Date: Fri, 7 Jul 2000 01:14:29 
From: sjames <sjames@BIGPOND.NET.AU>
Subject: Re: Another Word on Gun Control

Dear Alan,

I am a serving member of the Victoria Police in Australia. I am also a licensed hunter of game species in Australia. In 1996 there was a tragic and senseless killing of 35 people by a maniac with some semi automatic weapons in Tasmania. This senseless tragedy brought about a knee jerk reaction from a Prime Minister who is about as sympathetic to the needs and wants of middle class Australia as Slick Willy Clinton is to the feelings of his interns.

All of these licensed, registered, legally owned weapons were confiscated and destroyed in a buy back scheme that not only did not fully compensate the owners, but cost the Australian taxpayer close to a billion dollars.

This money was collected in a special addition to the health care levy that every tax payer must pay as part of their income tax. In other words, the licensed gun owners were compensated with the extra tax they had to pay to finance the gun buy back scheme. This sounds to me like something that Josef Stalin, or Adolf Hitler would have done in confiscating property from certain minorities during their time. While it is true that there have been no tragedies of the scale of the Port Arthur massacre in Tasmania in 1996 since this gun reform has taken place, this is no guarantee that it will not happen again, because the only guns that were actually handed in were the registered legally owned guns of the same middle class Australians that our benevolent Priminister has for so long ignored.

Crime statistics involving firearms have not changed since the introduction of these draconian laws, nor has the murder rate, because traditionally Australia has never had a high rate of crime involving firearms, even during the days of less stringent firearms legislation. The only reason that these laws were able to be passed was the lack of a strong gun lobby like the N.R.A., the knee jerk reaction to what was a random and senseless killing by a homicidal maniac, and the fact that the balance of power in Australian Parliament is held by a leftist leaning minority party that attracts approximately 8% of the people's vote. This in effect means that Australians have in large been disarmed by a socialist minority and an elitist Government for the ostensible reason of cutting down firearm related crime. This has not occurred, and due to the lack of a strong opposition in the form of a gun lobby there has been no outcry by the ordinary people.

One wonders if there are hidden agendas behind the disarming of the country.

Only time will tell. I look forward to any comments from other Police Officers not only in Australia, but worldwide.

Please send my letter to as many people who are interested in an Australian Police Officer's view of gun control. Maybe someone over here will listen too.

Shane JAMES 
Senior Constable.