lot more brains and common sense than Miz Peters. Thanks to decal for the picture...I think.
She forgot Venezuela.
What a lying, arrogant, manipulating beeyotch this womyn is! People like her are why we must remain armed.
How many more crosses do you need to remember those slain who were unable to protect themselves because of your gun laws?
I sent this link to the editors of The Australian:
http://www.chronwatch.com/content/contentDisplay.asp?aid=8073
While homicide is lower and robbery is similar, assault and rape occur more than twice as often in Australia, proving that when the physically weaker are barred from possessing the best tool for self-defense, they are rendered helpless.
Yeah right.
Now that it's primarily only criminals who have guns in Australia the violent crime rate there is several times higher than it was before the draconian gun control laws were passed. If that's positive and rational then I'm a cockeyed kookaburra.
What is not mentioned is that Brazil IIRC, recently overwhelmingly voted down gun control laws similar to Britain and Australia.
Isn't it amazing how incredibly frothing and violent the gun-grabbing crowd can get about people who don't share their beliefs? I always thought liberals were supposed to be dedicated to inclusion and understanding...
~ Blue Jays ~
What else can you call them? Citizens of free nations can exercise their God-given right to own and use arms for lawful purposes, anyone in any nation who can't do that without becoming a criminal is not a free person.
Free citizens can legally own and use arms, subjects and slaves can't.
Hey, Rebecca, the news we have been hearing out of both Canada and Australia is that armed crime has significantly increased since the "gun ban" laws were enacted.
I think you are (still) trying to blow smoke up our tailfeathers.
Funny how that works, isn't it? When you have a Right to Keep and Bear Arms, all global socialist swill should take a back seat.
For example, a resolution expressing concern about the effect of weapons proliferation on humanitarian activities and development was passed with 177 votes in favour and one (the US) against.
I guess it depends on how you word that resolution.
The NRA has characterised this small arms process as a mission "to confiscate civilian firearms worldwide and impose on Americans the lesser, inferior, global standard of freedom".
And rightly so. That is exactly what it is.
The UN and my own organisation, the International Action Network on Small Arms, are known as "the enemies of freedom".
You gotta problem wit' dat?
H.R. 1146 (Paul): This bill would pull the United States out of the anti-gun United Nations.
H.R. 3436 (Boustany and Wilson): This bill would defund the United Nations if it attempted to restrict the Second Amendment rights of Americans.
Apparently Ms. Peters does not understand that in the United States, there is a right to not incriminate ones' self.
No known criminal (felon or domestic abuser) can be required to register a firearm here without violating their Fifth Amendment Right to not incriminate themselves.
BTTT
The goal of neo-national socialists like Peters is TOTAL CIVILIAN DISARMENT. No lie is too extreme if it advances her goal. Civilian disarmament is religion with state worshipers like her and the late and unlamented fat s-o-s mayor of Atlanta - Maynard Jackson who outright said it that his goal was a "country were only the police and military were armed." To the gun control fanatics you and I aren't people with a legitimate point of view, we're heretics to be eliminated and punished.
Oh and BTW filth Peters is now in the USA doing her dirt in the Peoples' Democracy of Maryland - a fertile place for freedom haters.
People like Peters cannot be reasoned with. They cannot be distracted. They have no sympathy towards your attempt to remain free. They have no ability to compromise (except as a tactical distraction to advance their cause). They have one goal and they dedicate their lives to that goal. The are as much our implacable enemies as Mohammed Atma and his crew of 911 murderers. There are only three outcomes for this struggle. We kill them. They kill us. We end up totally enslaved and under their dominion. They will accept nothing else.
she's a dangerous woman that's for sure. And with Soros' money to back her, there's no telling what she would bring to the table in this country if she ever gets here...Sara Brady? Psssh...she ain't nothin' compared to Peters...
She is currently based in Maryland.
At first, I thought you were going to discuss, "Brazilians Block Gun Ban."
Then, "She forgot Venezuela."
Chavez arming fellow countrymen
Check out "What's Up Down South ."
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