Trading Freedom for Security: Authoritarian Australia Has Become a Warning to America

By
Dan Zimmerman
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58

And here we get at the second, more important reason that Australia has become more authoritarian than the U.S. A famous policy split decades ago highlights this growing distinction.

Australia embraced national gun control in the 1990s and implemented the widespread confiscation of firearms. This happened as many Americans became less favorable to more gun control by the government. 

Australians chose to embrace government protection while sacrificing their liberty, a liberty that countless Americans see as fundamental and sacred.

It shouldn’t be a surprise that, mere decades later, Australians are even more willing to trade freedom for security, to trust the government to take care of everything. The firearms debate wasn’t just about guns, it was about how citizens saw their role in relation to their government.

More Australians, at least more of those in power, embrace a view of collective security in which rights are simply grants of privilege by state authorities. By contrast, the American view is that rights are God-given and inviolable, except through the due process of law.

The same views about government and the rights of the governed apply to both mass gun control and extreme COVID-19 lockdowns. In both, individual and communal power to make decisions is taken out of the hands of citizens and placed in the hands of government authorities and bureaucrats.

Australia is a warning to America. 

— Jarrett Stepman in A Warning From Australia About Power of Government

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58 COMMENTS

  1. Watched the vid, seen people running, seen cops chasing them, then a river, then horses.
    Does Australia have an immigration problem too?

      • No matter how it’s sliced and diced or packaged and repackaged History clearly shows Gun Control in any shape, matter or form is a racist and nazi based agenda. Therefore to support Gun Control in any shape, matter or form you must have some racist and nazi in you.

        • Replace “Nazi” with “authoritarian” and I think you have a winner.

          Gun control existed prior to Nazism and has been implemented by all variety of tyrants.

      • “being whipped by the reining class.”

        Congratulations.
        You win the interwebz “post of the day” award. 👏🏆

        We’ll need to give whiner and derpian a few “participation” trophies so they don’t go upstairs and cry to their mommies. 🧑‍🍼

    • We sure do. Lots of Indians & Muslims here now. Oh, and the lockdown in Sydney was far worse than the one in Melbourne

  2. Australia doesn’t have a Bill of Rights. Your rights there are subject to bureaucratic whims.

    From what I’ve heard Western Australia has taken a drastically different course with COVID than the eastern states. They shut down their border to the rest of the country and pretty much went on with life as normal. I’m a little curious how many Western Australians turned in their guns in the 1990s.

      • Actually Western Australia has the strictest gun control.
        In Western Australia, even bolt-action rifles are banned as “assault weapons” if they have scary-looking features such as a pistol grip.
        Because scary-looking.

        • in such situations s we see now, a oong range bolt action hunting rifle i far more effecive than an AR or AK pattern weaopon. Few have the skill to accuratly place rounds at even four hundred yards/metres with the smallbore AR. Howeve,r with a serous hunting rifle accurate placement to a thousand yards is not unusual, and i’ve known some to get out to fifteen hundred yards with good results. AND there remains sufficient kinteic energy at that range to be effective. Not so much with the puny AR rounds.

        • WA has always had ridiculously strict gun laws. In addition to banning “scary features” you also can’t have too many similar calibers. Have a .270? Can’t have a .308 or .30-06.

    • Victoria set a new national daily COVID case record a few days ago with about 1750 detected cases and is averaging between 1500-1700 cases per day. NSW’s had fallen to about 650 for that day and is now in the 500s as more people are vaccinated. NSW hit the 70% fully vaccinated mark and will reach 80% in a few weeks.

      Victoria is now paying the price for their protests. NSW is now having lockdown conditions eased as with freedom day due for those vaccinated in few weeks and in December for those who are not.

      • UPDATE. Victoria has just broken their own COVID daily case record with 1838 detected cases.

        • And…..? Are you excusing the govt tyranny because a couple thousand people are moderately ill? COVID is a (poor) excuse for govt over-reach.

  3. At what point does a state like that go from “well, I guess this how the majority of their population wants to live” to “a handful of politicians are ramming their totalitarian vision down everyone’s throats”?

    Because up to a certain point, even this point in time right now, perhaps this is exactly how a majority of their population wants it. And aren’t we all told everyday, hour after hour, that mob rule (democracy) is righteous and just?

    • Shire-man,

      I do not recommend ascribing any lofty thinking processes or intentions to the actions of politicians and bureaucrats who are actively seeking to violate our inalieanable rights and human dignity.

      From my vantage point most politicians and bureaucrats are self-absorbed and selfish ogres grabbing as much “gusto” as they can. And like any other piece of human garbage, they will escalate and keep coming back for more and more until someone stops them.

  4. From the article:
    “But politicians are exempted, and bans on Australians traveling in or out of their country are routinely waived for athletes, billionaires, and celebrities.”

    So they are still like us. They just need to add illegal immigrants to that list.

  5. Have you heard about the pilot program in Australia? The governments sends you a message, and you reply with a selfie that has location data. If you don’t reply within something like 5 minutes, you get a knock on the door. What’s wrong with those people? Sometimes I don’t answer the phone or reply to messages from people I know.

    • Wow! Because of covid, interstate and international travel. From an Article August 2021. South Australia, with comments in full article of other states.

      “”We don’t tell them how often or when, on a random basis they have to reply within 15 minutes,” Mr Marshall said.

      If a person cannot successfully verify their location or identity when requested, SA Health will notify SA Police who will conduct an in-person check on the person in quarantine.

      People will still be required to quarantine for 14 days.

      The Premier said people were also able to put in daily observations, which could trigger a visit from SA Health.

      Mr Marshall said the government would not be storing any of the information provided to the app.

      “We just use it to verify that people are where they said they were going to be during the home-based quarantine.”
      https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-23/how-will-south-australias-home-quarantine-trial-work/100398878

      • They had to do that because too many in QUARANTINE would either do something stupid and spread the virus or in some cases run off and try to disappear.

        If I had to spend 2 weeks at home, I would think fantastic as I have a lot to keep me occupied.

        • You are a bootlicking shut-in, and your preference to sit at home, order Doordash, watch Netflix, and jerk off to Pornhub should not be forced on anybody else. Cases don’t mean deaths, especially with survival rates over 99.97% for anybody under the age of 70.

        • Well Adub and Southern Cross, don’t know about others, but when I was quarantined and came down with Covid, I certainly was in no shape to even think about leaving my house. Felt like death warmed over. Your right adub, cases don’t mean death, but sure felt like it to me. But guys, let’s remember that as long as we’re not liberal trolls (cough, dacien and miner) we’re all on the same team here. Whether you’re a Christian or not, these words from Jesus are still pretty wise and pertinent: “ Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand.”

      • Would be a shame if 95% of people refused to comply. Let those Police state toadies run around 24hrs a day chasing shadows.

    • I never have had the habit of keeping my electronic tether upon my person. I leave it in the house, sometimes for hours, when I’m busy out. Or have it in my pocket when on the bike, and I cannpt hear or feel it if it goes off. I’ve ridden for hours running and never realise I’d been sent a call or text.

      Think I’d try humouring them should they nip round tfor a check….. why, don’tyou know I’m a bit hard of hearing and can’t hear the bloody thing when I”m even five meters away….. but asyou se,e here I am, all safe and sound and locked in my house.

      Talk about Nanny’s long apron strings. “lose the stupid phone somewhere out in the yard, and when they come round to check, inform them “Ive not clue where I lost it. MaybeYOU can help me find it? OH thank you SO Much, I so missed that thing…

      Saddest bit about the whole thing is that they are knucking under and going along with the tyranny. Just like us, in the main. Whjichis THE sfrightening bit.

      • Tionico,

        “Saddest bit about the whole thing is that they are knucking under and going along with the tyranny.”

        I understand the sentiment. What do you suggest as an alternate course of action?

        There is a sad and harsh reality at work here: you are pretty much totally screwed if a much larger and much more powerful force targets you, especially if that much larger and stronger force chooses the time, place, and manner of attack upon you.

        A wise and disciplined person recognizes that harsh reality and does two things:
        1) Manages, prioritizes, and lives their life knowing that every day could easily be their last day alive.
        2) Creates the largest possible association of like-minded people who will come to each other’s mutual defense if any single one of them is attacked, regardless of the nature/identify of the entity attacking him/her.

  6. I wonder where Southern Cross is. I’d love to hear from a resident Aussie.

    Tell you what, this, this is what we worry about that liberals always call us conspiracy theorists for. Yet it obviously does happen, as Australia is a prime example. And come on, we all know that the average liberal politician would love what they are doing in Australia implemented in the US. Thank the Lord our founding fathers had the foresight to put in protections to prevent this exact thing from happening in the US. But we have to protect our protections.

    • I’ve made some replies. Late afternoon for you is early morning for me. I’m now on the bus to the train station heading to work.

  8. I wonder if I can make Bikinis out of face diapers? Face diaper fashion for the top, middle and bottom.

  10. A lady being beat up for watering her flowers in her yard by law enforcement for her health. If that’s not a warning to us to tread carefully in the direction we are heading I don’t know what is.
    Australia is exactly why the 1st and 2nd must be protected.

    • Get your words straight Jack. It’s like if you yell fire, that’s not free speech.

  11. To place the blog post’s title in perspective:

    “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”
    Benjamin Franklin

  14. And at least half the people in this country will fail to heed the warning! THAT’S the problem!!

    • True. But what’s heartening (to a point) is that half of the US is, in fact, fighting back against stuff like this. Yes, the irrational left here in the US is still trying to impose – or reimpose – mask mandates, lockdowns, vaccines, passports, and the like. In some places (the kinds of places where the voters get what they vote for, good and hard), yes they’re succeeding. But in many, many others, we the people have had it and are slowly but surely putting a stop to it. Not so in other countries.

    • Tried ti emigrate to DOz a few decades back. Had i done, I’d be trapped there, as they are not allowing anyone to escape from what I hear. Maybe just go Walkabout for a spell, but more likley get “taken in” for some sort of non-compliance. Glad I did NOT succeed.

      • If you’re in a LGA of concern you can walk 5km, 3 miles, from your property.

        Gladys Bin-Chicken has had to resign as state premier because of corruption allegations. New premier wants to get the economy going again.

  16. But , they do have GREAT WHITE SHARKS patrolling their island,
    That’s why they don’t have ILLEGALS trying to INVADE their homeland in inner tubes & paper boats & such. Feed the fish. Also why the Aussies can’t get to their weapons that got lost in the boat accident.

  17. Y’all are missing the point. The police are all too happy, by and large, to enforce such draconian measures in Australia, and they would ABSOLUTELY do the same here if ordered by the political class. Anyone who still thinks the cops *wont* side with government against the people suffers from such a strong detachment from reality as to constitute a clinical diagnosis of psychosis. On this and only this, and for vastly different reasons, I wholeheartedly agree with Burn Loot Murder: FVCK THE POLICE

  19. Unfortunately 25 years ago Australians failed to step up to the plate and do what should have been done and now they are paying the price. Folks don’t ever give up your guns nor be afraid to use them .

  20. Since Australia passed its gun control law assault rifle ban back in the 80’s never again have they had the 50 plus mass murders that we seem to have on an annual basis.

    • Tightening the license requirements had a much greater effect. It was also supposed to deter people from getting firearms licenses but became the new normal so we have more people owning more guns than we had pre Port Arthur.

    • Yeah, so? If you sterilized most of the population then child abuse would plummet too.

      A+B= RETARD in your case.

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