In Australia we have no constitutional right to own firearms. If you want one, you need to be licensed, much like driving a car or any other dangerous activity.
Potential gun owners need to:
None of these things are particularly expensive or difficult to achieve, if you have no criminal record.
What might come as a surprise is that most gun owners in Australia do not oppose the majority of firearm laws. It’s more the treatment we receive from the relevant government agencies and their apparent disregard for our personal safety.
Australia has, looking at the historic crime statistics, very low firearm related crime. Yet we are made to feel like burgeoning criminals when dealing with the firearms licencing organisations.
To understand why gun ownership is such a contentious issue in Australia you need to look back at our history. Australia was never an egalitarian state. After-all it started out as a penal colony. Some of our earliest heroes were in fact criminals. Bushranger The other driver was an event that occurred in Australia in the mid-nineties. Port Arthur massacre (Australia) The latter caused what some have described as a knee-jerk reaction from our Prime Minister at the time, a suburban ex-lawyer turned politician who used contentious executive powers to bring in very restrictive laws without any solicitation with the people most affected.
In most states in Australia the police are the sole stakeholder with regards to gun licensing. Whilst it is entirely possible to obtain a gun if you have a genuine reason, it will be unnecessarily slow and painful. Many before me have suggested this is because the police don’t actually want anyone to have them. Why would they.
One particular point of contention for me is the illegality of sensible personal protective equipment like vests and noise suppressors. As a farm owner, a rifle or shotgun is an important piece of equipment. Farmers like myself must store their firearms in a state of partial disassembly at all times, ammunition must be in a separate area. That might not be such a problem if wild dogs made appointments. One might get the distinct impression the authorities are making gun ownership as difficult as they can in a deliberate strategy to drive gun owners to give-up or trip-up. Even one minor breech will see a gun owner lose their firearms on a permanent basis.
Stand your ground laws in Australia.
We don’t have these either. Australians who may be forced to defend themselves or their family must avoid using ‘excessive force’.
You cannot use a firearm.
If someone enters your property, or attacks you, you are expected to call the police and wait. Self Defence in Australia it's worth noting the response time for police in much of Australia is several hours.
Equipping yourself with ‘just enough force’ to repel an attacker, without injuring them, in the heat of the moment, is of course ridiculous. The police know this, the laws are designed to keep them safe. It is important to understand that Australia is a country where criminals have equal protections.
I want to make it clear I am not implying the police are doing anything wrong. In my region they are highly professional and courteous. But it's strange choice of gatekeeper.
Who are the stakeholders?