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Australians Take Note
Biggles
<font color=#AAFFAA>The Man Without a Face</font>
in Zocalo v2.0
If you don't, you are going to get really really fucked in the future.
[url]http://slashdot.org/articles/04/04/15/1411241.shtml?tid=117&tid=123&tid=99[/url]
[url]http://slashdot.org/articles/04/04/15/1411241.shtml?tid=117&tid=123&tid=99[/url]
Comments
Next on the agenda, kitchen knives, criket bats, pointy sticks and rocks.
SB: How's this working for you?
[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Tyvar [/i]
[B]They banned distribution, purchase or ownership unless you are a bonafied collector or its a family heirloom or your part of a reinactment group. The law is a done deal.
Next on the agenda, kitchen knives, criket bats, pointy sticks and rocks. [/B][/QUOTE]
That's a pretty shitty law.
[B]Completely or just in public? In NZ, it's illegal to carry a sharpened blade longer than 6 inches in public, but you can have whatever you like in private.[/B][/QUOTE]
Same law applies here..
FIRE !!!!!
~~~~~
Heh... sharp pointy things.... I MAKE them.
Remember the bat-leth project ? (I'll bitch about that elsewhere)
I prescribe to public and civil disobedience on this score. It's stupid legislation. Especially since any guy with an $15 (effectively single use) angle grinder and an a $5 piece of steel stock, a nice hot fire and half an idea of what they are doing... can make a machete style blade capable of taking a limb off... which is what the local vietnamese and asian gang members do with some frequency...
Not to mention the legitmate, legally purchasable machetes, sugar cane cutting knives (think long heavy machete), plus a whole host of other cutting tools.... hand scythe anyone ? Brush cutter ? (Think polearm style blade, like a naginata).
The reason this legislation came to pass was because one guy protecting a hooch crop, stabbed and killed a guy with a cheap nasty katana replica... one sharpened with angle grinder...
...and you guessed it... the same replica wall hangers are still available, though I'm sure its just retailers and wholesalers clearing inventory... though I may have to check up on that.
What's even more amusing is the 'spring assist' pocket knives.. effectively flick knives are legal. I carry one every day.
The cops have a cart blanche law which means they can take anything they deem to be a potential weapon from you... from your sword to your provebial 'large rock', if you are 'acting in a manner dangerous'...
...which of course is open to abuse.
(and just a point of note, you cannot carry any blade over 7cm on your person in a concealed fashion, (pocket knives et al).
While I'm at it... 2 years jail/ $10,000 fine for posessing the following :
pistol crossbow
nun-chaku (only registered dojos can keep them but only on thier premises)
ninja stars
braced shang-ai (slingshot) - in other words they have a shaft which extends back along the arm to allow the easier use of stronger driving bands. (and I can still drive a steel pellet harder than my legitimate air rifle, without the brace on my shang-ai)
any kind of knuckle duster/fist spike
any kind of katar/push dagger
~~~~~~
And dont get me started on the gun laws...
For instance, if perchance I was a rich bastard and I found a nice 88mm WW2 German Field gun... or even a much more recent 105mm piece... I dont need any special registration at all... it's classed as an 'antique firearm'.. for which I dont even need a licence.
I can also quite happily make a reproduction black powder cannon however big I want... and fire the SOB with grapeshot if I so desire... with no legal problems at all provided I do so in an open safe place, and not in the fire ban season.
and yet I cant own a pistol with over 6 shot capacity or larger than .38 calibre and a barrel shorter than 70mm
What they tried doing was to create legislation which would prevent deranged arseholes from being able to conceal a high powered pistol.
(Two very well publicised incidents occured here where guys used 9mm pistols, so naturally the 9mm pistol was a target of the legislation, heedless of the actual abilities of any particular weapon )
I would imagine they said 'ok so politically we have to stop people owning 9mm pistols... and then tack some crap onto it to cover the concealability and the power issues... so it looks legit, and not a knee jerk reaction...
(which incidentally was precisely what happened after the 35 deaths in the Port Authur massacre in Tasmania, where we were lumbered with the orginal shitty legislation against long arms, no consideration was given to pistols then.. 'cos Martin Bryant didn't shoot anyone with one).
They banned pistols on based on calibre, the diameter of the bullet and consequently the barrel diameter. It had to be below 9mm, (to get rid of the offending incidents involving such calibres). So... everything below .38 calibre is ok, everything above is banned.
They then covered the concealability angle by specifying you can't have a barrel shorter than 70mm. Ok so that makes sense, the barrel and action therefore cant be less than about 150mm which is quite hard to conceal on your person. (Oh.. and any kind of concealable holster has been banned since day 1)
Then just to make it look like they were being thourough they banned any clip or magazine over 6 shots, even with .22 calibre rimfire. Ok so lots of people have died from .22 calibre shots... but lets face it... your survivability is way higher, if you are shot with a .22 calibre bullet, even lots of 'em, hurt less than one larger round...
So it sorta sounds good, in very basic theory...
....till you consider the .357 magnum revolver. The police service pistol, only just being phased out now. Much more powerful and dangerous than and 9mm and depending on loading, as powerful and dangerous as a .45 calibre pistol. I can also fire a .357 revolver very quickly and accurately. I can also take a hacksaw to a .357 and make it VERY concealable.
You could also buy a Thompson contender pistol... which you can use rifle rounds in... and kill people from 100 yards...
Or a wildcat necked-in round in another style of pistol...
etc etc etc etc etc...
Our gun legislation is created by people with no interest and therefore very little knowledge of guns. They either hate, or atleast dislike guns. When you want sound legislation on ANYTHING, you talk to the people who use the thing being legislated and controlled. You talk to the cleaner if you want Mop legislation. You talk to a gunsmith if you want gun legislation.
So in the end we end up with laws which penalise legitimate and 'good' gun owners, and leave so many exploitable holes for 'bad' gun owners that they become a laughing stock. (Oh and by the way... with $1000 and two phone calls I can have a nice black market .45 colt 1911 delivered inside a few days, if I chose to.)
A much more equitable solution would have been to ban weapons based on thier true power... a measure of kinetic energy delivered to the target over a set period of time. There are plenty of accurate and meaningful ways to classify a pistols actual killing power....
... but that requires education and the ability to stand up to wowserists and sycophantic politicians.
It's enough to make a guy fire a black powder cannon down the local mall to make a point...
...and then hack the people trying to crawl away with a home made sword.
~~~~~
...and some people think I'm totally nuts when I say I want to build a NEW country in international waters...
*deep dissatisfied sigh*
I think whats going on is the australian government is finaly learning people dont need guns to kill each other effectivly, and they are finding that notion to be quite a suprise. "what you can cut people to death!? my god!?"
Seriously part of the problem is some countries *cough*UK*cough* is that if you defend yourself from an attack your also considered a criminal.
Thats starting to happen in someplaces here, but luckily in most jurisidctions when a DA goes that crazy recall petitions to throw the bastard out hit the streets. Which really freaks elected officials out, nothing like being forced to stand for a previously unplanned election.
if we really wanted to kill someone, then we dont need anything other that our hands to do it! so what are they gonna do next? require us all to register our hands as lethal weapons?:rolleyes:
[B]Here you cant take carrie a sword around in public, same with guns. [/B][/QUOTE]
Simmonds, they are not just going ban CARRYING they are banning POSSESION!! meaning you cant OWN replica swords and all, and you damn near need a permit to buy a machete for crists sakes.