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.
Dimand@aussie.zone 7 months ago
This article has some huge issues.
As mentioned already, the type of gun matters a lot. Not mention of how many are semi auto, but I am guessing it won’t be many.
Also no accounting for population growth over the last 30 years as a factor in total gun numbers.
This paragraph was absolutely journalistic garbage.
“NSW firearm registry data shows that in Sydney there are more than 70 individuals who own more than 100 firearms, including one person who owns 385 guns. The register notes that this is not a collector or a dealer.”
Clearly this is a hobby/interest and the person is a collector with too much time and money (good for them I guess). What they don’t have is a “collectors” licence that effectively means they cannot ever use their guns. A licenced collector will usually have inoperable firearms on display (think museum).
All that said, the SSAA and others do have a higher than normal concentration of right wing nuts that continuously lobby the government to weaken our excellent (imo) gun laws. It’s why I stopped giving them any of my money.
princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 months ago
As far as I’m aware, semi-auto guns are illegal to own, aren’t they?
Dimand@aussie.zone 7 months ago
You can get them with the right licence. It’s only for professional hunters I believe but I have never looked into details. They are rightfully much harder to get than a typical class A/B licence.