Christine Milne’s attack on gun ownership is yet another emotive attack on citizens’ rights

An opinion piece from Andrew Phillips

One could never accuse the Australian Greens of lacking a sense of seizing an opportunity. In this weekend’s Sunday Mercury, Greens’ leader Senator Christine Milne used the anniversary of the Port Arthur shootings in Tasmania to declare our nation’s firearms laws are still too relaxed, and submitted an emotive article designed to inflame ill will towards Australia’s gun owners.

In an article filled with misleading comments, incomplete facts and pointless anecdotes about her early life on a farm, Milne proceeds to push the line that the firearms laws introduced since the Port Arthur shootings are insufficient, and would have the reader believe Australian streets are awash with weapons.

To illustrate this point, Milne declares “yet the law still says that a licensed gun owner may legally buy a military style semi automatic pistol and unlimited ammunition — why?”. It would appear Milne is either completely ignorant of how our nation’s licensing system works, or is willfully trying to instill a left wing fantasy in the minds of readers of shady, right wing militia members stockpiling ammunition for a day of reckoning! Never let the facts get in the way of a good campaign of propaganda.

The fact is, very few of us who possess a firearms license have permission to purchase such firearms. In fact, there is a long process in acquiring a firearms license, and even once granted, there is a further considerable period before you can actually purchase and gain possession of a firearm. To gain the appropriate license for a pistol is difficult to say the least, yet Milne would have ill-informed readers believing those of us with a license can just walk into a firearm dealer’s place of business like Michael Douglas in a scene from “Falling Down”, load up a gym bag with semi automatic weapons and 5 years worth of ammunition and walk out onto the street to raise complete havoc.

Australia already has some of the most stringent gun laws in the developed world, but such legislative control over the lives of citizens still does not appear to placate the left wing Greens.

As an elected representative, Ms. Milne has the right to raise perceived issues of concern. However, with that right also comes the responsibility to the Australian people of sticking to the facts.

Comments

  1. Rob Herron says

    I am pleased to notice every time I see Christine Milne the toll her life of hatred for all those who don’t embrace her agenda has taken on her . I remember when she first entered politics about 25 years ago she was quite vivacious attractive woman but she certainly has not aged well.
    Tom T Hall told us “The story of your life is in your face ” and it is never truer than in relation to the ghastly Ms Milne.

  2. “A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury. After that, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits with the result the democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy ensuing, always to be followed by a dictatorship, then a monarchy.”

    Whilst “Educated” people have a fondness for stage theories of social development and the above quotation cannot in fact be attributed. It none the less rings true. I would imagine that the disarming of the general population would be one of the first signs of the decline.

  3. Bruce Benney says

    I know, what a joke, up until 96 a good part of the law abiding population had firearms, legally, and grew up responsible. Now that the Govt has basically disarmed the decent shooters, now its only the Criminal Element who are more heavily armed than ever. This is just wrong. I lived in the USA for 6 years and even had my Concealed Carry permit, idea is that the crims wouldn’t know which person was walking around legally armed. Gun crimes fell dramatically. Why can’t we?

  4. The g Factor says

    Chicago has some of the strictest gun controls in the USA but also some of the worst homicide figures – over 500 killings last year alone and in one three year period 270 school age children were killed by guns. Most of the killings are by minorities – blacks and Hispanics. The USA does not so much have a gun problem as a race problem and Australia is going the same way – homicide in the Northern Territory for instance was around 8 per 100,000 last year.

  5. Brad Pope says

    Such comments are to be expected by the self-righteous, sanctimonious leaders of the greens such as Christine Milne and Sarah Hanson Young. Do-Gooders who do no good!

    Tiple J had an interesting talk back show on guns in Australia since the Port Arthur Shootings. Since the gun buy-back scheme of 1996, apparently gun levels have once again risen to the levels they were back in 1996, however the increase has not been by law abiding citizens but by criminal elements in our society who own them.

    Misguided as Christine Milne is, the government can make as much legislative control as it likes but it still won’t stop gun violence unless harsher penalty’s are dealt out in our weak toothless courts.

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