Ah, you kinda beat me to the punch.
And Fred, there was a case in California of a gun kept in a safe according to law and the teenage daughter who was trained in its use AND her brother were killed by a psycho with a pitchfork because she couldn't get the safe open.
And many laws like those in Australia make it so you can't keep it loaded.
The POINT of having a gun is being able to use it. Criminals, rapists and killers are not going to wait patiently while you assemble your firearm, load it and aim.
So, essentially, firearm ownership and usage is banned if you cannot keep and BEAR them in an EFFECTIVE and SPEEDY manner.
Imagine telling soldiers or police to lock up their arms and assemble/load them when they need them!
Bet you Howard's guards are armed and loaded.
Guess he didn't succeed in disarming all his enemies.
There are only 20 million people living in Australia. There were 437 fire-arm related deaths in Australia in 1997. That number includes idiots who shoot each other hunting and suicides. We do not have an epedemic of crime. If I want a fire-arm I can buy one. I do not feel threatened by these laws and neither does the average Aussie. There is no public outcry.
Our society is evidently not as divided as is yours. We are not cowards. See report excerpt below:
The Australian Bureau of Statistics counts all injury deaths, whether or not they are crime-related. The most recently available ABS figures show a total of 437 firearm-related deaths (homicide, suicide and unintentional) for 1997. This is the lowest number for 18 years.
The Australian rate of gun death per 100,000 population remains one-fifth that of the United States.
"We have observed a decline in firearm-related death rates (essentially in firearm-related suicides) in most jurisdictions in Australia. We have also seen a declining trend in the percentage of robberies involving the use of firearms in Australia."
-- Mouzos, J. Firearm-related Violence: The Impact of the Nationwide Agreement on Firearms. Trends & Issues in Crime & Criminal Justice No. 116. Australian Institute of Criminology. Canberra, May 1999; 6
Assault and Robbery
Those who claim that Australia suffered a "crime wave" as a result of new gun laws often cite as evidence unrelated figures for common assault or sexual assault (no weapon) and armed robbery (any weapon). In fact less than one in five Australian armed robberies involve a firearm.
"Although armed robberies increased by nearly 20%, the number of armed robberies involving a firearm decreased to a six-year low."
-- Recorded Crime, Australia, 1998. Australian Bureau of Statistics, Jun 1999