OT...Australia Gun Statistics.

My understanding is that this is accurate and timely. Njoy.

Ed Chenel, a police officer in Australia sent the following message for dissemination. Hi Yanks, I thought you all would like to see the real figures from Down Under. It has now been 12 months since gun owners in Australia were forced by a new law to surrender 640,381 personal firearms to be destroyed by our own government, a program costing Australia taxpayers more than $500 million dollars. The first year results are now in: Australia-wide, homicides are up 3.2 percent, Australia-wide, assaults are up 8.6 percent; Australia-wide, armed robberies are up 44 percent (yes, 44 percent!) In the state of Victoria alone, homicides with firearms are now up 300 percent. (Note that while the law-abiding citizens turned them in, the criminals did not and criminals still possess their guns!)

While figures over the previous 25 years showed a steady decrease in armed robbery with firearms, this has changed drastically upward in the past 12 months, since the criminals now are guaranteed that their prey is unarmed.

There has also been a dramatic increase in break-ins and assaults of the elderly. Australian politicians are at a loss to explain how public safety has decreased, after such monumental effort and expense was expended in "successfully ridding Australian society of guns." You won't see this data on the American evening news or hear your governor or members of the state Assembly disseminating this information. The Australian experience proves it. Guns in the hands of honest citizens save lives and property and, yes, gun-control laws affect only the law-abiding citizens. Take note Americans, before it's to late!

I reported this to a seargent the next day. It seems this policeman did not understand that I COULD have been carrying legaly and there is nothing wrong with that.

Welcome to the POLICE STATE.....where we are "protected" from ourselves....and personal responsibility is not even considered by some!

bd

The "gig" was probably at night and from a distance a person looking within a vehicle as you were would look suspicious. ( is it his car? what is he doing? and, why?). When you locked the car I'm guessing you pushed the button down to lock it instead of using a key. (officer is still not sure of ownership in a sense).

He then observes your carry permit, you state "no" to carrying a firearm and obviously agree to a "pat down". That's fine, you weren't carrying one. But, what if the answer was "no" and there was a weapon? (officer - why did he lie?, what's going on here?) On the other hand, what if that was not you in your vehicle and someone was ripping off your stuff and the officer did not confront the person? I don't have a problem with people legally carrying firearms. In fact, I think everybody that meets the licensing criteria should get one.

The bottom line here is officer safety. It's "drilled" into an officer at training sessions, etc. Unlike a "normal" profession incidents in this line of work can go from good to deadly in a millisecond. Death deals poor odds for survival. I beat the odds once after being struck by a vehicle and don't care to go through that again. I, like everybody else, would like to go home at the end of the day to my family.

It's sorta like having an ORC on your tractor... safety first! ;>)

Sorry to be so long winded, take care, Jeff.