webbs hill studio
Hi Sharke,
2 people died in the Lindt cafe,one from a police bullet ricochet and the general consensus is that no-one would have died if the communications channels had been more effective and the response better co-ordinated.
i remember going rabbiting around 12 years old with a .22 strapped to the handlebars.
now,even though i am a farm owner i need to show good cause to own a rifle,have an absolutely spotless police record and be subject to random checks for gunsafes and ammunition storage.only police and some security are armed in public and it is an offence for anyone to carry a concealed firearm.the legislation following the Port Arthur massacre virtually banned all military style weapons and this is to me the crux-hunting deer with a M1 is hardly hunting...
everyone has an inalienable right to defend themselves but when society condones ready access to deadly force you have to consider the tradeoff between self defence and an effective police force to protect you rather than the onus on self defence.
unfortunately,the gun culture is intrinsic to the US and no amount of legislation will ever force people to surrender their right to bear arms-especially in an increasingly violent world.
we were lucky in that we were able to tap into the horror of Port Arthur and change our culture,particularly regarding military style weapons and ammunition but unfortunately the massacres keep coming for you so the public grow more fearful and more likely to arm themselves-a vicious circle.
not being smug here-just thankful we have reduced the likelihood of these tragedies.
peace,brothers!!
Seriously though, how many massacres had there been in Australia before Port Arthur. I would argue that even without the resulting gun control, the chances are good that you wouldn't have had many more up until now anyway. Port Arthur was a statistical anomaly. If someone wants to go out with a bang in Australia right now, they can simply rent a large truck and drive into a crowd. Nice, France, 2016: 87 people dead in just a few minutes. In fact it's probably easier to rent a truck than it is to stockpile an arsenal of hardcore weaponry.
The Lindt cafe incident could have easily turned into a full scale massacre had the guy had the will to do it.
Europe seems to be under a steady stream of attacks and mass killings now - despite all of the gun control and despite a lack of "gun culture."
The talk of gun control after a massacre like the one in Vegas is something that's largely driven by the media to divert attention from the elephant in the room -
which is that the media's sensationalist coverage of these psychopaths is what drives them to kill in the first place. After every mass killing, the media goes into overdrive publishing story after story about the killer, his motives, his beefs with the world and his manifesto. No stone is left unturned. We're treated to interviews with his relatives, his friends, his ex-lovers, his school friends, his neighbors, his co-workers. All of his grievances are aired and he's given notoriety.
This is what drives these mass killings. Every one of them is a copycat killing. Studies have shown this. The Pulse Nightclub shooter stopped halfway through his spree to search Facebook for reports about the massacre. The Virginia Tech shooter stopped halfway through his spree to mail a videotape to NBC explaining his motives. The killings happen in clusters, making it almost certain that they inspire each other. And the reason why the media gives them the publicity they crave is because it generates page clicks and millions of dollars in ad revenue.
The media loves mass killings - they're a form of dark entertainment which sell newspapers. They also love natural disasters, plane crashes, serial killings and everything else that fascinates and titillates a public who won't admit that they enjoy reading about stuff like this.
It's just inconceivable that almost 100% of the hand wringing after massacres like this is about gun control, even as the media gears itself up for another couple of weeks of revenue generating headlines about the killer, thus setting the stage for the next killing. How can anyone claim to want an end to these killings, when they're not prepared to delve into the root cause of them? People aren't committing these atrocities as a response to the availability of guns, just as the Nice attacker didn't mow down 87 people as a response to the availability of hire trucks. Every mass killer in the US since the Columbine shooters has been turned into an anti-hero by an overexcited media, and this has created a culture of copycat killings. It's time to admit this.