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Zevele, what do you see?

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sekim:
>>>> A lot of people are armed for security raisons.

peleton:
>From what I have read a long time ago. Gun owners in your country had the wool pulled over their eyes with a political shake up. No one seen it coming?

Yeah, the laws changed very recently, and it may have seemed sudden, but there has always been a lot of pressure for the government to make the gun laws stricter.* (people here are very aware of social issues and the government can have a hard time when thimgs become public knowledge -like atm with asylum seekers)
The way it worked was a huge gun buy-back scheme. This wasn't too bad for people who had "old" guns, but I imagine that if someone had just bought a new pump-action then it would have been quite a loss of money.

Again due to pressure, I think there were amendments to the ruling, such that farmers with more than a certain acreage could get an exemption. (or something like that)


>Didn't this little coupe even affect your Olympic shooting sports teams? Is this true?

I didn't hear anthing about this!?!  The guns in question were semi-automatics and anything more powerful than these. (I don't know much about guns.)  I can't imageine anyone getting away with hassling our national sports teams, but what might have happened is the sports shooters in clubs (ie those training in the hope of getting noticed in the sport) may have had a hard time getting aproval to keep their guns.  


*another example of public pressure leading to laws, is the fact that it is now illegal to smoke in any workplace/school/gov buildings/public-transport, etc. Also restuarants have to have (by law) a non-smoking section with sufficient protection from the smoke! As a result I only know a few people that actually smoke!

sekim:
peleton,

Here is a site I found using Google.The Great Australian Gun Law Con

Callithumpian:
The impetus for the increase in Australian Gun Control sprang directly from the outpouring of abhorence that followed the largest mass homicide by a single perpetrator in history at Port Arthur, Tasmania.

The URL you provide, MHead, is to a "homepage".  The homepage of an angst ridden gun supporter by the looks of it. Probably one who is no longer allowed to keep his collection of semi automatic death machines.
From that page...
"I hope it changes things because, let's face it, I want to shoot at the Olympics in 2000 and the way things are going they're not looking too good."
-- Michael Diamond, Australian shooter
--- End quote ---
Michael Diamond subsequently won two gold medals at the Sydney Olympics to become the first person to win Gold in shooting at three succesive Olympics
 
My own politics are not aligned with that of the current Australian government, quite the opposite, but the Gun Buy Back Scheme is one piece of recent legislation with which I am in full agreement.

Having said that....I think that perceived safety and security are more related to the size of the urban environment as well as the density and cohesion of the populace rather than the relative armoury of the citizens.

Perth, I'm guessing, is a population of a bit under 1 million.  It feels safe to its inhabitants and violent crime statistics vindicate thier feeling.
I'm in Brisbane, it's a little bigger at about 1.3million but still feels very safe.
Sydney, on the other hand with nearly 5million, is big enough to be considerably more dangerous, and just walking around there you can feel it.
I'm not surprised to hear that Paris feels very insecure, Zevele, since it comprises some 8|PLS|million people.  More than the entire population of Israel.  In London, by heavens, be afraid Zev, for your own good.
Tel Aviv, on the other hand, should, under this theory, feel more secure, with a mere 350,000 people, including Jaffa, at the 1995 census.

So, lots of guns in a sparse population with a common enemy bonding that population = safefeeling.  The corrollary, of course, would be  lots of guns in a dense population with no common enemy (except maybe gun control advocates) = bloodbath.

My personal belief is that this goes some way to explaining why Americans are several gazillion times more likley to be killed by a compatriot neighbour than by any terrorist.

OK, give it to me.

peleton:
>I think that perceived safety and security are more related to the size, age and density of the urban environment rather than the relative armoury of the citezens.

I totally agree. I was trying to say just this. (I did not mean to start some sort of gun/anti-gun debate. Re-reading my post I guess I rambled too much about why it is how it is. Sorry.)

>Perth, I'm guessing, is population of a bit under 1 million. It feels safe to its inhabitants and violent crime statistics vindicate thier feeling.
>I'm in Brisbane, it's a little bigger at about 1.3million but still feels very safe.

Yeah, Perth is quite small by comparison to Sydney and Melbourne. But it is actually little bigger than 1.4 million and not too far behind Brisbane which has just under 1.7 million.  I guess Perth has to have it's good points while at the same time being the most isolated capital city in the world! -To the extent that a lot of international bands skip us on Australian tours, and even the eastern states of Australia often reference "Australia" on TV or in the papers but actually mean "the eastern half of Australia". -Oh yeah another example of the trade off is buying things. I had to wait quite a while to get my speakers. And I paid more than what I would have if I had been in Melbourne or Sydney. I am not complaining, it would be nice to be less cut off, but it is nothing compared to what friends of mine put up with in remote small towns.

Yep, there I am rambling again.

MH:
I'd rather not comment on the gun thingy too much (for fear of inspiring a gun/anti-gun debate when this was far from the point).
But the general attitude here is that guns have never been a big deal to people.  Sure the media pounced on the issue after the Port Arthur thing, but the new laws (and the gun issue) were soon forgotten about and the government was re-elected.  On the whole Australia is a very conservative place (which can be annoying at times) but people here at famous for adapting and finding ways around things. So even if the laws were not fixed to allow normal people to continue doing their jobs/sport then more than likely they found a way to "by-pass" the law and do it anyway.

A great example is the game of "paint-ball" (also called "skirmish" in the east).  This is illegal here in Western Australia due to some duumb laws. But everyone still plays it. Our church group organised a few games, and even the police themselves play it! You could very likely end up playing against a team made up of police men!

anyway I think I have rambled about as far offtopic in this offtopic thread, so I'll stop now.


peleton

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