Bruce in West Oz
Member
Now that this poisonous … woman … has returned to the USA, could someone please tell her we don't give a rat's what she has to say any more! 
Watch her – she is evil.
Helps to know what the enemy looks like
Watch her – she is evil.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/04/27/1082831569513.htmlThe world is benefitting from the other time we saw the flak jacket
April 28, 2004
The PM's dress sense gives Rebecca Peters cause to reflect on two sets of action on the anniversary of a tragedy.
The Prime Minister has been wearing his flak jacket again, but at least this time he was visiting a war zone. The last time we saw John Howard in bulletproof gear was 1996 and he was addressing a public meeting in rural Victoria. What made that meeting as dangerous as occupied Iraq? The topic: gun control.
Today is the eighth anniversary of the largest massacre ever perpetrated by a single gunman anywhere in the world when, at Port Arthur in Tasmania, 35 people lost their lives, dozens were injured and thousands were traumatised. The nation, consumed with grief, demanded that the laws which had allowed the tragedy be changed. The PM rose to the occasion, leading state and territory governments to a historic agreement to restrict gun ownership and ban civilans having battlefield weapons.
On one hand the new provisions were just common sense: registration of all guns, safe storage, a ban on rapid-fire weapons, etc. On the other, the project was radical.
Australia became the first country to design its laws around the reality of gun violence as it actually occurred, and not as it appeared in the movies or in the paranoid imagination. The laws recognised that many of us hunt, but rarely with semi-automatics. They recognised how pointless punishment is compared with prevention.
Most importantly they recognised that guns and people cross borders easily, so a weak gun law in one state could nullify strong laws in several adjacent jurisdictions. The assault weapons used at Port Arthur had been banned in most of Australia, but were legally on sale in Tasmania and Queensland.
In 1996 our political leaders came under intense fire for upholding the principle that people had the right to be protected from guns bought interstate as well as locally.
The Australian Government also took this idea to the United Nations. At the UN Crime Commission in Vienna, Australia pushed for the principles of consistent and rational gun regulation to be applied internationally. Now several UN agencies are working with governments - especially in developing countries - to promote this notion.
Last week 11 African countries signed an agreement to reform their gun laws into a consistent scheme which includes many elements of Australia's laws. The Mercosur region of South America (Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, Bolivia) has committed itself to "convergence" of its gun laws. In Central America and West Africa, clusters of countries are setting aside concerns about national sovereignty uniquely for the purposes of stopping the flood of guns.
Three years ago all UN member states signed a voluntary international agreement covering a list of measures to reduce the proliferation of guns and promote uniformity. In 2006 that agreement will be up for renegotiation, providing the opportunity to convert it into a convention.
While Australia holds the record for the largest shooting massacre, its actions in response to that tragedy have helped to protect the rest of the world from ever seeing that record broken.
Rebecca Peters is the director of IANSA, the International Action Network on Small Arms. She led the National Coalition for Gun Control in 1992-1997.
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