But how can they be so stupid to think they are better off unarmed. They are a formerly wilderness society, like the US. Where did they ever get the idea that personal ownership of guns is a bad thing?
I guess I’m being naive, but I don’t know a lot about their history.
Wilderness Society, but one of the most urbanized countries in the world. When I lived there in the late 70’s, over 90% of the population lived in 7 cities. Truth is most people are city dwellers and don’t really have a frontier attitude.
Big difference compared to the U.S. We had many freedom-loving, God-fearing Scots Irish pioneers; whereas Australia was just a British penal colony consisting of the dregs of society.
Most Australians don't think the personal ownership of guns is a bad thing. And Australians are legally allowed to own guns, so there is no great conflict that people here really worry about.
If you want to own firearms in Australia, you can - as long as you don't have a criminal record (and even with a criminal record, you can generally get a gun licence if you've been law abiding for ten years, and your record isn't for violent crimes).
Alarmist articles in the US press, like this one, generally do not come close to accurately describing the situation in Australia. The amnesty this article is talking about will have zero impact on law abiding gun owners, because it's targeted at illegally held firearms. So non-criminals do not have any real problem with this because it's not aimed at us.
We have our share of dumb gun laws. More than our share, actually. But for the most part, Australians who want to own guns simply do what they need to do to navigate those laws, and don't worry too much about them. Too much political activism just reminds the soft left that we still have our guns and makes it more likely that they will try once again to bring in further restrictions. We'll stand up if a law actually impacts law abiding gun laws, but there's little point in complaining about a law aimed at criminals.