• Boudicca
    +1

    Australia has never had a big gun loving culture like America. Mainly duck, kangaroo and pig hunters, farmers, and the odd criminal. What happened was we had a massacre at a tourist spot in Tasmania, 35 killed,28 injured. That one event was enough to facilitate change- the article goes more into this.

    People generally don't aspire to own guns here.There are one or two gun clubs in my state, one of which is within hearing distance of my workplace and the people I have met who go there come across as red necks. I can remember the first time I saw a policeman wearing a gun- I had been living overseas for a few years and came home (1987) and was in a shop standing next to a cop- and there was what looked to me like an enormous gun holstered on his belt. It made me feel sick. Someone just standing there with a gun in plain sight. It still makes me feel weirded out when I see that.

    Its seems (as someone who doesn't live in America) that because there are so many guns in the USA, even if you hate guns you are almost obliged to own one because every other bastard has one.

    I have never spent a single second in my life worrying about me, my kids, or anyone else I love getting shot. Thats freedom to me.