Australia's Gun Problem

[TurkeysGhost]

Calling eight guns an 'armory' is rather quaint by American standards.

American gun culture is really, really weird about conspicuous consumption. It's pretty nutso for anyone but an extremely avid hobbyist shooter to amass such large collections of firearms.

 

[Andy_Ross]

American gun culture is really, really weird about conspicuous consumption. It's pretty nutso for anyone but an extremely avid hobbyist shooter to amass such large collections of firearms.

I had a Feinwerkbau .22 competition rifle, a Ruger .22semi auto for small game.
Two Lee Enfield number 4s, a standard .303 and a Parker- Hale 7.62 competition conversion. Both for vintage service rifle competitions.
For a while I had a Mauser 98K also for vintage service shooting.
A Baretta shotgun for trap and small game (rubbish at trap shooting, could never hit them).
I had Browning 9mm Hi-Power for competition shooting and a Webley .38 MK4, again for vintage service competition.

The Parker-Hale Lee Enfield was the same rifle used by the British Army as the L42A1 sniper rifle until the late 90s. Technically it wasn't a 'vintage service rifle' but as it was converted from an original.303, it was allowed by the rules.

 

[TurkeysGhost]

I had a Feinwerkbau .22 competition rifle, a Ruger .22semi auto for small game.
Two Lee Enfield number 4s, a standard .303 and a Parker- Hale 7.62 competition conversion. Both for vintage service rifle competitions.
For a while I had a Mauser 98K also for vintage service shooting.
A Baretta shotgun for trap and small game (rubbish at trap shooting, could never hit them).
I had Browning 9mm Hi-Power for competition shooting and a Webley .38 MK4, again for vintage service competition.

The Parker-Hale Lee Enfield was the same rifle used by the British Army as the L42A1 sniper rifle until the late 90s. Technically it wasn't a 'vintage service rifle' but as it was converted from an original.303, it was allowed by the rules.

It's really common in the US for people to own multiple guns that they almost never shoot. Like thousands of dollars of guns and they maybe go the range once or twice a year.

The organized competition scene is much smaller than you might expect considering how common gun ownership is in the US. Huge numbers of gun owners seem to have zero hobby interest in shooting and just like buying a bunch of guns for nebulous reasons.

 

[Thermal]

American gun culture is really, really weird about conspicuous consumption. It's pretty nutso for anyone but an extremely avid hobbyist shooter to amass such large collections of firearms.

I had 6 at one time when I was younger, and I was hardly nutso or even avid. Couple 12 ga, a pump for hunting and well-used O/U, a Ruger 10-22 like half the country has for plinking, a Marlin 30-30 lever action because it was used (cheap) and thought I might hunt in PA for a while, and a pair of percussion revolvers, .38 and .44 cal, again cheap and fun. About $600 +/- for all, bought over the course of a few years. Two more and I would have been a psycho?

 

[Andy_Ross]

My pistols went after Dunblane along with everyone else's.
The shotgun, Kar and .22s because I wasn't using them and finally the Lees the same. I was just hanging on to them for sentimental reasons.

 

[arthwollipot]

I think the thesis has been adequately demonstrated.

 

[lionking]

We are not surprised that every source you cite supports your agenda.

As does virtually the whole country, and with this thread having the title it does, it’s an agenda worthy of comment.

 

[arthwollipot]

Curtin University students offered counselling after man dies after bringing gun on campus

Students and staff at Western Australia's biggest university are in shock after a student brought a gun to campus and took his own life.

WARNING: This story discusses an incident of self-harm.

The ABC understands the 27-year-old Curtin University student died on Wednesday evening in a room in the engineering faculty of the main campus, which is in the southern Perth suburb of Bentley.

He was in possession of a large handgun at the time, but WA Police would not confirm if he was a licensed gun holder.

A spokesperson for WA Police confirmed the man had died at the campus, and said he had been found "with a self-inflicted fatal injury".

They said the death was not suspicious and a coronial report was being prepared.

It comes a day after the WA government unveiled plans to become the first jurisdiction in the country to limit the number of guns someone can own under proposed firearm law reforms.

"Public safety is paramount, and that has been the key consideration when drafting the proposed legislation," Police Minister Paul Papalia said on Monday.

"If there are fewer firearms in the community, there are fewer opportunities for them to be used illegally."

Read that last bit again: if there are fewer firearms in the community, there are fewer opportunities for them to be used illegally. This is something I've been saying for years.