01-07-2021, 03:36 PM
LR1955 Wrote:Klem:
"Hey, look on the bright side, your gun laws can't get any worse than ours."
Boy, that's comforting. Biden has sworn he will ban all semi auto rifles and carbines by executive order within 100 days. I put it at about ten days because the left in the USA views firearms as a symbol of their enemies and leftists are always about symbolism over reality. Executive Order is an order by one man without the approval of Congress. Its one thing giving an executive order to streamline the FDA drug process due to Covid. Another to give one that oppresses the population by violating their constitutional rights.
Our gun laws are based on our Constitution. Very clearly stated in the 2A. Australia doesn't have a Bill of Rights. So don't confuse your gun laws with our rights. Two very different things.
LR55
Mate,
I'm not confusing gun laws with rights, or I think you mean privileges with rights. Yes, Australia has no right to bear arms, only privilege. That is my point, even under Biden your gun ownership rights will never be as restricted as our privilege.
Don't also forget there are only 765,000 registered Australian gun owners in a country of 24 million, compared with an estimated 1 in 4 gun owners in the US. A higher percentage of ownership along with a cultural identity and history forged with firearms (indigenous control, protection and hunting), plus a civil war means in 2021 US firearm owners have a lot of influence, insisting on access to guns to to protect themselves and their families. In Australia our population are largely the offspring of convicts so are culturally used to being subordinated. Unlike the States we have had no civil war which no doubt leaves a population with a healthy suspicion of government. We are also less individualistic by culture, not collectivistic like China but certainly the US would be more individualistic than we are. So, when the Government told us after a nutter committed mass murder with an AR15 in 1996 we can only have certain firearms then for the most part we did as were told, and life went on. I am not saying that is a better way, or better than the US but again, you have a long way to go before you get to this place.
Here's a question, if Biden bans military style semi-autos would it be a situation where if you already have one you can keep it, but no more in the shops (grandfather clause)? Or is he mooting an expensive gun buy-back?