I'm not blowing smoke. I'm telling the truth. Yes, Australian gun laws are pretty bad (I wouldn't say atrocious - I'd say stupid and wrongheaded, but as somebody who spends a few months a year in the UK, I'd reserve stronger terms for them - and even there guns aren't completely banned) but that is not an excuse for people to lie about them being worse than they are. And what makes it worse is that honest people believe and repeat the lies.
I've had to make some effort to own the guns I do. Having made that effort I object to being told I have been disarmed.
And incidentally people try to use lies like that against the interest of gun owners in America - I've seen regular attempts by gun control groups in America to claim that Australia banned guns and America could do the same.
You'd be well advised to start repealing your gun control regime, though.
That's what some of us are trying to do - and it's one reason I really object to misinformation about our laws being spread around. It's slow going, but we are gradually getting governments here to roll back parts of the laws but we're doing it through rational fact-based arguments.
When people believe that the only people who own handguns are criminals or security guards, it's much harder to make the case to them that handguns in the hands of law abiding citizens aren't a public danger, than if it's already understood that there are already tens of thousands of us out there and we're not committing crimes. I've been in meetings with Members of Parliament where I've had to explain the laws to them because they believed what they'd been told by the anti-gun lobby and it was easy to believe because it's what is repeated all the time.
Why do you have to "make some effort"? Is the manufacture of simple mechanical devices more difficult in Australia than in the United States?
Having made that effort I object to being told I have been disarmed.
So you managed to slog through a legal quagmire. Bully for you. Perhaps you, personally, aren't disarmed ... but your society is. Quit trying to spin it otherwise.
as somebody who spends a few months a year in the UK
So the UK is worse than AUS. And Mexico is worse than the UK. And North Korea is worse than Mexico. Big deal. Gun ownership is still heavily restricted in AUS as your post number 68 illustrates. It's as bad as New York City, but in the entire country.
That's [repeal gun control] what some of us are trying to do
Good. We're trying (and succeeding at) that here, as well.