Anti-gun
campaigners have
reacted
furiously to a
proposal by the
UK Government to
ease
restrictions for
about 50 of
Britain's top
pistol shooters
to hold and use
their weapons on
British soil for
the first time
in a decade,
warning that
they represented
the "thin end of
the wedge", and
that the sport
would use it to
prise out
permanent
exemptions from
the handgun ban.
Comment:
Anti-gunners
reacted
furiously? Well,
since their
needle is stuck
on empty....
Melbourne man arrested over online
threat
A 20-year-old
man has been
arrested in
Melbourne, after
threats were
made online to a
Los Angeles
shopping centre.
Los Angeles
Police say a
message was
posted on the
internet, saying
there would be a
shooting attack
at the Grove
complex on
December 6.
Police tracked
the post to a
computer in
Melbourne.
Jamaica: Army called on to stem
soaring murder rate
Jamaica, with
some of the world's most stringent
firearms laws, has said that
soldiers will join police on patrols
on the Caribbean island in a new
strategy to fight rising violence.
Nearly 60 homicides over the last
week have pushed the number of
victims this year beyond 1,430,
police spokesman Karl Angell said.
Comment: Jamaica
has a population of 2,780,132
according to CNN, giving it a
homicide rate of 51.44/100,000
compared to the US rate of around
5.5/100,000 and Australia's
1.9/100.000, but you won't read that
on gunpolicy.org.
US:
Media coverage of mall shooting is
biased says Lott
A Google news
search using the phrase "Omaha Mall
Shooting" finds an incredible 2,794
news stories worldwide for the last
day. From India and Taiwan to
Britain and Austria, there are
probably few people in the world who
haven’t heard about this tragedy.
But despite the massive news
coverage, none of the media
coverage, at least by 10 a.m.
Thursday, mentioned this central
fact: Yet another attack occurred in
a gun-free zone. Surely, with all
the reporters who appear at these
crime scenes and seemingly interview
virtually everyone there, why didn’t
one simply mention the signs that
ban guns from the premises?
NSW: Record
fine for untagged kangaroos
A man caught
with untagged kangaroo carcasses in
Bathurst has received a record $3000
fine in Parkes Local Court for
failing to comply with the
conditions of his kangaroo trappers
licence. Daniel Tanks failed to
appear in court for the matter and
the court convicted him in his
absence on the basis of the court
attendance notice. The charges were
laid after Bathurst police stopped a
man on August 22, 2006, who had a
large number of kangaroo carcases in
the back of his vehicle.
UK: Armed gang
patrolling
Manchester streets
A
gang of up to 25 masked men,
carrying guns and dressed all in
black, were seen patrolling the
streets of a Manchester suburb,
police said. Armed officers were
deployed to Moss Side on shortly
before 1600 GMT on Tuesday afternoon
after reports of shots being fired
by the men. The gang was reported by
five witnesses in Moss Side and
Whalley Range. A police spokesman
said officers searched the area but
no further sightings of the gang
were made.
US: Landlord's tells of phone call
from shooter
Police in the
United States are investigating why
a 19-year-old man shot dead eight
people in a busy shopping mall. The
gunman's landlord, Debora Maruca
Kovac, says Hawkins was clearly
upset when he called her just before
the shooting happened. "He just said
that he wanted to thank me for
everything I'd done for him and this
and that and how he was sorry," she
said. "So I was like, 'What's going
on, Robby, did you get fired?' and
he said he'd just gotten fired.
The French and their gun laws
Last year the
president (of France) Nikolas
Sarkozy, told French radio:
"Security is the responsibility of
the state. I am against the private
ownership of firearms. If you are
assaulted by an armed burglar, he
will use his weapon more effectively
than you anyway, so you are risking
your life."
Comment: Why
is it that some politicians believe
criminals are smarter than
non-criminals?
UK: Hunting ban left 'in tatters,
unenforceable'
The ban on (fox)
hunting has been left in tatters
after a judge suggested it was
virtually impossible to bring a
conviction against those accused of
breaking the law. Legislation
introduced in 2005 to outlaw hunting
with dogs is too difficult "to
interpret or apply" said Judge
Graham Cottle, as he upheld an
appeal from the first huntsman to be
convicted of breaching the Act. The
pro-hunt lobby claims that the
verdict has set a significant
precedent that proves that the law
is unenforceable.
US: Bans lead to an increase in
violent crime
The problem
with Washington, D.C.'s handgun ban
-- as anyone who can look up the
crime numbers will see -- is that
D.C.'s murder and violent crime
rates went up, not down, after the
ban. Prior to the ban DC's murder
rate was falling. After the ban,
DC's murder rate rose, and only once
fell below what it was in 1976, says
John Lott, Senior Research Scientist
at the University of Maryland.
w49
NSW: Wollongong Council rejects gun
shop development
TWO months after
residents attacked Ku-ring-gai
Council over a decision to allow a
gun shop near a Roseville Chase
child-care centre, Wollongong City
Council has rejected a similar
proposal. At a packed meeting last
night, the council refused a staff
recommendation for Shane Simpson to
open a gun and archery supplies shop
on the Princes Highway at Fairy
Meadow.
UK: Thieves steal the lock
The other week,
in Wednesbury in the English
Midlands, an unusual crime occurred.
A thief passed down a residential
street and methodically stole every
single front door handle and house
number. The victims discovered the
burglary when they tried to leave
their homes and found the door no
longer opened. An Englishman’s home
may be his castle but if you can’t
let down the drawbridge it’s
indistinguishable from a dungeon.
UK: Major crackdown on guns
'culture'
More than 100 arrests were made and
more than 1,300 weapons seized in a
major offensive against gun culture,
the home secretary has announced.
Co-ordinated raids in Liverpool,
Manchester, Birmingham and London
led to 118 arrests and the seizure
of the weapons - most of them
replicas. More than 1,000 officers
were involved in the crackdown,
which included work in schools and
support for families.
Comment: They might
be better off concentrating on gun
crime.
Cessnock bomber holds town to ransom
The bomb squad
has cordoned off the main street of
Cessnock amid fears a crazed bomber
plans a campaign of terror in the
NSW town. The alarm was raised
after a man phoned a real estate
agency to warn staff he had planted
a bomb in the office similar to the
one that blew out a large window in
a pub poker machine room on Monday.
It is understood police have just
found a bomb in the ceiling of
Bairds Real Estate in the main
street of Cessnock.
Girls with guns
I grew up
in New Jersey, and was taught to
hate handguns. Really. Shotguns and
rifles were okay if you hunted (not
that I ever had the desire to hunt),
but handguns? Evil. Death machines.
But I’m a woman alone, and my
neighborhood has gone downhill
considerably in the last two years.
I’ve been thinking a lot about
learning to shoot and buying a gun.
Which is why I spent Sunday
afternoon at the Blue Ridge Arsenal
in northern Virginia learning to
load, shoot, and unload four
different kinds of handguns. Plus a
rifle. Submitted by ChrisPer
Police Uzi sold to mob
A 9mm Uzi
sub-machine gun was part of an
arsenal of illegal firearms sold by
Adelaide porn dealer, William Nash,
to murdered mobster Mario Condello
at the height of Melbourne's
gangland war in 2003. The
Israeli-made weapon was used by
Victoria Police until the late
1990s, when it was decommissioned
and sold at a public auction.
UN: Arms embargoes 'ineffective'
The first study of arms embargoes
imposed by the UN Security Council
has found they worked in only 25% of
cases. Often arms embargoes
completely failed to stop the flow
of weapons into a country, with the
report citing several West African
conflicts. However, the report found
that embargoes were more effective
if UN peacekeepers were in place.
Japanese tighten gun laws
Japan already
has strict gun control laws, and
firearms crime is mostly perpetrated
by "yakuza" gangsters, but this
hasn't deterred Japanese lawmakers
from further tightening gun
legislation. The fatal shooting of
the mayor of Nagasaki in southern
Japan in April by a suspected
gangster and an armed stand-off in
which a policeman was killed in May
had spurred calls for even tighter
supervision.
Submitted by DG
US: Gun bans lead to increase in
violent crime
The District of Columbia's
request for cert made a simple argument: Whatever
one thinks of the Second Amendment, banning handguns
is a "reasonable regulation" to protect public
safety. Indeed, most of the city's brief focused on
public safety arguments. The problem for the city is
that anyone who can look up the crime numbers will
see that D.C's. murder and violent crime rates went
up, not down, after the ban.
NSW: Army captain allegedly stole
weapons
Dean Steven
Taylor, an army colleague and
relative of former weapons
destruction specialist Shane Della-Vedova,
is facing a committal hearing in
Sydney's Central Local Court today.
He is charged with receiving and
possessing two rockets, two rocket
launchers and five hand grenades
stolen from the Commonwealth in
2002.
VIC: Duck season in doubt due to
drought
Duck hunting in
Victoria could be banned for another
year, with an influential report
likely to show that there are fewer
active wetlands across the eastern
states than there were last year.
But Field and Game Australia's Rod
Drew disputed the report, saying
floods in Gippsland and increased
breeding meant duck hunting should
go ahead.
Peter
Costello has announced his
intention to refuse the Liberal
Party leadership following the
Howard Government's election
defeat. Mr Costello made the
announcement to journalists in
Melbourne this afternoon. "I've
given every waking hour to
government and to the people of
Australia over ... 11-and-a-half
years and for me it's been a
great privilege to serve with
some wonderful people. I will
not accept the leadership or the
deputy leadership of the party.
Hunters: Stewards of the land
Every
year, 15 million licensed hunters
head into America’s forests and
fields in search of wild game. In
New York State alone, roughly half a
million hunters harvest around
190,000 deer in the fall deer
hunting season — that’s close to
eight million pounds of venison. In
the traditional vernacular, we’d
call that “game meat.” But, in
keeping with the times, it might be
better relabeled as
free-range, grass-fed, organic,
locally produced, locally harvested,
sustainable, native, low-stress,
low-impact, humanely slaughtered
meat.
Push for gun control stems from urge
to avoid responsibility
"If someone has a gun and is
trying to kill you, it would be
reasonable to shoot back with your
own gun.” — the Dalai Lama, May 15,
2001.
Thank God Jean Assam, directly or
indirectly, took this advice when
she stopped the malevolent attack at
the New Life Church in Colorado
Springs. The former police officer
and volunteer security guard who
made the suggestion to beef up
security at the church without
question saved the lives of perhaps
dozens of people.
We lost Howard battlers, Libs told
In
the end it was the people who put
John Howard into government in 1996
- the former Labor-voting Howard
battlers - who tossed the Liberals
out. Post-election Liberal
Party research has found three main
reason for the defeat: Work Choices,
the rising cost of living and most
importantly, the feeling of some
voters that the Howard government
cared more about itself than them.
Comment: And
not forgetting all the others,
including shooters, that the
Liberals alienated.
A Dirty Harriet saves the day in
Colorado
Every time there
are multiple shootings, like the one
at the New Life Church in Colorado
Springs, we are lectured about the
easy access to firearms in the U.S.
and the dangers it creates. But many
are thankful today that Jeanne
Assam, a volunteer security guard at
New Life, had easy access to a gun
when Matthew Murray entered the east
entrance of the church and began
firing his rifle. Murray was
carrying two handguns, an assault
rifle and more than 1,000 rounds of
ammunition. Submitted
by DG
Brumbies must go from Kosciuszko says
green group
The Colong
Foundation for Wilderness says
trhere (sic) shgould (sic) be no
backdown from tjhe (sic) pilicy
(sic) of remoiving (sic) brumbies
from Brumbies (sic) Kosciuszko
National Park.
Hate campaign: PETA goes after the
Olsen twins
Animal rights activists PETA are
going after Mary-Kate and Ashley
Olsen because they refuse to stop
wearing fur. The
organisation has launched an entire
website, Meet the Trollsen twins
- "Hairy-Kate" and "Trashley" which
mocks the twins. They also made a
video parody of a Full House episode
which is re-edited with graphic
shots of animal cruelty and have a
special 'Fatal Fashion' interactive
dress-up section, complete with
pools of blood.
RELATED:
PETA
hypocrisy
More PETA hypocrisy
WA:
Stun gun importer shocked by $10,000
fine
A 23-year-old
West Australian man has been fined
$10 000 for importing a hand held
electric shock device, following a
Customs investigation. The
investigation began in May this year
when Customs officers at the
Melbourne International Mail Centre
intercepted a parcel addressed to
the man from the United States. The
parcel was found to contain one
Cheetah Stun rechargeable hand held
electric shock device. When
fully-charged, the device has a
charge of 850 000 volts.
SA: The Advertiser calls for more
gun laws
Little more than a decade ago then
Prime Minister John Howard
implemented a tough national
crackdown on firearms ownership in
Australia. The move
followed the murder of 35 people by
gunman Martin Bryant in Port Arthur
in Tasmania in 1996. Perhaps it is
time for the Rudd Federal Government
to consider similar gun-law reforms.
Two mass shootings in the United
States in the past week underline
the dangers of guns being easily
accessible in Australia. There must,
of course, be exceptions -
responsible gun clubs, licensed
collectors and the need for firearms
in rural Australia.
US: The hypocrisy of Sylvester
Stallone
With the
upcoming release of Rambo, it is
important to remember the Hypocrisy
of Sylvester Stallone. Judge Dredd,
who is a big supporter of the Brady
Campaign, has stated that: "I know
we use guns in films," but insisted
the time has come "to be a little
more accountable and realize that
this is an escalating problem that’s
eventually going to lead to, I
think, urban warfare."
Don't be so quick to condemn us
From a hunting
point of view, cities are just
places where game has been removed.
Accordingly, not much hunting goes
on there. In the country, where the
game lives and the humans have not
lost contact with nature, there is
little opposition. This simple lack
of experience -- or rather, this
ignorance -- is not guaranteed to
make urbanites anti-hunting, but it
does make them vulnerable to
corruption by the antiseptic
violence of TV and video games and
lets them think that the food chain
begins and ends in malls. Such
deprivations make people susceptible
to all manner of anti-hunting
messages.
Michael Clarke's outback adventure
Fresh-faced Australian 20/20 skipper
Michael "Pup" Clarke pinpoints a
pig-hunting and fishing trip to the
Queensland bush with great mate
Andrew Symonds as the moment he
turned from a boy to a man.
Submitted by PC (Qld)
Comment: Eat yer heart out, John
Howard!
US: Two
killed at missionary centre; four
later shot at church
A gunman killed
two staff members at a missionary
training center early Sunday after
being told he couldn't spend the
night, and about 12 hours later four
people were shot outside a megachurch in Colorado Springs. It
was not immediately known whether
the shootings were related, but
Arvada authorities said they were
sharing information with Colorado
Springs investigators.
Howard declined
to say whether the Colorado Springs
suspect had been shot. Police sealed
off the church, but it was not clear
whether any parishioners were still
inside.
RELATED:
Armed self-defence
saves lives
NSW: Residents oppose shooting range
in Sthn. Highlands
The sister-in-law of serial killer
Ivan Milat is supporting a
controversial proposal for a giant
shooting complex in the Southern
Highlands, despite the objections of
hundreds of residents.
Opponents say the proposed Southern
Highlands Regional Shooting Complex,
on 1000ha of government land near
the town of Hill Top, will turn the
area into a "war zone", creating
major noise, environmental and
traffic problems. The complex is on
the drawing board as the Federal
Government proposes to close the
southern hemisphere's largest rifle
range at Malabar Headland in
Sydney's east.
Gun buybacks good for activists but
not much use otherwise
"We've had an
awful lot of violence this year, and
last year, with guns," said Newport
News Police Chief James Fox. "So I'm
willing to try this ... It will take
guns out of our community that
possibly could get into the wrong
hands." But according to Randy
Gainey of Old Dominion University
there is no evidence that buybacks
reduce the homicide rate. "There may
be a symbolic value to hold a gun
buyback event where anti-gun and
anti-violence people can get
together," he said.
US: No call for tighter gun laws
Once again there
has been a mass shooting in the
United States, this time in a
Nebraska shopping mall. Once again
there is no national outcry for gun
control. A 19-year-old man shot and
killed eight people and then himself
in Omaha, Neb., Wednesday with a
semi-automatic AK-47 that police say
he stole from his stepfather.
Leading presidential candidates for
the November 2008 U.S. election
issued statements expressing sorrow
and support for the victims. None
called for tighter gun laws, which
are traditionally left to state and
local authorities.
NSW: Police plea on cannon shot down
The NSW State
Government was so determined to make
a law-and-order splash after the
Cronulla riots that it spent
$700,000 on a water cannon despite
police making it clear they wanted a
more thorough review of its
effectiveness. The Premier, Morris
Iemma, was eager to announce the
plan in the aftermath of the riots
and ignored advice to carry out
trials and conduct "broad research".
Police had warned the cannon might
not be effective without a second
cannon, and suggested that the
Government consider modifying an
airport fire truck from AirServices
Australia.
Remington to acquire Marlin Firearms
Tommy
Millner CEO of Remington Arms Co
has announced that Remington is
to take over Marlin Firearms
Co., sayingd, "I am pleased to
announce that Marlin's well
known brands with a long
heritage of providing quality
rifles and shotguns to hunters
and shooters around the world
will join the Remington family.
The opportunity to combine two
historic U.S. based companies
with such storied and proud
histories, is both challenging
and exhilarating. We look
forward to working with Bob Behn,
a well respected member of our
industry. He will remain as
president of Marlin, charting a
course of further growth and
operational improvement."
