daniel (australia)
Member
- Joined
- Dec 25, 2002
- Messages
- 338
I get the impression that "Leagle" is still young enough for suspension from school to be a real possibility 
Yes our firearms laws are strict, stricter in many respects than those of most parts of the US. Handguns in particular are more closely regulated: you have to be a regular participant in competition, a collector or have an occupational need in order to have them, and there's essentially no CCW. For target shooting there are also minimum barrel lengths and restrictions on calibre. That doesn't mean they are banned though (I have two myself, a Glock and a GP100).
In regard to longarms you have to have a licence, and semiautomatic longarms as well as pump-action shotguns are quite tightly regulated and difficult for the average person to own. Other longarms are legal though, and there are no restrictions on numbers. I'm not defending it, but there it is.
BTW by way of salutary lesson: twenty or so years ago we too could go into the local Kmart and buy a rifle or shotgun and a crate of ammo without any restrictions. We could have all your SKS, SKKs (they were popular here, and cheap) and other semiautomatics (FA too, in Tasmania at least). One big massacre changed that, and about half a billion dollars was spent "buying back" legitimately-purchased property from the law-abiding, and countless more millions administering the registration and licencing system we now have.
Mind you the estimates are that only about 20% or so of the banned firerms were handed in, and for a while there plumbers were complaining about the sudden shortage of 6" PVC pipe and end-caps
Having said all that, there is some up side: there's a lot more room to hunt and a lot less restriction on how many etc. In my state you can hunt pigs, goats, rabbits, hares, foxes etc year round, several species of deer almost year round too, and with a bit of travel ducks, buffalo, camel, and several other species. There's a million hectares (2.5M acres) of public land available for hunting in this state alone, as well as private property (I've been invited to my mates' 46,000 acre block next week to thin the pigs a bit for example).
Yes our firearms laws are strict, stricter in many respects than those of most parts of the US. Handguns in particular are more closely regulated: you have to be a regular participant in competition, a collector or have an occupational need in order to have them, and there's essentially no CCW. For target shooting there are also minimum barrel lengths and restrictions on calibre. That doesn't mean they are banned though (I have two myself, a Glock and a GP100).
In regard to longarms you have to have a licence, and semiautomatic longarms as well as pump-action shotguns are quite tightly regulated and difficult for the average person to own. Other longarms are legal though, and there are no restrictions on numbers. I'm not defending it, but there it is.
BTW by way of salutary lesson: twenty or so years ago we too could go into the local Kmart and buy a rifle or shotgun and a crate of ammo without any restrictions. We could have all your SKS, SKKs (they were popular here, and cheap) and other semiautomatics (FA too, in Tasmania at least). One big massacre changed that, and about half a billion dollars was spent "buying back" legitimately-purchased property from the law-abiding, and countless more millions administering the registration and licencing system we now have.
Mind you the estimates are that only about 20% or so of the banned firerms were handed in, and for a while there plumbers were complaining about the sudden shortage of 6" PVC pipe and end-caps
Having said all that, there is some up side: there's a lot more room to hunt and a lot less restriction on how many etc. In my state you can hunt pigs, goats, rabbits, hares, foxes etc year round, several species of deer almost year round too, and with a bit of travel ducks, buffalo, camel, and several other species. There's a million hectares (2.5M acres) of public land available for hunting in this state alone, as well as private property (I've been invited to my mates' 46,000 acre block next week to thin the pigs a bit for example).
