Is it true that all guns have been banned in Australia?

Imagine this post is akin to prodding a hornet's nest with a short stick! :D

Not trying to cause trouble. I just wanted to verify an Email I received from a friend.

Our Aussie mates should be dropping in shortly with the details. I gather they have as much use for their politicians as we Canucks have for Shrieking Annie. :rolleyes:

Bye
Jack

WE have had a couple of little hickups with our laws down here ! First was Semi Auto rifle & shotguns & Pump action shot guns .To the general Public ( but there were exceptions made) So it became more of a inconvinance ! Then they had a go at Hand guns ! Max Mag capasity 10 Rnds Max Cal .38 Min barrel lenght Semi auto 5 inches min barrel lenght Revolver 4inches
Exceptions were made in cal for Cowboy action & metalic sil ! up to 45 cal is still permited Hense I still own & love my pair of .44mag SBH's & a mate still uses a 45acp to shoot Metal sil (Please no coments on the 45 acp as we kind of modified the rules at our club for him ) Hope this clears up some of the miths!

**** all guns banned now eh? Good rumour mill. Can you forward me the email? Kamate_X@hotmail.com

Cheers

And the pathetic little do gooder John Howard, is of the opinion that just because he hates guns that everyone else should be denied the right to own them, despite the fact that licensed gun owners are the most law abiding in society.

See, if you examine his latest Industrial Relations "reform"(or should be called it malform! :rolleyes: ) which he claims will benefit all Australians, not just his multinational mates(yeah, right! :mad: ), then you'll begin to understand his gun law reasoning.
Mind you it isn't reasoning anyone with any brains could come up with. :p
Gee, do I sound bitter????? :confused:

See, if you examine his latest Industrial Relations "reform"(or should be called it malform! :rolleyes: ) which he claims will benefit all Australians, not just his multinational mates(yeah, right! :mad: ), then you'll begin to understand his gun law reasoning.
Mind you it isn't reasoning anyone with any brains could come up with. :p
Gee, do I sound bitter????? :confused:

Little johnnie aint stupid. He knows you can't keep your lackies and peasants in their place and xxxx 'em over if they have the means to fight back.
Then again maybe he is stupid. He doesn't realize that when you have an army thats less than half the size of a northern neighbours reserve force, your best hope of defence is an armed population

Bob

Dads still got his .44 and I'm trying for a semi-auto shotgun. .45 acp sounds fine for metal sil, It's the only way you can get around it at a club. Does any one no of a legal semi-auto centerfire rifle and what excuse is neaded to have one?

Ask DaveH.
He has a Category D licence and I believe that is only available to professional shooters and pest exterminators.
Rural producers can have rimfire semi-autos but unless plan on a career change it's unlikely you'll be able get a semi-auto centrefire.

Kombies right . I have held my C& D classes since the New laws came into affect (with the exception of 12mths that I decided I wanted to retire & The Police have begrudgingly had to reissue them to me as I have proven that I require these classes for culling purposes ) I'm not sure but there used to be a loop hole for semi auto c/f's for use in military shoots in a club (miltary service shoots ) The only other way is to show justification as a registered Pro shpoter & have the approprate permits /licences ! Even then you have to do a Tafe course these days of firearm saftey with semi autos & then throw youself at the mercy of the firearms branch .
Nothing is impossible though ! I recomend you ring the firearms branch in your State & get the laws reguarding these class of firearms ! I don't mean just ringing the local station or the firearms branch giving the plain "NO" get the ACT as this is what is required not one persons appinion !Cause as much as I respect the Firearms branch for the fabulas work that they do :rolleyes: They sometimes due to fatuige forget to point out the actual law as it is writtern! I have had this happen to me at varios times in several States (WA being the worst )

Dave

A little off the point but I was at my inlaws place today and the Sydney Morning Herald's Good Weekend magazine had a cover article on Martin Bryant these days; how he is treated & the sort of behaviour he exhibits.
It was clear from the article that the guy is so far from sanity that he doesn't even get on the graph; he's basically a niavé wilful small childs brain in a man's body.
It was also clear that he never had to take responsibilty for his actions as a child and that he was left a large amount in a will not long before he went on the spree at Port Arthur, allowing him to afford all the guns he carried.
It was also clear that he'd set out to settle scores.
I couldn't help but think that somewhere along the way the government had themselves to blame for not picking up the dangers that he posed.
He'd travelled overseas and returned with illegal contraban and there were other factors that suggests the woman who left him the money may've died because he tampered with her car; she was killed in an accident in which he also was injured.
It also struck me that because of the actions of one extremely unbalanced man that the entire history of Australia, both in firearms circles and outside, had been altered for good.
I think if our politicians hadn't been looking for scapegoats and instead had been brave enough to address the lack of funding & failure of the mental health system to reach those who need help things may've been different.

Later on I was watching the news with my brother-in-law, who's neither a shooter or anti-gun, and there was a story on the gun crime which has sprung up in Sydney over the last week.
I watched bemused as they reported a shooting of a wife and husband and then talked about a post office armed robbery 2 days ago by and murder earlier in the week when a man was shot down in the street.
The crimes mostly involved a particular ethnic group but that's really beside the point.
I said,"Gee, it's just as well all those gun laws are working real good."
It was at that point I heard the most sensible reply I have for years.
"You know, it's just stupid," my brother-in-law said,"the people who don't want to shoot other people are the only ones who'll get gun licences. The ones who want to commit "dirty deeds" will get their guns from somewhere else so they're untracable."
I didn't say a thing.
I just turned to him and smiled. :)

Funny thing about Mr Bryant ! It's never really advertised in the medi that the primary weapon he adledidly used had been handed into the Victorian Police & was supposidly destroyed???????? Funny that !!!!!!

Dave

Hey - !

You don't suppose................................naw, surely there wouldn't be any hanky-panky in the police department whereas the officers might hold a gun or two out of the smasher/melter, would there?????????? :confused: :p

It's been known to happen in Canada. This is just the latest.

Bye
Jack

Retired firearms officer stashed illegal weapons at home
100 guns on property
Betty Ann Adam
CanWest News Service
(subscription)

Tuesday, January 04, 2005

SASKATOON - A retired firearms officer of the Saskatoon Police Service pleaded guilty yesterday to three charges after almost 100 weapons -- mostly prohibited and restricted guns he was supposed to destroy -- were found stashed all over his property.

Thomas Vanin, 61, who retired as a staff sergeant in 1996 after 32 years with the service, will be sentenced on Friday for careless storage of firearms and possessing restricted weapons without licences.

The cache included handguns, an Intra-Tech semi-automatic pistol, assault rifles, shotguns, brass knuckles, switch blades, crossbows, more than 4,000 rounds of ammunition and a 30-round magazine for an assault rifle.

Of the 96 firearms seized, 48 are known to have been surrendered to the police service for destruction in a 1992 firearms amnesty program Vanin headed.

Eleven of the guns belonged to him. There is no documentation for the remaining 37 firearms, but the Crown believes Vanin took them when he was firearms officer.

The weapons were found in a plastic storage box in an outside storage lean-to with a broken door, in the garage, in a basement closet, a bedroom closet and an armoire.

"He was the person responsible for making sure people had the appropriate licences or authorization for a firearm, yet ... he's possessing restricted weapons, prohibited weapons and prohibited devices without having the appropriate licences," Crown prosecutor Perry Polishchuk said.

"We have a very high break-and- enter rate in Saskatoon. Had this house been broken into, can you imagine all these firearms out there available for the criminal element?" Mr. Polishchuk said.

Defence lawyer Morris Bodnar said Vanin never intended to keep the arms for personal gain. Rather, he was suffering extreme mental distress after the shooting suicide of his son in 1992, just a week after Vanin had been assigned to firearms.

Defence lawyer Morris Bodnar said Vanin never intended to keep the arms for personal gain. Rather, he was suffering extreme mental distress after the shooting suicide of his son in 1992, just a week after Vanin had been assigned to firearms.

Ah well providing he says his sorry .I suppose it will be alright :rolleyes: Boy won't the Antis get some mileage out of that or will the Gov kill the story ?

Dave

WHATTA STINK'N STORY!!! The guy is obviously a TERRORIST who deserves to be cut up and fed to the kangaroos!! Uh...................is Sasakatoon in Austraylya? :D

That clearly isn't going to fly.
The guy must've been stockpiling guns from beginning.
It's clear that, his son's death aside, he was intending to accumulate them with some alterior motive, whether that be for an armed insurrection or to sell.
Why even take the job if your son suicided with a gun?
More to the point, if you suffered such a personal trajedy wouldn't you be driven to rid the world of those sort of firearms because of it, not stockpile them illegally?
And the whole negligent attitude to storage seems to be incongruous with either the illegal sales or the illegal use angles.
Whatever the case it's obvious that their choice in firearms officers is a little lacking.
They should've found someone more appropriate & objective as soon as the son committed suicide in that way.

hey guys,
i was too young to hold a firearms license when bryant went on his rampage and destroyed the image of sporting shooting and firearm ownership in oz for ever.
i remember being in school when it was all coming out the horrific events that had taken place in tassie. i remember looking at a photo of him in a paper and one of my mates said "he doesnt look like a mass murder", to which our teacher replied "what does a mass murderer look like then Abel"?
that is something that has stuck with me to this day.
i like hunting, and i like shooting does this mean that to some of the people in the poorly educated general public i am a martyn bryant in training? yeah it probably does and thats what scares me. i travel a bit on the train i got verbally abused for reading a hunting magazine. i felt about one foot tall and had a face redder than a tomato.
firearm safety and respect for other people and their posessions is something that is taught to you by your mentors as well as a sense of sobriety because of the potential that could go wrong if you dont do your bit. once a bullet is sent out it aint coming back, people cant outrun a bullets. i would have to say that apart from the few maggots who do do the wrong thing, firearm owners have the upmost respect for abiding to firearm safety, laws, and have an affinity with doing the right thing. im not really sure if it is because we believe the next time something bad happens we as shooters are out to pasture or not. there is a lot of evidence though that to me says the blokes growing up with firearms have a respect for peoples property, and peoples lives to do the right thing by everyone. it is more than i can say for the majority of smackies (heroin addicts) i see walking round my neighbourhood and leaving syringes in my front yard.
its funny how such a terrible movie as spiderman actually came out with a pretty powerful message (i know its a very serious topic here but bare with me), there was a quote toby macguire came out with "with great power comes great sacrifice". cant remember where i was going with that one, it made sense when i was typing. yeah thats it, do i have to be diminished by apparently intelligent peope because i really enjoy spending a night out on the foxes with a few mates? i shouldnt but i think that next time i am proudly reading my magazine on a train i will spin out a thesis as to why i hunt, as to why i shoot, as to why i think that we should all not necessarily agree with what we each do as people, but we should be educated about it all and then if we arent harming anyone in the process we should just be allowed to continue (good article by col allison on why we hunt in this months australian shooter or hunter, not sure). it is sheer stupidity and lack of education that makes people this unaccepting. i worry about where we are going as people.
just because someone likes driving fast cars and i really dont find it that interesting doesnt mean that i want them banned from doing it. they have just as much potential for damage.
i grieve with those familes who lost sons, daughters, brothers, sisters and relatives at port arthur. my even younger cousin (he would have been around 6 at the time) actually lost his first ever girlfriend in the carnage that this deranged fruitloop caused. he had documented schitzophrenia why did he have guns?
nothing excuses that piece of **** for what he did but people need to understand that no matter how many new gun rules, no matter how many food hygeine rules, no matter how many new road rules or booze buses we set up, people are gonna die, get injuerd or maimed. people will always drink and drive, drive fast, prepare food 3 weeks old just plain have acccidents in general. the world isnt a perfect place but we could make it closer by not dismissing each others preferences and prejudices. we can make the world a little safer but remember the gun was used before the sword and although has not nearly as much potential as the firearm if a persons will is strong they can still inflict harm.
unlike our american counterparts its isnt our contitutional right to "bear arms" it is a bloody privelage that we should not take too lightly. it is a privelage that i will be fighting to hold. it is an honour that i am still allowed to take out my younger cousins hunt some bunnies, that i can go out with boys and reduce some roo numbers, drop a few foxes or put a couple of holes in a can. it is an honour that we will all need to stand up to the plate to hold on to, and i dont mean by trippin on peoples toes, or by angering people. through pure education and pride we can win this.
sorry for the rambles just my $0.02 worth.
cheers guys and keep on hunting.

lockie ;)

Well said, Lockie.

Thomas Vanin got a 1 year suspended sentence, which is the most a Canadian cop can get for anything short of first degree murder. There's some interesting tidbits in this thread. The details about sentencing are in the second article down (not second post down, look for the headline "Suspended sentence for man with guns".)

Bye
Jack

Lockie !You speak with a muturity! That makes a Bloke proud to be both Australian & a Shooter ! I must admit there are times these days that I look at the up & comming generation & wonder ! This though renforces my Belief that shooters through the responsobilty placed on them through the ownership of firearms ,are not the cause of socitys problems !It is more the mob attitude stirred up by the media in the hunt to sell "Papers"! There was a time in Australia's past (In fact a regulation in the passing of Federation ,that every town?city would have in place a Gov range {Full bore} For the purpose of having a well trained Civilian mitlica!) AS a youngster it was nothing to own & shot a .22 ! in fact nearly everyhome in Australia had a firearm of some description & it was not unusal or considered odd to carry a firearm in public !
Looking back every service station in the country areas sold ammo (normally .22 & 12g) Sports & Bicyicle shops sold Firearms & ammo ! This was not even thought about ! It was just the way it was ! I can remember shoe boxes of silencers in shops for about $2.50 a unit !
Yet due to a terrible incident & a Knee jerk reaction from the Gov (caused through the Media Blowing something way out of proportion ) A minority movement (the Antis ) were able to turn the statis quo !
Many of us in the Pro Shooting industry were interviewed on our opinion of the Govs reaction but our side ws never published as we did'nt give the media what they wanted to hear The fact that we don't refer to our rifles as weapons due to the fact that a weapon is something used to either attack or defend ! WE as shooters have Tools or in the case of the sporting shooter " equipment" & firearms
As for abuse about a hunting mag ? Why is it I can walk into a Newsagent & buy if I was so inclined to do so buy any amount of Pornograhy,or Smut .Yet I find it hard to find a Gun magazine? I was once abused for reading a Gum mag in public by a gentleman ! I offered him the deal of I'd stop buying Gun Mags when he stopped buying News papers as I felt they were more harmfull ! Needless to say I copped more abuse ,but I'm afraid he became the one that felt about a foot tall ,as I don't like being told that I'm some sort of Pervert & noticed he had one of the Girly Mags that can be brought of of News stands & Pointed out that if he had to look at pictures he was the one who had problems as I had the real thing at home & did'nt have to rely on photos !

Sorry to have got on my high horse over this one fellas

Dave

I can rember when silences were still legal in SA you could mail order them for $25 I wish I had, Be handy in amoungst those cockies. I must have been 12 befor I relised that not every one had at least 3 Guns, They do around here.

Yeah I've gotten strange looks from people and called a Phycho at scholl when I was a kid because I didn't have surfboards on my folder I had firearms and animals(Live Pics), People fear what they don't understand, and love to abuse those that are different. I was collecting for the Red Cross at a traffic light wearing uniform, one guy in a "Fully sick WRX" decided to yell abuse at me for being in the army. The fact that I'm the one thats put my life on hold and will probally see active service within 2 yrs under HIS National flag doesn't matter I'm just an AJ (Army Jerk) in his eyes. People are strange which is another reason I love hunting to get away from the "life" of the city. Firing a shot isn't what hunting is about for me, if I get to take game then great its a bonus. I love walking around on a cold clear morning shotgun in hand and a few shells in my pocket. We need to educate people about huning and shooting its my goal to get one new shooter a year its a small goal but it looks like I've got 10 or so lined up in my unit that are keen to get a licence. One Major here is a SSAA conservation officer and is arranging culls in the surrounding National Parks so all these new shooters will have plenty of opportunity to learn to hunt. I have about a year left here at this posting and by the time I leave I intened to have a solid hunting club arraged in my unit that will live on after I leave. So I challange you guys come on lets get serious about gun ownership here in Oz and educate the ignorant and get people hooked just like we were.

I have to say that all of the shooters I've ever met with possible exception of 2 guys were super conservative, sensible and reliable people who for the most part played important roles in the community outside of shooting circles. Even the 2 I mentioned aren't nuts or dangerous, just a little eccentric. This crazed-psycho or inbred-redneck stereotype the press and anti-gun lobby love to claim is the majority of legal shooters represent hardly a flycrap in the ocean of the sport shooting movement. We are the victim of a press that values ratings and newspaper sales over integrity and fundamental truths and the scapegoat of a government who chases votes with hollow quick fixes rather than correcting the own shortcomings which cause this situations to arise. While the baseless hatred of well armed terrorism grows closely on our northern borders and permeates the levels of their government as we live our lives in a peaceful way that benefits their countries, not threatens them, our government is busily hobbling citizens from learning how to use firearms correctly and encouraging the press to further discourage those who would maintain these skills. We hope the day will never come but a country with a small population of deliberately defenceless civilians is a huge temptation to a country who's thuggery both within and closely outside it's own borders is well documented. The forward thinking of the Fathers of Federation put sent soldiers to 2 world wars who already were very familiar with the issued long arm. The platitudes of Mr.Downer & his ilk will not placate malcontents beyond our borders forever. What shall we do then?

The fact that the retired staff sergeant in Saskatoon got a 1 year suspended sentence for the weapons cache he accumulated is amazing!

I can't wait until our new government gets around to dismantling our idiotic long gun registry! Any word on how that is going?