There are now more than 4m guns in the community – almost double the number recorded in the years after the Port Arthur massacre that prompted a national crackdown
I’m not really sure what “winning” in this picture is. I wasn’t aware there was a contest going on about this topic. I remember having a discussion with someone on this site a few months about gun control, my perspective mostly boiled down to “I don’t think about guns much”. I do remember being surprised that even after the laws coming into WA that it was still going to be possible to have handguns in suburbia - I thought they needed to be kept at the shooting club.
In May a group of national shooting bodies met in the Australian capital to discuss how best to respond to what they describe as a “growing attack” on firearm users, and the need for a unified position.
The group met again in late July.
The lobby is alarmed especially by new firearms laws introduced in Western Australia, which have – among other measures – limited the number of guns that an individual licence holder can own.
If five guns isn’t enough for you in suburbia (rural people can have more), I’m not really sure you’re the sort of person I want to see licensed to own firearms in the first place.
“Politicians are going to pay attention because politicians respect numbers, and the last thing they want to do is to irritate big blocks of people.”
Yeah - the number of firearms owners is totally dwarfed by the majority of people who are happy that guns/shootings aren’t an everyday thing in Australia. You want to see a block of irritated people, start changing this fact.
I mean most families don’t need more than one car, but some people like to buy lots of them.
I grew up rural and it was very rare to see a farm with more than five guns, most would never “need” more than two. If someone registers and properly stores a large collection through legal channels then I have trouble taking issue with it regardless of their location. Most rifle ranges are in or near cities and even if you were aiming for a single arm per modern calibre, you are talking about dozens of guns.
@Nath When I lived on a property out bush, we had a rifle and two shotguns (one newish, one legacy). They served us well. I learned to shoot the rifle at home, the shotgun at the old man’s gun club. Loved the old side-by-side shotty.
When I moved to the big smoke, I had zero interest in having any sort of firearm. In my security job, I had to carry a pistol and it occasionally went home with me between shifts; I hated having it there, even though it was secure.
There’s a place for firearms, and it’s not in a city or town.
You took it home?!? And that is the done thing? Do they pay you to install a handgun safe??? Pistols are scary, it’s too easy to change your line of fire.
It was the done thing at the time, if you squinted sideways at the regulations (which my boss did when it suited him). It was always unloaded before I walked inside and the bullets kept separate from the pistol until I walked back out the next night.
Our kids never even got a look at it. Dirty great S&W .357 magnum — nobody but me was going to get anywhere near it!
Neither. Armed security, regularly at an apartment block, irregularly at various offices, manufacturing plants, a Mercedes-Benz establishment, and lots of uniformed but unarmed jobs around the place.
It was an interesting job, but when one of my workmates was shot when he walked into a drug deal one night while doing his rounds (in the apartment block), my wife got twitchy so I gave it up.
I suppose thats an understandable position for your wife to have taken. Sorry about your workmate.
But, damn! I was so sure it was Armaguard.
Didn’t even know armed security guards for buildings/premises was a thing in Aus. But then i don’t tend to hang around fancy places when they’re closed to see.
I’m not really sure what “winning” in this picture is. I wasn’t aware there was a contest going on about this topic. I remember having a discussion with someone on this site a few months about gun control, my perspective mostly boiled down to “I don’t think about guns much”. I do remember being surprised that even after the laws coming into WA that it was still going to be possible to have handguns in suburbia - I thought they needed to be kept at the shooting club.
If five guns isn’t enough for you in suburbia (rural people can have more), I’m not really sure you’re the sort of person I want to see licensed to own firearms in the first place.
Yeah - the number of firearms owners is totally dwarfed by the majority of people who are happy that guns/shootings aren’t an everyday thing in Australia. You want to see a block of irritated people, start changing this fact.
I mean most families don’t need more than one car, but some people like to buy lots of them.
I grew up rural and it was very rare to see a farm with more than five guns, most would never “need” more than two. If someone registers and properly stores a large collection through legal channels then I have trouble taking issue with it regardless of their location. Most rifle ranges are in or near cities and even if you were aiming for a single arm per modern calibre, you are talking about dozens of guns.
@Nath When I lived on a property out bush, we had a rifle and two shotguns (one newish, one legacy). They served us well. I learned to shoot the rifle at home, the shotgun at the old man’s gun club. Loved the old side-by-side shotty.
When I moved to the big smoke, I had zero interest in having any sort of firearm. In my security job, I had to carry a pistol and it occasionally went home with me between shifts; I hated having it there, even though it was secure.
There’s a place for firearms, and it’s not in a city or town.
You took it home?!? And that is the done thing? Do they pay you to install a handgun safe??? Pistols are scary, it’s too easy to change your line of fire.
@Dimand
It was the done thing at the time, if you squinted sideways at the regulations (which my boss did when it suited him). It was always unloaded before I walked inside and the bullets kept separate from the pistol until I walked back out the next night.
Our kids never even got a look at it. Dirty great S&W .357 magnum — nobody but me was going to get anywhere near it!
I can’t help but start guessing at the sort of security job this was,
My first thought was as personal security to some politician, maybe even Big Brows Howard himself! Kind of relevant to the article.
But i reckon your job must really have been driving the Armaguard, (money trucks), to and from the banks and casinos, etc.
In which case, wheres the AMA?
Did any drongos ever try a heist?
@Gorgritch_umie_killa
Neither. Armed security, regularly at an apartment block, irregularly at various offices, manufacturing plants, a Mercedes-Benz establishment, and lots of uniformed but unarmed jobs around the place.
It was an interesting job, but when one of my workmates was shot when he walked into a drug deal one night while doing his rounds (in the apartment block), my wife got twitchy so I gave it up.
That’s some heavy shit man!
I suppose thats an understandable position for your wife to have taken. Sorry about your workmate.
But, damn! I was so sure it was Armaguard.
Didn’t even know armed security guards for buildings/premises was a thing in Aus. But then i don’t tend to hang around fancy places when they’re closed to see.
I still reckon theres an IAMA in this.