Might I suggest a nice 'gift package' from:
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.
dude where is the mega barf alert ?:-)
if you havehigh blood pressure take your medication before reading this screed if you dont have high blood pressure now you will after reading this bile
I am waiting to hear back from my source on the names of the candidates and the bad bills (not amendments) that the NRA has supported. If I don't hear from him today, I will see him Sunday morning at our meeting.
Get off your paranoid horse. I didn't mention the Brady Bill. I am talking about bills much more recent than that. I just don't have the links at my fingertips.
ping
Just because I make some comments about some of the bad things that the NRA has done, doesn't mean that I am anti NRA. It just means that I won't defend them when they are wrong. I criticize the actions of my own group when I think that we are wrong. We are a very effective group even though we don't have 4 million members and pay princely salariues.
We are all unpaid volunteers who care about and work to protect gun rights. We also have job, business, and family obligations that mean we aren't always sitting in front of the computer.
From the NRA-ILA website:
"Longtime Sen. Arlen Specter has been a reliable and capable advocate of firearm freedom and law and order. Over the past 24 years, he has cast more than 50 votes to uphold your freedom. This year he voted against the Kennedy hunting ammunition ban, against renewal of the Clinton gun ban and against federal regulation of local gun shows."
Gee, he voted against the renewal of the Clinton gun ban. Can you tell me why you had the mistaken idea he voted for the ban?
Citizens are disarmed and the crime rate climbs.
Easy pickings for the criminals.
Brought to you by government, which is not your friend.
I figured it was obvious, if not the well known name, then what followed the colon.
See post 69, sorry but I forgot to add your name.
If we clobber the GOP in Congress over illegal immigration and they loose control of either the House or the Senate,
say hello to Chairman Schumer.
We need to keep our focus, cuz if the Congress turns these
shysters will lose no time resurrecting the AWB, making
handguns impossible to own, and countless other outrages.
BTTT
We will fight forever agains those who wish to disarm the citizenry. Clueless idiots, all of them.
In 1993 he voted for the bill that gave us that ban.
He admits that he did. Why do you insist that he did not?
In 2003, he told a packed house that he would vote for the bill again if it came up as part of 'an important package' of bills, like an anti terrorist bill just moments after he told us that his earlier vote was a mistake and that the ban was ineffective and violated our rights.
There is nothing mistaken about that.
Do you know anything at all about Specter other than what the NRA tells you? He is always with us when we DON'T need him. His world view is not that of 90% of the people on this board or that of the NRA. He is a big government, tax and spend, pro abortion, self confessed gun grabbing, self serving liberal. What would the NRA or you support him? He may have some votes with us -- when he didn't need him -- but his overall score on pro gun issues with us is only 55%.
Is that what you consider a friend?
I was not able to make it this morning to the meeting so I do not have the information that I was looking for. I will post it when I get it.
I disagree that this is going to be significantly worse than what we have now.
So far in this discussion, you haven't linked to anything that supports any liberal views. You claimed he would vote for the renewal of the AWB and by the facts, he did not. You still haven't found any NRA rating for him. For all I know, he's rated a C minus over an F rated democrat. If the choices are between a RINO or losing control over a Republican Senate, it should be a no brainer.
You are the NRA guru. I couldn't find a link on their site and I told you that.
How can I link to a face to face conversation at a public meeting that wasn't covered by the media? He stood three feet away from me and told me that we would vote for it again as part of an 'important package' of bills. (He wanted to sign it, but needed the political cover of an 'important package' of bills, such as terrorism -- even though it was wrong to do it, ineffective, and a violation of our rights.)
He doesn't believe in the 2nd Amendment as the Founders intended -- as a means to defend against an overreaching federal government and I got him to admit that too. It's amazing how honest you can get people to be when you push them a bit. He gets angry easily when challenged and he lets his true feeling slip out. He's slick, but he's not slick enough.
But you need a freaking link to know that Specter is a liberal. If you are serious, you are even less reliable as a source of information than you think that I am. EVERYONE knows that Arlen is a liberal. Arlen admits that he is a liberal. The ACU rates him at 43% lifetime. How much lower does he need to score to prove to you that he's a liberal?
And how did any of these measures stop criminals or crazies from killing people. Oh the crazies might have to find other methodologies, such as gasoline, poison, natural gas (makes a powerful explosive), fertilizer and fuel oil, etc, etc. Criminals aren't obeying those laws any more than they did other laws.
You'll notice that this bag lady does not point to any decrease in deaths, just in "gun deaths".
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.
How to explain the drop in crime in the US then, where so many states passed shall issue concealed carry laws, and the infamous Ugly Gun ban actually resulted in more of the types of firearms it was aimed at to be purchased, (just not so ugly ones)?
And how did any of these measures stop criminals or crazies from killing people. Oh the crazies might have to find other methodologies, such as gasoline, poison, natural gas (makes a powerful explosive), fertilizer and fuel oil, etc, etc. Criminals aren't obeying those laws any more than they did other laws.
You'll notice that this bag lady does not point to any decrease in deaths, just in "gun deaths".
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.
How to explain the drop in crime in the US then, where so many states passed shall issue concealed carry laws, and the infamous Ugly Gun ban actually resulted in more of the types of firearms it was aimed at to be purchased, (just not so ugly ones)?
Since it already has done so, and at least in the General Assembly, has proved itself a collection of petty dictators, as soon as this bill passes, funding would cease.
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