Posted on 03/09/2006 1:43:58 PM PST by kiriath_jearim
Glock and bullet story
How come the bad guys can have guns and we law-abiding types can't? Go ahead, John, make our day!
John Howard dropped in on Nine’s Today show last week as part of the 10-year Festival of John (bookings are already being made, in light of Kim Beazley’s continued ALP leadership, for the next celebrations in 2016). The usual ground was covered – succession timing, war on terror, his enduring desire to break the world land speed record in a rocket-propelled Morris 1100 and so on – when interviewer Karl Stefanovic brought up the matter of 1996’s massacre at Port Arthur, and Howard’s subsequent introduction of new gun laws. “I recall the extraordinary outpouring of amazement and grief in the country,” said the PM, “and I knew out of that there was an opportunity to grab the moment and to bring about a fundamental change in gun laws in this country.” And why might Howard have wanted to do this? “I did not want Australia to go down the American path. There are some things about America I admire, there are some things I don’t, and one of the things I don’t admire about America is an almost drooling, slavish love of guns. I think they’re evil.”
Two things. Firstly, Howard again here demonstrates his uncanny ability to reflect mainstream Australian opinion; most Australians, across the political spectrum, share Howard’s loathing of guns and think the US more than a little weird for so embracing them. Secondly, Howard is entirely wrong.
Guns aren’t evil, as anyone who has defended their life with one can tell you. I recently had cause to be contacted by authorities who asked if I might feel safer with police patrols outside my house or, should the need arise, a brief relocation to somewhere unfindable. The offer – unsolicited, very much appreciated and not taken up – wouldn’t have been worth even a second’s consideration if I was allowed to keep a decent firearm. Bad guys turn up? Bang. Maybe one extra bang, to make sure. Goodbye, bad guys.
“Aha!” you’re likely saying. “But what if the bad guys were also allowed to have guns? Not feeling so tough now, are you, Mr Trigger-Happy Clint Eastwood Wannabe!” So what’s changed? The bad guys already have guns; it’s part of being a bad guy. If you’re the sort of person who’s inclined to use a gun to murder someone, you don’t generally worry about breaking a few gun-ownership laws along the way. Excessive gun laws – such as we have in Australia – merely concentrate gun ownership in that sector of the population you’d least like to own guns. Say we had similar gun laws to many US states; would you – I’m talking to the ladies in the audience – be scared to have a gun in your house? If so, perhaps you’ve shacked up with the wrong partner. Do you let the guy drive? Carve roasts? Use your credit card?
Speaking of illegal guns, there’s been remarkably little follow-up to a Sydney Morning Herald report published in the wake of the Cronulla riots. “About 200 men had assembled outside Lakemba Mosque,” it read, “some armed with Glock pistols.” Back in 1996, Howard wore a bulletproof vest to address a crowd of law-abiding Victorian gun-owners. “I was told at the time to wear it,” he said on Today. “I’m sorry I took that advice ... I regret now having done so.” Good; but he’d possibly regret not wearing one if he was addressing the Lakemba Mosque & Pistol Association, which apparently hasn’t taken to Howard’s gun-control idea. Now, about these Glock pistols witnessed by reporters; is it too much to ask for some arrests around here?
Meanwhile, George W. Bush remains stupid. Just ask Barbra Streisand, a big-time Democrat supporter and one of Bush’s prime enemies in the war-torn fundamentalist enclave of Malibu. Recently Malibu Barbie lashed out at “C-student” Bush on her website; it turns out that people, people who have spellcheck, are the luckiest people in the world, for Barbra can’t afford it (or a proofreader) even with her zillions. Among words created by the daffy diva: “crediblity”, “curruption”, “subpoening”, “preceedings”, “warrented”, “dictatoriship”, “desperatly” and “Adminstration”. Best of all: “Irag”, which Streisand seems to think was invaded in 2001 during Bush’s bid “to national build”. The Sydney Morning Herald website suffered Streisand-like comprehension difficulties on Sunday, following Bush’s cricket-playing PR stunt in Pakistan. At one point a tennis ball bowled to the Prez so slowly it might have been delivered by Sylvia Plath glanced harmlessly off his shoulder. The SMH’s headline? “Bush felled by bouncer.” They wish.
I love 'em, and I don't think they're evil. Anymore than a screwdriver or a hammer or a wirewrap tool is evil.... Love Howard in general, he's been a great help to us in the WOT, but it's so typical of a pol to ascribe 'evil' to guns, whereas the most foul human being on earth is probably just misunderstood....
Letting liberals run a justice system is EVIL. Not guns.
I recently had cause to be contacted by authorities who asked if I might feel safer with police patrols outside my house or, should the need arise, a brief relocation to somewhere unfindable.
You can't put an entire nation on the Witness Protection Program. You can either allow its citizens to defend themselves or you can abandon them. And if your government says to you "it's too unsafe for everyone for you to have a gun, but we'll protect you from everything you might need one for" and then they don't, that is abandonment and the parties making that promise ought to be held responsible for the lie that they knew it was when they made it.
Evil? How dare you insult the feelings of my firearms! Guess I'd better head to the vault and give each one a nice, long hug.
--b--
That sure is the truth. Howard has his good points, but his irrational fear of his own citizens is not one of them. Some of the worst tyrants in history were those who just wanted to "do good". The Aussies who fought at Gallipoli are turning over in their graves.
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