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By Casey Slaughter

I recently moved to Melbourne Australia to finish up a graduate degree in mining engineering. Since starting my degree in Missouri I have started a small collection of firearms and started keeping track of the politics regarding them and the statistics (as an engineer I love data). I am shocked at how the public down here perceives firearms and really weapons of any kind. Still, guns aren’t as scarce as you would think. My housemate has a pair of rimfire rifles for small game (rabbit and fox) hunting and many of the rural people I talk to have a rifle or shotgun of some kind . . .

Since moving down here last September I have heard of 3 or 4 shootings, many more stabbings and violent attacks but people just seem to brush it oft. There’s usually at least a pair of armed guards at all the major subway/metro stations and designated “safety zones” (these are really just some extra lights shining on a painted box on the platform next to a police call box). I have passed armed guards on the street and even here on campus.

Not sure where I am going with this except that Obama’s statements that this never happens outside the US are blatant falsehoods (as you well know). A couple links (maybe for a DGU of the day):

Very recent attack by a pair of men after the demanded their money back from a bloke who sold them a van online.

An attack with a gun that occured in 2002 on the campus I am attending in Melbourne: attacker used a legally acquired pistol to kill two and injure five more.

You may have heard of these already, but thought I would share.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

59 COMMENTS

  1. Most Americans(even democrats) take what Obama says with less than a grain of salt

    • I blame Michelle, she’s been pushing for Americans to reduce their salt intake with her diet tips.

    • Hey, if President Feckless’ lips are moving, he’s telling a lie. “If you like your current guns, you can keep your guns. Period”

  2. I’m not too concerned with Obama’s recent drivel. All I heard is more talk about “red lines” and how he is going to do this and that… and its not going to amount to anything. Obama has about as much power to dictate our gun ownership as he does over Putin’s control of Crimea. The world is laughing at him. No need to go into panic mode again people. There will plenty of time for that in 2016. But for now, lets just sit back and enjoy the joke for the next 2 years.

    • all that is pretty insightful and also pretty good advice.

      Still, just to be safe, I scored a new jeep rifle yesterday and as my birthday is on Father’s Day I am urging family and friends to buy me ammo in my favorite calibers.

      I am registered at all the major stores

      • For Father day I am buying three SR22s for my kids to learn handguns on. They are already crack shots with rifles. Even if SR22 is imperfect they are a good way to learn modern semi auto firearms, including dealing with malfunctions, and easier field strip than a mark III or buckmark.

        their future ability to protect themselves and make their future families safer is my gift to myself for father’s day.

        I am buying from one of TTAG advertisers (or secondarily from a google ad on this site.)

        • I wish you were my dad. If you gave them each a brick of .22 also, then you are the only one that deserves a “World’s Greatest Dad” mug.

    • I think your assessment is right. Obama is delusional and things are getting worse for him almost daily. I think the Democratic Socialists and RINO”s are about to find out how angry and fed-up the American People are with their inept rule of this country. Yep, sit back and enjoy the show.

      • It will be interesting to see how the “Operation DINO” effort here in The Formerly Free State of Maryland turns out. WAY too soon to say anything yet; the early Primary voting starts today.

    • He can use creative legislation to make things difficult (See Chicago’s zoning to ban gun stores). He has the EPA at his disposal which is just another government thug agency (shutdown all gun manufacturing until they pass EPA inspection).

      It is all a matter of how much he wants to gamble on pissing people off and its impact on the future elections. The only thing that holds him back is backlash and politics.

      He could for example withhold some type of funding unless states pass some stupid gun laws. Bush did this with abortion, Obama could do it with guns.

      Even if he decides to do something illegal, it would take the courts years to undo it

      Don’t be surprised if he leaves us a parting shot before he leaves office, because that is the kind of guy he is.

      See these links
      http://thefederalist.com/2014/06/08/the-hegemonic-presidency/
      http://thefederalist.com/2014/06/11/if-you-want-to-ban-guns-just-say-so/

      It is pretty clear by now he is going to do whatever the hell he wants and he has thrown out the constitution

      If the result of President Obama’s hegemonic presidency has not yet met the standard of monocracy, the general expansion of executive power on his watch has left threadbare the constitutional restraints on executive action. All that keeps the president’s “pen” and “phone” from making Congress superfluous is politics–the calculation that the American people are not yet ready for a king. Perhaps the same result is accomplished by bread and self-inflicted weekly circuses that conveniently distract the American people from realizing their constitutional losses. The upcoming mid-term elections offer us another good opportunity to reverse this trend by electing a Congress more inclined to check our hegemonic presidency.

      • “When he decides to do something illegal, it will take the courts years to undo it.”

        Fixed it for you. /sarc

  3. The president said we should search our souls and try to be more Australian, so I watched Crocodile Dundee. Still don’t feel like turning in my guns, but now I know how to kill a crocodile. Obamas plan backfires again…

  4. The types of “accidents” that are typically suicide but not ruled suicide have shot up massively in Australia. so it is likely suicide is up there, not down.

    Also Australia has seen less of a reduction in violent crime including murder there than we have if you start the clock from Australia’s confiscation.

    We won’t even get into the fact that their Constitution was dictated by another country. You can for example be held against your will without judicial hearing for mental illness. I wonder how Obama’s buds at the ACLU would take to his worshiping of Australia’s system since they have attacked how things are done there in terms of crime prevention trumping many rights.

  5. All right, Casey, I’ll help you out here. You ready?

    Well, if you really what to know if Obama is wrong, here’s a tip: if his lips are moving, he is wrong. Period. End of story. The same can be said of every politician and even every single political appointee, for that matter. You wanna’ know how you can tell if he’s lying to boot? Again, see if his lips are moving.

    Any more questions, class?

      • If that’s honestly all you’ve got, Pseudo, then I know you’re not really worth any more of my time being that you’re physically incapable of responding with literally anything else other than petty, weightless personal insults.

        Have a nice night, troll.

    • Excedrine, I never said he was lying per se. He is just repeating what everyone down here has been conditioned to think. Gonna catch some flack but I actually voted for Obama and I genuinely believe he is wanting to do the right thing and reduce the number of people killed. trouble is he has people around him with this particular burr under their saddle, a media machine that is feeding the public bad, cherry picked information to cause a stir and sell newspapers (so to speak) which then gets armchair experts writing to their public representatives or calling switchboards.

      This is a bigger problem than any one politician and it is wrong to think that if we vote out Obama all our problems will be solved. your logic is no better than the gun control advocate that think that by getting rid of guns we will get rid of violent crime.

      • I know you never said he was lying, but he is. I threw that in there myself to drive home the point that he’s just flat-wrong any time he speaks. And as for your vote, I’ll tell you honestly that I wanted to like the guy. I really did. But, that was only because I was naive enough to think that he could actually be better than his predecessors, though. He has since disabused me of any illusions that the next snake-in-the-grass would actually have an ounce of moral fiber. Or character, for that matter. That being said, it comes as no surprise to me that would intentionally perpetuate bad data from poorly-constructed, cherry-picked “studies” that were deliberately designed to reinforce an already foregone conclusion. The more you read into what he says, I believe you’ll find that to be the case. But, YMMV.

        Anyway, where did I ever even hint at the absurd idea, much less explicitly state it, that if we just vote out the current Liar-In-Chief that all of our problems will be solved? Oh, that’s right. I didn’t. Don’t make assumptions you can’t back up with hard facts. That is what the gun-grabbers do, Casey. Don’t fall into the trap yourself like you just did there.

        • look at senatorial voting record regarding firearms in general? he sure wanted to take away poor peoples protection, but not really work on the inner city gang and drug related violence. that wou have given him some real good points to run on, had he been successful. instead he wanted to criticize bush, then take over where bush left off, make it worse, less transparent, and put the worst people imaginable in charge of high places in his cabinet…. you know, his friends.

      • He lies constantly. “if you like your health care, you can keep it”. He looked in our eyes for years and knowingly lied about that, just like John Edwards did when he said he didn’t father that baby.

        We blew our chance to vote him out, but the solution is to vote out ALL the Democrats we can, and don’t let any northeastern Republicans get to higher office. Even the “pro-gun” Dems will toe the party line when pressured by the party leadership. We’ve seen this time and again. They’ll always support the party platform in the end.

        • And if you have the choice, be careful who you decide to send to the Electoral College to represent your state. They are only bound by the first vote. If that’s inconclusive, all bets are off.

    • Thanks for the link I will have to check it out, I have seen some of his stuff on TTAG before.

  7. Given Obama’s record of bald-faced lies he has told the American People, why would anyone but Chris Matthews believe any “facts” he quoted about Australia’s gun-involved crime and overall homicide rate. So the question in the Post’s title is kind of a joke…right?

  8. Seems that the President was untruthful on MANY issues. He claimed that violent crime is “off the charts”. The truth is that violent crime has decreased by 20 PER CENT in the last five years. (think he would take credit for that, don’t you).

    Further, it seems that crime does happen else where……in fact…….Britain has 3 TIMES the violent crime as the US. Additionally, many advanced nations have greater violent crime than the US……..Austria, South Africa, Sweden, Belguim, Canada, Finland, Netherlands, and France.

    Seems perhaps our crime problems are not as severe as BHO would have us believe.

  9. Gun Confiscation in Australia Not Shown to Reduce Mass Shootings

    In the current debate on imposing even more infringements on the right to keep and bear arms than already exist, reference is often made to the Australian gun confiscation scheme that was put into effect in 1996. While the results of the scheme have been subject to argument, with papers showing both no effect, small overall increases in crime, and small decreases in homicide, proponents have claimed that the confiscation and ban are responsible for the lack of mass shootings since 1997.

    I have found only one paper on the subject;

    Mass shootings in Australia and New Zealand: A descriptive study of incidence, by Samara McPhedran and Jeanine Baker, pulblished in the Justice Policy Journal, Vol. 8, No. 1, Spring 2011

    http://gunwatch.blogspot.com/2013/02/gun-confiscation-in-australia-not-shown.html

  10. Sounds bites will always trump facts with this administrations as wells has bradys, Bloomberg and the mad mom groups. The media today will churn out article after article if the NRA says anything nonfactual or perceived as stupid. Heck, they can take them out of context and make a big deal over it and that message gets sent through their drones on social networking who won’t even bother reading the articles let alone find the facts for themselves. Typical.

  11. Gee, Obama lying. What a shocker.
    This is an emotional debate, framed as such by the left because, after all, since there are no Constitutional gun laws in this country, the left has no platform other than the emotional one. The first casualty is the truth.

  12. To answer your question, EVERYTHING that spews from this guy’s mouth is a lie, half-truth or just made-up.

  13. I’ve also noticed that the shootings down under don’t get much press. Sweeping it under the rug maybe?

    I’ve also had conversations with Aussies where in one breath they criticize the US and it’s guns, and the next breath complain about their nanny government and how they envy the freedoms and liberties in the US. Those dots are closer together than they think they are.

  14. Obama is infallible and according to Chris Rock, he’s the dad of our country, therefor Barry cannot be wrong.

    But he does lie like a rug.

  15. off topic but: even cnn had a story about the everyclown’s list of 74 school shootings being garbage. thats impressive..

  17. Some folks think he is going to just leave quietly as his term is up.
    Personally, I don’t think that is going to happen!

    I think that he is testing the waters and will continue his escalating law breaking ways, just trying to force a major reaction from someone or some faction, allowing him to declare marital law and suspend any and all elections.

    Mark my words, things are going to get way, way worse in the next two years.
    He has no intention of ever leaving office.
    It’s going to be kicking and screaming, or dead!

    Little Honduras knew how to deal with his type a few years ago, but then, they have had way more experience having had closer contact with dictators all around them for years, compared to the US.

    • Isn’t that the exact same thing the lefties screamed about Bush? And the righties said about Clinton before that? Can’t we all just cool it with the fear-mongering a little bit? Obama is a bad guy and a terrible president, I agree. There’s enough about him to be worried about before we jump straight to “he’s going to crown himself king!”, as if there’s any realistic mechanism for him (or any president) to do that.

      • Stinkeye, you aren’t even close to being right!
        There is a world of difference between Bush, or the male Clinton and Obama!

    • He’s a “community organizer” (i.e., troublemaker) and punk Chicago politician. He craves publicity and his college days require that he correct in everything he says, even if he lies. In his mind alone, he IS the invincible, infallible ruler of his people. I think even Michelle is getting fed up with his warped schtick.

    • Most married men are already in marital law, if they want to stay married. I remain a marital outlaw.

  18. There’s usually at least a pair of armed guards at all the major subway/metro stations…

    No, there aren’t – not usually. It does happen sometimes, but they have a lot of ground to cover, so I have often gone through those stations without seeing anything of the sort.

  20. So the author cited two incidents, and one occurred in 2002?. Didn’t they outlaw assault weapons after 2002? What is the per capita gun murder rate before and after? One statistic you can’t argue with, we have many DEAD CHILDREN in this country (usa), because you all don’t want ANY sensible restrictions (like stopping the gang bangers from picking up all the weapons they want at gun shows, I’ve seen them, and shame on the people selling to them). Keep drinking the Fux News / NRA Kool-aid, and hurry, buy more guns and ammo and hide it in your fallout shelters, Obama is at your door waiting to take them!!. Haven”t you all been saying that for 6 years? Wrong again.

    • the dead children are caused by policies of the left.

      Over 90% of US murder involves people who have been let out of jail or gang affiliated.

      How you can take a problem people like Mr. Obama have created, and blame law abiding citizens who through gun ownership make their homes and neighborhoods SAFER, is bizarre.

      By the way Mr. Obama specifically endorsed Australia scheme which is confiscation. By saying he is not in favor of confiscation are you saying Obama is a liar?

      Lastly the numbers prove you wrong

      Austrlia begins confiscation in 1997. Drop in murder since then 29%

      US increases gun sales, increases number of gun owners,, modernity of weapons, increases carry permits,and decreases restrictions on law abiding people: US Drop in murder since 1997: 48%

    • How can you use a handle like “TrustNoGovt”, and then advocate trusting the government to restrict people’s rights “sensibly”?

    • You’ve seen gangbangers at gun shows? Really? I’ve been to gun shows in every city in Texas, and I never see anyone I could id as a banger. Or are you just assuming that any black or hispanic interested in buying a gun is only doing so to commit murder? Racist.

    • Ignore the troll. Despite his name, he’s obviously pissed that the Progressives keep losing Federal battles to curb 2A via big Government overreach.

    • gun shows require background checks for sales by business owners selling their goods, the rest all have an obligation to check on a permit to purchase or the concealed weapons license to sell a gun to someone and avoiding that sale landing them in prison. gang bangers tend to go black market or stolen goods.

  22. Barry is the all knowing supreme leader, everything from his mouth is the truth as he knows it. How dare we question the honesty of this savior of the universe. Now silence you peasants or it will be off with you heads! People, you better wake up and see this man for what he is. Time is running out!

  23. Both Australia and New Zealand have had tragic mass shootings by nutbars armed with AK47s. The response has been different in each regime. Australia ordered mass confiscations of rifles, and semi automatics remain unlawful.

    In New Zealand we created a more restrictive category for ARs, AKs etc, but semi autos remain available with reduced capacity magazines, on ordinary licenses. Again there are pistol clubs for those inclined, but criminals seem to have little problem accessing these weapons.

    The bigger size of Australia gives greater scope for criminal empire building. For the average citizen, these issues are out of sight and out of mind. We trust our Police who mostly do an excellent job, and are well paid and well respected.

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