Due to the nation’s controversial and oppressive gun restrictions, no one has died as a result of a mass-shooting from an automatic or semi-automatic weapon on Australian soil today, for the 8499th day in a row.

North Betoota cinema attendant, Christina Upton can’t believe it has been a whole 23 years, 3 months and 8 days since a heavily armed white Australian male decided to shoot at a crowd of unsuspecting Australian civilians for no reason.

She says the peaceful two decades that have followed are “probably” because the Australian government decided to strip her of a God-given right to own projectile weaponry capable of shooting down helicopters.

“Yeah, I mean the Yanks come across as sick people. This year there have been more mass shootings in America than calendar dates… But it wasn’t that long ago that Australia had postal workers holding their entire office hostage with AR-15s”

Ms Upton, who claims to be able to walk freely outside of her home without fear of being killed by a mass shooter, believes that God-given rights probably play a bigger role in America’s mass shootings than Americans think.

“I don’t think America should be so hard on itself about the mental state of thousands of lonely white losers. We have those people too,”

“…Just in our country those people don’t have access to Russian-made automatic assault rifles that have been invented purely to help military personnel win wars,”

“If I was in America, I’d be terrified of working in a cinema – for fear that one of these losers would use their God-given rights to murder me in cold blood,”

Per 100,000 residents in Australia, less than 1 are expected to be killed by a firearm this year. This is heavily contrasted to the 10.5 in 100,000 who will be killed in America.

Local Betoota cop, Uncle Rick, says that this is because idiots have a harder time getting their hands on machine guns than criminals.

“I think America needs to realise that it’s not really the criminals and gangster you need to worry about as such. I’d be more concerned about the indoor types”

“Criminals use guns to help their efforts in making money through crime – they have much less interest in killing you for the sake of it,”

“Weirdos use guns to shoot up medical centres and primary schools for no reason other than the fact that they want to use their God-given rights,”

“In Australia. Our weirdos are forced to write stern letters,”

332 COMMENTS

  1. The article would have been much more impactful had accurate statistics been used to illustrate the same point. The author using exaggerated numbers kind of ruins it.

    • “Per 100,000 residents in Australia, less than 1 are expected to be killed by a firearm this year. This is heavily contrasted to the 10.5 in 100,000 who will be killed in America.”

      The statistic of 19 years 7 months since the lass mass shooting is also accurate.

      • No Andy it’s not accurate at all. Monash University 2 died, 5 injured in mass shooting,Hectorville siege 2011 3 dead 3 injured = mass shooting, Hunt family murders, 2014 5 dead = mass shooting, and how about the Melbourn gangland murders? from 96 to 2016 36 people killed by guns.

        • Bill… get out your calculator… there are around 24 million Australians.. how many have died by guns per 100,000 PER YEAR?

          Do the math per year

      • Bill is Correct. The biggest problem with the gun control movement is its propensity to lie or exaggerate about statistics. It would be wonderful if people didn’t, because then we might actually be able to get more gun control that is reasonable passed without the other side flipping out.

      • According to the Wikipedia article “Gun violence in the United States”, the actual rate of firearm homicide in the US is 3.5 per 100,000. Still far too many, of course, but nowhere near the 10.5 per 100,000 claimed in this article.

        • Greg, 3.5 refers to gun homicides. 10.5 refers to all gund deaths in the US including accidental shootings ans suicide etc. It is an accurate figure in terms of the number of Americans on average per 100,000 who are expected to be killed by a firearm this year – which is wht the article says.

    • Just cause some morons abuse their rights doesn’t mean I have to be punished.
      The second amendment is designed to not just protect individuals but to keep the government in check. We have access to military guns so that if we have an aspiring dictator here he can be stopped.
      And you have no idea how many lives guns save here.
      The point is, I’m an adult, the government doesn’t get to restrict my access to things,
      Americans don’t recognize that sort of authority, we call it tyranny and we’ll overthrow and destroy it, like we did in 1776.
      We don’t have such a things as “civilians” in the us, we are all fighters and such a word gives your power over to “authority figures” who are just like you, no better no worse.

      • “We don’t have such a things as “civilians” in the us, we are all fighters and such a word gives your power over to “authority figures” who are just like you, no better no worse.”

        WTF did I just read? ^^^THAT^^^ there folks is what we in America call a “Right Wing Nut Job” or RWNJ for short.

        99% of gun owners would not be “punished”. They would still have most of their guns. Hell my dad could still have all 15 of his, and my son has a similar number (different ones for different kinds of bird & animal hunting mostly, with a couple of hand guns for whatever). Just ain’t no one owning any semi automatics and guns with huge clips anymore. That isn’t really a punishment – it’s just common sense. But common sense ain’t too common amongst RWNJ’s, so…

        • “If you believe that the writers of the second amendment was writing about hunting you .cat admit you believe that they were afraid that the Deer and rabbits would band together to disarm the hunters” Krissann Hall.
          It’s about protectiing our country from our government as well as others that want to take our rights and freedoms away.

          • No they weren’t talking about hunting. There were talking about guns that fired black powder with a flint and the maximum rate of fire was about 2 shots per minute. I would have no problem with assault style weapons that were limited to two shots per minute.

          • It’s about protecting our country from our government.” Look, Luke, if Uncle Sam wanted to take over (which he doesn’t), he’d have no trouble doing so, no matter how many AR-15s are out there. Do you actually think the civilian population of America could stand up to the combined forces of the U.S. military, were some dictator actually able to get control of it? Listen to yourself, man. This isn’t Red Dawn.

            Not to mention, why would the Founders have created a government that would assume itself to become a tyranny and force its own citizens to protect themselves against it?

            The whole “protect against tyranny” argument is nonsense. There may be other reasons the 2nd Amendment is necessary (none of them good, to my mind), but protection against the myth of our own government becoming a tyrannical dictatorship isn’t one of them.

        • Considering that Americans own about 25 million Semi-automatic Rifles that take big MAGAZINES [20-30 round Mags are Normal Capacity } the chance that One will be used in a criminal act tomorrow is slim to none, ALL rifles account for approximately 300 Deaths each year, this includes the Scary Semi-Auto’s, Lever, pump, bolt , AND these Scary Rifles account for only 11 % of ALL Mass Shootings going back to 1964, ten years after they were on the civilian market. With Obama and his fellow race-baiters dividing this country and telling all the special snowflakes that they’re all victims, no wonder mass shootings have gone up under him, But here’s something the Media Hates, Not one of the Mass Shooters, have been a NRA member, Or a Conservative YEP, that’s right, besides the Moslems who did Orlando, San Bernadino, Ft. Hood, Chattanooga Military Recruiters, Washington Navy Yard { Black Convert}, etc. every Other Mass Shooting, and All President Shooters since Abraham Lincoln have been Either Registered Democrat, or Raised in a Democrat Home, Except for JFK’s, He was a socialist, So instead of banning guns for the entire Population, let’s just do it to who has shown they CANNOT be trusted with that RIGHT, Democrats, and Democrat Politicians

      • Jasper, this is a one-sided view of the America we live in. We “get to use guns” because “morons abused their rights” in the first place. That is a punishment in itself, that I can’t walk around peacefully without having to carry my glock, not to feel safe, but to feel a little more confident than I did before.

        Your access to military weaponry is irrelevant if we have an “aspiring dictator.” They will always have more access. Just look at our policing “dictatorship”, my Haitian-Canadian, well-dressed, PhD educated & well spoken, introvert of a husband would be the one to lose his life if another border policeman stops & searches then threatens us just because of his skin color. In Cuba I witnessed the same happen only to the American missionaries in our group. Dictatorships do not always look alike. Might be many dictators in America, they just take a different form than Castro did up front and center. Instead, they feed politicians lots to feed us little.

        Whether you’re an adult or a child, the government reserves the right to restrict your access to “things.” That is why they are called the government. And here in the U.S. they do it all the time without the uneducated population even knowing. Just like Cuba restricts access to certain literature and internet, the U.S. restricts access to healthcare, certain social services and free post secondary education (hence why those leading in the U.S’s science and technology industries are 90% immigrants)

        You and I are both civilians. Fight it all you want but the fact remains. And this Sunday, Orlando’s mass shooting reminded us of just that.

      • No, Jasper, your second amendment was to allow the GOVERNMENT to readily call up a militia that already had training and weapons to repel invaders and to protect sovereignty of American soil. Those weapons were single shot weapons.
        There was neither mention nor intent for every American to be a walking, talking army on his own.

      • Jasper, you say you are an adult but you reason like a child. So, you think 9mm will protect you and your family when some potential tyrant like Trump gets in power?

        Let’s see now, you and your redneck buds have your hand guns and assault rifles and the government has atomic bombs, stealth bombers, nerve gas, the army, the navy, the Air Force, guided misses, drones et al. Hmm….My money is on the government

        • When I went into the Navy, I took an oath to preserve, protect, and defend the CONSTITUTION, not some politician. Today’s military has taken that same oath and would refuse to turn its weapons against the American people. The government would fall, but not the Constitution. If you don’t know that then I doubt you ever served in the military.

      • Utter nonsense. The Second Amendment is abused in the US as no other “right” we have. It is NOT tyranny if a government prohibits unilateral access to assault weaponry; it is common sense, and falls comfortably within the Amendment’s proviso of “Well Regulated.” There are 50 dead Americans in Orlando right now, because a person, whose name has been on a terrorist watch list, walked into a store and purchased an AR-15 the very same day he decided to carry out a mass murder. NO questions asked, no waiting period, nothing. Statistically, far more persons are the victims of accidental death by firearms (usually children, by the way) than there are saved by a civilian’s gunfire in an effort to stop crime.

      • What is your hand gun gonna do against the might of the military lol. Get your head out of the sand you silly ostrich.

      • Ummm, in 1776 the government didn’t have drones, nuclear submarines and fighter jets… Moot point!
        Balance is the key here. No one wants to take all your guns away. But a more balance regulatory environment for gun control is required. Clearly.
        However, if sandy creek and the slaughter of innocent children didn’t catalyse change I’m not sure what will.

      • Read your second amendment…it says clearly that arms should be available to a well organised militia for the purpose of overthrowing a dictatorship. All you individual gun owning reactionaries do not comprise a well organised militia …and as a result you are arming your most anti- American minorities.

      • You don’t know how many lives guns save here, RAFLMAO, you RAFLMAO can’t be RAFLMAO serious RAFLMAO
        Just RAFLMAO imagine if there were no guns RAFLMAO, population of USA would be 350 million
        Some Mothers Do Hav’em

      • The second amendment was written in 1791 when people were using flintlock rifles and it was originally written for the militia’s of the day and not individuals but the supreme court has extended this right to bear arms to individuals as well which is really unfortunate. There is no
        RATIONAL reason that an individual should be allowed to own an automatic weapon capable killing many people in seconds and thus is where the courts have gone off the rails in the USA.

    • Most countries don’t have a monarch either, but Australia certainly gushes over the British Royalty when they visit. Tell you what, you don’t) like an armed America then please stay out of America. We don’t want or need you. And if you are not an American then STFU!!

  2. this article is so idiotic words fail to express just how much, today..for the 7158th day in a row..over 800,000 law abiding citizens, didnt go on a mass shooting spree, law abiding citizens who own more guns today then before 1996..being the law abiding citezens they are..obeyed the law…it is by sheer luck alone..that we havnt experience mass shooting in recent time, in 2014 and again in 2015..we could have very well experienced much more loss of life..it was by luck alone..that we didnt!

    • Absolute shit, the reason that we don’t have mass shooting is because our gun laws allow law abiding citizens to buy guns that are adequate for legitimate ownership puposes , and make guns that have limited legitimate use , such as handguns and semi/fully automatic weapons , far harder to aquire . We also have stringent background checks in terms of mental health and criminal background checks , cooldown periods on gun purchases and clear laws regarding gun storage and transport . Please don’t spout uniformed opinions based on your predetermined bias based on the issue . My knowledge on gun ownership is in NSW only I must admit , but our other states are largely the same

  3. If you look up the CIA website you will find that handguns are to blame for the difference between the American and Australia murder rates.

    The amount of shooting between the two countries with long arms is identical, but the difference is with handguns.
    America has 10 or 15 times more killed with handguns, and Australia doesn’t really have handguns, solving that problem (while Anericans are still saying “guns don’t kill people”.

  4. What a load of absolute bullshit.

    “0 in the 20 years since then”

    Really?

    What about Monash University in 2002 where seven people where shot?

    Is that a mass shooting? Or do you want to use the definition that states I could shoot 300 people, but as long as only 3 or less die, it’s not a “mass shooting”.

    Once again, more deception and games to hide the facts.

    Weasel words used to distort the English language to further the anti’s position, let’s not also forget the plethora of laws (you know, the ones that you purport to solve all our ills) that did nothing to prevent Man Monis and the Sydney Lindt Cafe Siege to happen.
    Let’s not forget that he used a firearm that was moved to category C after John Coward’s reforms post ’96, pretty much putting it beyond most legitimate shooters reach.
    Gained illegally (there’s that word again), this unlicensed criminal was able to put the people involved in that position regardless of whatever law was in place, essentially this makes your argument for tighter law reform invalid.

    List them?

    OK, Mass Deaths with or without firearms since Pt Arthur, also proving that you do not need a firearm if you are mentally sick or are a hardened criminal:

    Childers Palace Fire – In June 2000, drifter and con-artist Robert Long started a fire at the Childers Palace backpackers hostel that killed 15 people.

    Sef Gonzales – On July 10, 2001, Sef Gonzales bludgeoned to death his sister, mother and father with a baseball bat.

    Monash University shooting – In October 2002, Huan Yun Xiang, a student, shot his classmates and teacher, killing two and injuring five.

    Churchill Fire – 10 confirmed deaths due to a deliberately lit fire. The fire was lit on 7 February 2009.

    Lin family murders – On July 2009, Lian Bin “Robert” Xie killed his sister, her husband and three members of their family (5 persons from the Lin family) with a hammer. The faces of the victims were so disfigured that forensics had to be used to identify them. The motivation for the family massacre were partly because Lin had criticised Xie for not having a job.

    2011 Hectorville siege – A mass shooting that took place on Friday, April 29, 2011, in Hectorville, South Australia. It began after a 39-year-old male, Donato Anthony Corbo, went on a shooting rampage, killing three people and wounding a child and two police officers, before being arrested by Special Operations police after an eight-hour siege.

    Quakers Hill Nursing Home Fire – 10 confirmed and as many as 21 people may have died as a result of a deliberately lit fire in a Quakers Hill nursing home. The fire was lit early on 18 November 2011.

    Cairns stabbings – A woman stabbed 8 children to death on Friday, 2014, December 19, 2014. 7 of them were her own.

    2014 Sydney hostage crisis – Two hostages and hostage-taker Man Haron Monis were killed, during a 16-hour siege inside a Lindt cafe in Martin Place, Sydney, with six other people injured.

    Bottom line, guns aren’t the problem, as stated above, mental health and criminal activity are.

    You cannot legislate against these things as the mentally ill and criminals DO NOT FOLLOW THE LAW.

    Wake up idiots.

      • This is what most americans do… They find all the facts on how other things can kill people too… not realising that the number of “mass deaths” are still unbelievably lower…

        Lets list the mass shootings in the US since Columbine High school…

        1. Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo. (April 20, 1999) – 13 died and 24 injured
        2. Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va. (April 16, 2007) – 32 killed and 17 injured
        3. American Civic Association, Binghamton, N.Y. (April 3, 2009) – 13 killed 4 injured
        4. Fort Hood in Texas (Nov. 5, 2009) – 13 killed 30 injured
        5. Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. (Dec. 14, 2012) – 26 killed (mostly and 6 year olds)
        6. Washington Navy Yard in Washington, D.C. (Sept. 16, 2013) – 12 killed
        7. Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, Calif. (Dec. 2, 2015) – 14 killed
        8. Pulse Orlando nightclub in Orlando, Fla. (June 12, 2016) – at least 49 killed and MORE THAN 50 injured

        172 murdered and 125 injured… In 17 years and these were just the most deadly circumstances…
        he just listed 58 murders… less than half in a larger amount of time…. But guns are not the problem… we should keep the laws the way they are #thatlogic

        • Yes Lets List the Mass shootings since Columbine.

          April 1999 – Two teenage schoolboys shot and killed 12 schoolmates and a teacher at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, before killing themselves.
          July 1999 – A stock exchange trader in Atlanta, Georgia, killed 12 people including his wife and two children before taking his own life.
          September 1999 – A gunman opened fire at a prayer service in Fort Worth, Texas, killing six people before committing suicide.
          October 2002 – A series of sniper-style shootings occurred in Washington DC, leaving 10 dead.
          August 2003 – In Chicago, a laid-off worker shot and killed six of his former workmates.
          November 2004 – In Birchwood, Wisconsin, a hunter killed six other hunters and wounded two others after an argument with them.
          March 2005 – A man opened fire at a church service in Brookfield, Wisconsin, killing seven people.
          October 2006 – A truck driver killed five schoolgirls and seriously wounded six others in a school in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania before taking his own life.
          April 2007 – Student Seung-Hui Cho shot and killed 32 people and wounded 15 others at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, before shooting himself, making it the deadliest mass shooting in the United States after 2000.
          August 2007 – Three Delaware State University students were shot and killed in “execution style” by a 28-year-old and two 15-year-old boys. A fourth student was shot and stabbed.
          December 2007 – A 20-year-old man killed nine people and injured five others in a shopping centre in Omaha, Nebraska.
          December 2007 – A woman and her boyfriend shot dead six members of her family on Christmas Eve in Carnation, Washington.
          February 2008 – A shooter who is still at large tied up and shot six women at a suburban clothing store in Chicago, leaving five of them dead and the remaining one injured.
          February 2008 – A man opened fire in a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois, killing five students and wounding 16 others before laying down his weapon and surrendering.
          July 2008 – A former student shot three people in a computer lab at South Mountain Community College, Phoenix, Arizona.
          September 2008 – a mentally ill man who was released from jail one month earlier shot eight people in Alger, Washington, leaving six of them dead and the rest two wounded.
          October 2008 – Several men in a car drove up to a dormitory at the University of Central Arkansas and opened fire, killing two students and injuring a third person.
          December 2008 – A man dressed in a Santa Claus suit opened fire at a family Christmas party in Covina, California, then set fire on the house and killed himself. Police later found nine people dead in the debris of the house.
          March 2009 – A 28-year-old laid-off worker opened fire while driving a car through several towns in Alabama, killing 10 people.
          March 2009 – A heavily-armed gunman shot dead eight people, many of them elderly and sick people, in a private-owned nursing home in North Carolina.
          March 2009 – Six people were shot dead in a high-grade apartment building in Santa Clara, California.
          April 2009 – An 18-year-old former student followed a pizza deliveryman into his old dormitory, and shot the deliveryman, a dorm monitor, and himself at Hampton University, Virginia.
          April 2009 – A man shot dead 13 people at a civic center in Binghamton, New York.
          July 2009 – Six people, including one student, were shot in a drive-by shooting at a community rally on the campus of Texas Southern University, Houston.
          November 2009 – US army psychologist Major Nidal Hasan opened fire at a military base in Fort Hood, Texas, leaving 13 dead and 42 others wounded.
          February 2010 – A professor opened fire 50 minutes into at a Biological Sciences Department faculty meeting at the University of Alabama, killing three colleagues and wounding three others
          January 2011 – a gunman opened fire at a public gathering outside a grocery in Tuscon, Arizona, killing six people including a nine-year-old girl and wounding at least 12 others. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was severely injured with a gunshot to the head.
          July 2012 – Masked gunman James Holmes opens fire at midnight cinema screen of new Batman film The Dark Knight Rises, killing 12 and injuring 58.
          August 2012 – Gunman kills six people at SIkh temple in Wisconsin before being shot dead by police. Suspect is named as white supremacists Wade Michael Page.
          December 2012 – Adam Lanza, 20, forces his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. He kills 20 first-graders and six adults. Before arriving at the school, he had killed his mother at their home.
          June 2013 – John Zawahri, an unemployed 23-year-old, kills five people in a rampage which begins at his father home and ends in Santa Monica College’s library.
          September 2013 – Aaron Alexis, a Navy contractor and former Navy man, engages police in a running firefight in the Washington D.C. industrial complex before being shot and killed. Thirteen people were killed and three injured.
          May 2014 – Elliot Rodger opens fire in the campus town of Isla Vista, California from inside a black BMW, killing seven people. Rodgers acted alone and written and video evidence suggest the attack is premeditated.
          June 2015 – White supremacist, Dylann Roof, begins shooting in a historic black church in an attempt to start a race-war. He kills nine people.
          August 2015 – Vester Lee Flanagan II aka Bryce Williams shoots dead two former December 2, 2015 colleagues from the WDBJ7 news team.
          Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, Calif. 14 killed
          June 12, 2016 Pulse Orlando nightclub in Orlando, Fla. (June 12, 2016) – at least 49 killed and MORE THAN 50 injured

          172 murdered and 125 injured… In

  5. I understand that the second amendment gives the right to carry arms but it does not say any type or right to have the bullets to use it. Just let them own 1798 type guns and outlaw bullets, problem solved in about 100 years time when they run out of bullets and the law has better guns.

  6. You have bad guys there also. The mentally ill and ISIS. If someone tries to break into your home, you can not protect yourself but I surely can. Do you not still have robberies and home invasions?? Good luck when things get bad,and I assure you they will. How are you going to protect your family?

  7. not that i am Christian, i am a licensed gun owner in Australia, MY only concern with this is….it is NOT a god given right to own guns in America, but a constitutional right to own them….In Aust we had VERY strict guns laws bought in aftet 1 massacre….that was committed by someone who was not a criminal….just in MY opinion, America needs serious gun reforms, yes you have the “right to bare arms”….but innocent people have the right to not live in fear….and too all the people i the NRA who say “if only 1 of them had a gu to take them out” as an argument to keep the gun laws the way they are….in ALL you mass shootings, i have NEVER heard of the attacker being taken out by a person “bearing arms”….just saying that’s all

  8. No mass shootings?? What are you talking about?? Hunt family murders and hostage taking in Sydney both just last year!! You guys have got to get your facts right. Idiots.

    • The ‘mass shooting’ wasn’t exactly that. One person died as the result of the gunman, while the rest were killed and injured through the actions of a botched police ‘rescue’ attempt.

      Yes, it’s SO important to get your facts right.

  9. …while France, which also lives under oppressive gun control, still mourns the loss of 130 young people.

    Meanwhile, Australia has a no-tolerance policy for Muslim extremists and cracks down on terrorism with a harsh whip. France had allowed Muslim extremism to thrive.

    Now, which of these two issues appears to be the common denominator?

  10. Guns are part America’s heritage, and we do not fall victim to the regime. One cannot (and should not) blame the gun–that’s like blaming the pencil for a mispelling. It’s a proven fact: more guns equal less crime; however the politicians rather play on the emotions of anemic to sell their “gun control” propaganda only to catapult a career. Come to America, pull a knife and most likely you’ll be met with a resistance. Go to Australia and one can become a victim of a knife attack without opportunity to defend yourself. Go to Australia, burglar enters home, family is hacked up and dies at the mercy of the deranged person. Go to America, burglar gets only to the entry way, and is staring down the barrel of a shotgun or handgun. I’ll stick with my odds and stay here in America.

  11. So true! It is astonishing for the developed world how the usa still debates whether or not to have gun laws after more than 330 mass shootings so far un 2015 alone. Those guys are truly insane with their well known argumenta “Guns dont kill people, people kill people” Yes, you stupid, guns kill people. Thats why we invented guns, thats their PURPOSE.

    • American’s just can’t seem to understand, or more likely, don’t want to understand and that is the issue. I’ve always thought it strange that American’s can be so prudish about sex, yet, a bit of killin’ is fine. America, an empire in decline.

  12. This mass shooting was terrorism you bloody fool. No, this wasn’t some yank that shot up an office building. These were Muslim terrorists. No gun control laws would have stopped them. However, well armed staff would have helped protect the unprotected.

  13. Sadly true. I’m an American and would love nothing more than the 2nd amendment to be repealed and everybody’s guns taken away. Unfortunately it will be a miracle if that ever happens. ‘Merica.

  14. Absolutely true. The USA has had 354 mass shootings this year already….more than we have had days this year. But our Congress members are too chicken S**t to defy the NRA and go back to banning assault weapons as we used to do. And apparently the wackos here in the States believe that they have a right to murder masses of people any time they want to do so.

    • Mimi, what a moronic statement you wrote. 354 mass shootings? Only if you change thedefinition of mass shooting. Gun deaths have decreased as gun ownership has increased. That is an indisfutable fact!! Law abiding citizens do not need your non solution.

    • Sorry, according to the FBI there have been 4, count them, 4 mass shootings in the U.S. this year, not 354.
      The stats you are using come from anti gun leftist site that count any crime with multiple shooting victims as a mass shooting even if there were NO FATALITIES.
      They have even been caught using incidents where people were shot with BB guns and not injured as a mass shooting.
      The Federal standard for a mass shooting is 4 or more fatalities.
      Try actually doing some research.

  15. That’s the difference between Americans and everybody else – we expect great things of our citizens (like the responsibility of owning big and dangerous things); the rest of the world (like Australians) look to their governments to control them like small children. I admit, we often fail. You, however, succeed brilliantly!

  16. Almost a year ago, December 14, 2014, a GUNMAN took hostages at GUNPOiNT in downtown Sydney at the Lindt Cafe. Your article is very disrespectful to those who died and seems pretty ignorant of the facts or dishonest given this event.

    • Eric, how many people were killed (here is a hint, it was not a “mass shooting” as happens regularly in the USA). The answer is 2, one by the people that were doing the rescuing. Do some research.

  17. So let me get this straight. The “nutjobs” aren’t able to acquire firearms anymore and now a sudden “peace” reigns throughout the land. What do the nutjobs do now when they go off, sing nursery rhymes, run around hugging people instead of killing them? It sounds to me (according to the article), that passing laws and forbidding ownership/possession of firearms actually make everybody “sane?” Please correct me if I am wrong.

    • Well, at least mammas little tot in the back seat won’t shoot her in the back while she’s driving… American’s are weird.

  18. Please be aware that only half of us “Yanks” are a sick people when it comes to guns. Many, many, many of us rail against the stupidity that keeps us from enacting better gun controls.

  19. This is excellent. So tired of arguing with the idiots who don’t understand that even if they really were just “fighting to protect the constitution”…not one of them is in a “well regulated militia” as the constitution states they need to be in. Sometimes these boneheads cause the rest of us to be ashamed that the rest of the world thinks this is who we all are.

  20. Genius. I am Melbourne born and plan to be in Melbourne to stay as soon as possible, if I am not gunned down first…

    #1 most livable city in the world, according to those who decide such things (and who are they anyway?).

  21. Australia is filled with gang violence and crime. Crime rates have increased substantially along with murders. It’s the only country I know were a friend of mine (an American living there) was beaten, gangraped and left to die in a field. This article is political and ignored the facts. The reality is that gun ownership has no effect on murder and crime. (It makes no difference)

  22. Perhaps the rate of mental illness in Australia had something to do with it: Conceived as a penal colony and doubling as an asylum, Australia was the repository for a majority of the mental defectives from Great Britain for decades. That nation holds the record for the highest percentage of diagnosed mental illness inhabitants of any country in the world.

  23. What you aren’t hearing though, is that California has some of the strictist gin laws in the US. The type of weapons used are banned in CA, there is a strict limit to the amount of ammo one can purchase and extensive background checks and yet these “criminals/terrorists” had a veritable arsenal both with them and in their home. These people don’t follow the law and have means to secure what the average citizen can not.

  24. Did you forget about the shooting in Sydney last year.? There maybe others but I don’t live in Australia and don’t see anyway a small country of 23 million can make such a ridiculous claim. Here’s this article to refresh this author’s very poor memory for he stated “As a result of the nation’s controversial and oppressive gun restrictions, no one has died as a result of a mass-shooting on Australian soil today, for the 7158th day in a row.” Kangaroo Feces or as we say in Texas, Bullshit. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/australia/11293694/Islamists-take-hostages-in-Sydney-cafe-siege-live.html

    • Seriously? You are kidding, either that or you have issues. 2, (two),1 plus one, people were killed in the incident you mention. One of those was from the people that were doing the rescuing. Kind of turns your dumb argument in on itself doesn’t it?

  25. except for the lindt cafe shooting in Sydney. I suppose the shooter wasn’t “White” as such so the article is technically correct, but would be better if it was actually correct.

  26. The trouble with anti gun rhetoric is it ignores the fact that just as many people have died in mass killings except by other means such as knives or fires. There again we all know it much nicer to die by another means other than by gunshot.

  27. […] Australia enjoys another peaceful day under oppressive gun control regime  “If I was in America, I’d be terrified of working in a cinema–for fear that one of these losers would use their God-given rights to murder me in cold blood.” […]

  28. […] How then can I make a compelling case for a robust Christian response to mass shootings? I suppose I could try the “overwhelming data” approach. I could list all the mass shootings from this past decade, or this past year, or just this past week. I could cite all the evidence that clearly shows that we have a real problem on our hands when it comes to guns and gun violence. And I could mount all sorts of evidence for why we as a society can and should do something proactive about it. […]

    • Yeah? Try killing 50 people with your methods mentioned above. Thats the point of gun laws that American’s just don’t want to get!

  29. I love your stuff.

    An since we are being serious 🙂
    If your doing the 355 in 335 days comparison your maths is a bit out mate.

    2002 Monash (just meets the Definition of 2 people killed)
    2011 Hectorville (29/04/2011 3 killed 3 wounded)
    Hunt Family (09/09/2014 5 killed)

    Still more like 450 days mass shooting free and still better than the USA 🙂

    Sad thing is Sodding NZ beats us with 6872 (8 Feb 1997 Stephen Anderson, 6 people)

  30. I own 8 gun legally. I am no weirdo. I respect women. I love peace. I like may gun in the same manner I like my fishing rods or my telescopes. I never pointed a gun or toy gun to a human being. I never shoot at human shaped target. I don’t want to be punished with more restrictive gun laws and constanly pointed the fingefr at.

  31. I can see why they would not let Australians have weapons, but in a society like ours that started free and still is; as opposed to being England largest outdoor prison, we like to be ready to defend ourselves from politicians that take away things because bad guys use them.
    Hows the DUI situation there? That kills why not ban booze and cars?
    The fact that your people allowed themselves to be disarmed to any extent tells me there are more sheep there than there are in New Zealand. You gave up some freedoms for safety, you deserve neither but at the end of the day, it’s easier to get at sheep when they are not able to defend themselves. Smile now, when the time comes to defend yourselves against the muslim onslaught, we will see who has to bow, you or us.

    James

  32. You know what’s great about knives or fires, David?

    You can actually run away from people with knives and fires.

    Unless you have an outbreak of sniper knife-throwers in Australia I’m unaware of.

    But I’m unaware of anyone who can outrun a bullet.

  33. Eric in regards to the Lindt cafe seige. It was not a mass shooting. The Man died from a gunshot wound inflicted by the gunman, but the woman died from a police billet that ricocheted, so this was not a mass shooting.

  34. @ Walt Florida… The Lindt Cafe example you refer to in Sydney was an armed hostage situation, not a mass shooting. The gunman held 14 hostages and subsequently shot and killed one after a stand off that lasted 12 hours. A second hostage was then fatally wounded when police stormed the building. Had the hi man walked into the cafe, opened fire and killed multiple people, that would be a mass shooting.

    The whole point of the article is focusing on the number of mass shootings that have involved a gunman opening fire on multiple people. The fact that mass shootings happen so frequently on the US but not in Austrralia (and so many other counties in the world), you can’t hide from the fact that there is a correlation with easy access to firearms.

  35. To all the wonderfully intelligent folk pointing out the article is flawed because it omits the Sydney Lindt cafe shootings…

    The author is perfectly correct in not including it as a mass shooting; it wasn’t. The shooter shot two people; that’s not a mass killing, four is the minimum number to be classified as a mass shooting.

    Do we still have gun deaths? Yes, far, far fewer than we did before stricter gun controls, and at far lower rate than the U.S. Do we still have other types of crime? Of course. Again, at much lower rates, crimes has been on a downward trend since the 1990s. Gun control laws have not solved everything, but they have had a significantly positive effect: numerous studies demonstrate that quite clearly.

  36. I can’t understand why, in my country, Canada, we have more guns per capita than they do in the States, and yet have few or no mass shootings. Perhaps it’s because we have nothing in our constitution that gives us the right to bear arms, and have strict background checks and registration of firearms upon purchasing a weapon. We have no access to assault weaponry either. Just saying.

  37. A mass shooting is defined as more than 4 people being killed.. I believe the Sydney shooting only had 2 .. Therefore, it does not qualify as a mass shooting…

  38. We actually have laws against assault weapons or machine guns, except we don’t enforce them:For purposes of federal law, a machine gun is defined as:
    [A]ny weapon which shoots, is designed to shoot, or can be readily restored to shoot, automatically more than one shot, without manually reloading, by a single function of the trigger. The term shall also include the frame or receiver of any such weapon, any part designed and intended solely and exclusively, or combination of parts designed and intended, for use in converting a weapon into a machinegun, and any combination of parts from which a machinegun can be assembled if such parts are in the possession or under the control of a person.1
    The National Firearms Act of 1934: The National Firearms Act of 1934 (“NFA”) imposes a tax on the making and transfer of machine guns and certain other weapons, as well as a special occupational tax on persons and entities engaged in the business of importing, manufacturing and dealing in those weapons. (The NFA distinguishes between “making” a weapon, and “manufacturing” a weapon. Only a registered NFA manufacturer can “manufacture” a machine gun; other persons who construct machine guns are “making” them, according to the NFA.2 ) As detailed below, the law also requires the registration of all machine guns.

  39. It makes no difference? oh how wrong and completely ignorant you are. Of course it makes a difference. A HUGE one. Having guns available means someone can easily kill someone else on impulse, without guns being readily available those people don’t find other ways of killing. Fact is guns make killing easy even for cowards or people who would never dream of thinking of killing. It’s common sense, which isn’t that common thesedays it would seem

  40. Funny tho how in these 20 years with our new gun laws the crimes that it was suppose to stop hasn’t changed a thing in fact these crime have risen. Another funny thing is that because of 1guys killing spree there was national outrage which bought in overnight tough new gun laws… and now we have a thousands of people being killed every year in the name of a religion and we’re being told to just except it and embrase it!?!? Where’s the outrage and baning of that religion? Go figure that logic.

  41. Wow. Ok. I’m not sure I’ve read such a silly article on the subject! I certainly respect differing opinions but at least please make a sensible argument not a whole lot of obviously bias assumptions and run with it like it’s your ‘god given right’. It makes me dismiss the article instantly.

  42. How is the Lindt Cafe siege a mass shooting when 3 people died? One being the gunman himself, the second being the hostage he killed, and the other being a hostage the police accidentally shot?

    That’s a ‘mass shooting’ comparable to what happens daily in the US, is it? It’s a result of our gun laws is it? Are you suggesting that even if it was counted, one shooting in ~6000 days is a statistic that proves gun control isn’t working?

    Every time an article like this comes up, you desperately try to find any way to avoid the core subject being discussed. It’s not just about gun laws, it’s the way you think and respond. It’s pathetic.

  43. And never mind the fact that the violent crime rates in Australia increased after the ban and the murder rate in the U.S. has decreased more in the U.S. than in Australia since the passage of the gun ban despite doubling of the gun ownership rates in the U.S. in that same time frame.

  44. I guarantee much, much less people are stabbed to death every year in the US or Australia then are shot. And I’ve never heard of 14 people being killed at once by a guy with a knife. Your argument is idiotic and part of the problem

  45. Like someone else said. Not all Americans are gun toting nuts! Many of us would like to see gun ownership laws in this country changed. Unfortunately the right wing controls our congress right now. They are in the pockets of the NRA, the organization that fools the ignorant masses into thinking they are somehow better off owning guns.

  46. There has to be a minimum of 4 fatalities for a shooting to be considered a mass shooting. Since only 2 people were shot and died the sydney shooting doesn’t count as one. Get your facts straight:P

  47. America has many mass shootings (defined as 3-4 or more fatalities), and yet surprisingly all but one of them since 1950 has happened in a gun-free zone (i.e. states or areas with heavy gun laws such as the one that just took place in San Bernadino, California which has the strictest gun laws in the country). Also surprisingly, over half of these shooters were people known to be mentally unstable and in many cases exhibited worrisome behavior prior to the shooting. So are we asking the right questions here? Are guns the problem, or are our mental health laws preventing government from stepping in on citizens that are unstable with these behaviors the problem? Will a country with already hundreds of millions of guns in circulation become safe from these types of incidents once gun laws become stricter? These shooters do not get their guns legally in many cases – and intentionally pick places where they know a common citizen can’t stop them with a gun.

  48. What an oxymoron. People are Enjoying under a Repressive gun control regime. So people are enjoying it so much so whats the problem? The only people who are complaining are those who cant bring their guns wherever they want to go

  49. Lindt cafe does not count as a mass shooting as less than 4 people were killed- stop using that as a reason to refute the article.

  50. The “354 mass shooting” stat is so misleading because “mass shooting” is 2 more more people. So, basically, a murder suicide is considered a “mass shooting.” In those 354, 790 people died. That’s slightly over 2 people per mass shooting. Please, stop with the hyperbole that every mass shooting is ten of people getting killed. The stats do not support it.

  51. The US has the highest rate of mental illness and Australia is a very multicultural society with 25% being born overseas. Somehow they manage to get along.

  52. Australia’s murder rate is a record low according to a report of the National Homicide Monitoring Program earlier this year (2015) and much lower than the US.

  53. Walt – The Lindt Cafe incident was a terrorist attack by a deranged Islamic criminal. One person was shot directly and the other killed by a ricocheting bullet.
    If you define the term “mass shooting” as 2 people, then the US has had more than ten thousand “mass shootings” this year alone.
    You really should educate yourself before making facile statements in public.

  54. […] How then can I make a compelling case for a robust Christian response to mass shootings? I suppose I could try the “overwhelming data” approach. I could list all the mass shootings from this past decade, or this past year, or just this past week. I could cite all the evidence that clearly shows that we have a real problem on our hands when it comes to guns and gun violence. And I could mount all sorts of evidence for why we as a society can and should do something proactive about it. […]

  55. The lindt cafe is not classed as a mass shooting as only two people were killed. A shooting is only classed as a mass shooting when four or more individuals (excluding the shooter/s) are killed. So yes, the article is accurate in saying that it has been 7158 days since a mass shooting in Australia.

  56. I disagree David. Would you prefer strangulation , or perhaps drowning? Maybe burnt alive? Give me a headshot any day.

  57. Randy, – do you have an official source for your statements? You see, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) the USA has the highest rate of diagnosed mental health issues in the world at 26.7% of the its total population.
    Australia comes in 13.9%.
    Based on your comments, I suspect you’re part of a growing minority…

  58. @Stiv. I feel that as a society of responsible adults we realise that the vast majority of us have no need for firearms therefore our government restricts access to them so the individuals who are troubled or just plain crazy don’t have easy access to them. If I as a responsible adult wish to own a firearm I can do so provided I am of sound mind am not a criminal and HAVE A PURPOSE FOR IT. Sport shooting, farmers all fine just get your licence and away you go.
    Mick

  59. To be fair, it’s a lot easier to smuggle illegal firearms into California (Mexico) than a remote continent like Australia. The comparison isn’t valid.

  60. Cannot get over the amount of angry yanks when they have the tall of gun control raised with them. They sit behind their keyboards just getting angry for the fact the rest of the western world isn’t so pig headed about not seeing why a civilian needs an assault rifle.

    Pro tip mass murder is more than one a gun death in Martin place isn’t a mass murder guys

  61. Let’s get this straight Australia is one of the world great democracies, woman got the vote in the 1890’s (well before the USA) and people have an absolute right to express their opinions about just about anything or anyone. These rights are not predicated on the right to own weapons of mass killings like high powered rifles. Wake up america you’re the laughing stock of the civilised world. The civilised Western world is looking to America for inspiration. The gun disaster is not the way.

  62. Gun control is the core element of complete suppression by governments against people (no guns no defense). The whole world is under attack by subversive pacts signed as “humanitarian” deed on behalf of states accross the globe. The goal is to take the guns away from people so they could move along with their plans. Whenever the USA is going to be stripped of sidearm through UN sanctions (high treason commited by the government since they do not have the authority to do it so: read declaration of independnce!) the whole planet will lose its defensive stance against the rulers. The USA is the last safe haven for humanity by having sidearms, showing they can elliminate oppressive governments AT ONCE! Do not give in to such articles. There is much more to it. MIND CONTROL!. Listen to this broadcats by Bill Cooper who was murdered by the governments to silence him since he aired the cruel facts. It is approximately 90 mins. Will UNWASH your brain. Part1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOX_qDcVFFU Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lZwwijG3j8

  63. Just reading all the comments about Americans who apparently know more about violence in Australia than *actual Australians who live in Australia*. You’re all full of shit, to put it bluntly.

    “The trouble with anti gun rhetoric is it ignores the fact that just as many people have died in mass killings except by other means such as knives or fires.” No, incorrect. Our OVERALL HOMICIDE RATE (not just from firearms) is about 3.5 times less than the USA. I can’t remember the last time since Port Arthur (1996) that more than 4 people died in a single deliberate human act, other than say… a bushfire. Of those, I recall 2 over my entire lifetime.

    “Perhaps the rate of mental illness in Australia had something to do with it: Conceived as a penal colony and doubling as an asylum, Australia was the repository for a majority of the mental defectives from Great Britain for decades. That nation holds the record for the highest percentage of diagnosed mental illness inhabitants of any country in the world.”

    Going back over 200 years to typecast our society? OK, so I guess Americans are a bunch of religious outcasts, fleeing from persecution, who saw fit to massacre a native people. Got it. As for “diagnosed mental illness”, that says just as much about a country’s medical system as it does about a people. Since medical care in Australia is essentially free, or at least extremely affordable, it’s not a stretch to imagine that MORE people seek help (and are therefore diagnosed).

    “These people don’t follow the law and have means to secure what the average citizen can not.” Of course. But given the enormous proliferation of guns all over the country, is it so hard to imagine that it’s actually *easier* for people to get hold of firearms illegally? It’s like vaccination, in a way. If 99% of the population is vaccinated, those who can’t vaccinate are protected anyway… they only end up being screwed by an increasing trend away from vaccination creating more vectors for infection. Likewise with gun control: in a society that makes it *stupidly easy* for people to acquire guns, of course it’s going to therefore be quite easy for people to acquire them illegally. Here in Australia, if I was asked to go and “acquire” a gun (wink wink) I wouldn’t even know where to start. 3 weeks in Vegas and I learned the name of someone who was willing to hook up immigrants with a firearm “for a fee” (no, I don’t remember the name).

    I really just wonder how it’s possible for pro-gun types to ignore the statistics that are laid out BARE right in front of their faces. 3.8 per 100,000 homicide rate. Australia, with all its amazing similarities and parallels with the USA (part of what makes us such good friends)… 1.1 per 100,000.

  64. With respect to the Lindt cafe shooting… Only one person was actually shot by the offender, which makes it not a mass shooting by definition. The other people shot (2 dead including the offender and 4 wounded including a police officer), were all shot by the police during the raid.

  65. The USA can’t have gun control because it’s impossible to amend the US constitution and thus the 2nd amendment. I hope people understand that. The USA is not a democracy.

  66. Except americans aren’t allowed to vote. They’re allowed to have guns, but not vote. The SCOTUS strikes down laws all the time, rendering USA non-democratic. What if the American people wanted to vote for gun control.

  67. The Lindt cafe shooting was not a mass shooting. He shot 1 person. Yes he took multiple people hostage, but the article isnt about mass hostage taking events, it is about mass shootings. 1 person losing their life at the hands of the deranged gunman does not qualify as a mass shooting. The 2nd person was shot by police during a rescue attempt. May they both rest in peace.

  68. Just let me get this right…. You’re comparing the 1 shooting in which 3 people died, 1 of which was the gunman and another unfortunately was killed accidentally by a police bullet to a mass killing that happens every day. Ahhh…now I understand the flawed logic

    David Pickford – what a load of rubbish. Just because you day it doesn;t mean it’s true. Share the evidence that supports your assertion.

    I love this arguments that a particular state has the strictest gun laws. What, so people are unable to purchase in another state and bring them in?

    Hey Stiv… Yeah…like we all just sit there and do as the government tells us. Have you actually been outside of the US? Probably not

  69. Yeah and clearly they fail at that expectation of great things. Hence the shootings. And no one here cares for government control over what we do like “small children.” We’re just not dumbfuck enough to think that owning a gun will do anything to stop the whacko’s. Civilisations succeed when people work together, not act like little shits that think that it’s all about themselves. Taking an article about people being mass murdered and trying to turn it into americans-are-better-than-everyone-else is fucked up. And as I pointed out above its wrong because you fuck up when given the expectation of “great things”. As if owning a gun out of fear is supposed to be a great thing. Now take your pseudo superiority complex and shove it.

  70. Lindt cafe. How many did he shoot? 2?
    Doesn’t it need to be 4 or some such number to”qualify” as a mass shooting?
    He wanted to kill a lot more, but because of our progressive gun laws he could only get access to grandpa’s shotgun.
    Had he been able to get hold of an assault rifle or 3 I’m sure the toll would have been much higher.
    You guys in America hang on to your freedom. I’ll take ours any day.
    Of the 350 mass shootings in the US this year (yes, this year) how many lives were saved by an armed citizen? (In fact how many saved in the past 30 years – i think it’s the same number)

  71. Definition of a mass shooting is 4 or more shootings in one event. So the author is incorrect on that Australia hasn’t had any since the port arthur event. However it should be pointed out that before 1996 gun control laws, Australia went from having 13 massacres from shootings over 18 years, to having one since 1996. Which shows that the gun control laws have reduced the amount of these events in Australia. Events like the Lindt Cafe shooting is also an example of where gun control laws working, if that gunmen would have been able to get access to more powerful guns that are freely available in the US, then the death toll would have been much higher and it would have been a massacre. Just because those laws have reduced the rate of shootings and massacres in Australia, doesn’t mean the gun controls laws have been effective in Australia doesn’t mean in other parts of the world that have different cultures and already have a high amount of guns per a capita they would work. Australian’s gun culture has always been different, and the amount of gun ownership per a capita has always been lower. The fact Australia has the advantage of isolation making it much harder to import illegal weapons in also makes it easier for Australia to control the weapons from reaching the wrong type of people. The propaganda about crime rate increasing in Australia since the introduction of tougher gun control is uninformed and comparing crime rates between different countries with vastly different laws can be misleading too.

  72. *for those posting re Lindt cafe siege; a mass shooting is defined as four or more killed.
    *for those questioning why he mentioned a ‘white male’; that is because statistically they represent the overwhelming majority of perpetrators for this type of crime.
    *for those of you who just aren’t that sharp – the author is also ‘taking the piss out of you’, as we would say here in Oz..

    As for those still trying to peddle the old ‘guns don’t kill people’ and ‘it’s my right as an American’ gibberish, I am just not sure you (as a group) realize just how ignorant and misinformed you seem to most logical people from outside the U.S.A. How can the solution to this ever increasing barrage of mass civilian shootings possibly be more guns? The NRA and Co. feed your ignorance with flawed logic, inaccurate statistics and general fear mongering, while you help line the pockets of their sponsors. Before you bother ranting at me, I am not anti-gun, I am going for my gun licence early next year and do plan to buy a rifle. But it has no place in my city home, or in a modern city at all for that matter, and will be kept at the range and taken out bush on the rare occasion. Responsible, regulated gun ownership is possible America, we have been doing it for twenty years – and it works just fine.

  73. Per 100,000 residents in Australia, less than 1 are expected to be killed by a firearm this year. This is heavily contrasted to the 10.5 in 100,000 who will be killed in America.
    How you conveniently missed the FACT that the USA has MORE THAN 10 times as many people as Australia. Australia has 23.1 million people, the USA has MORE THAN 330 million people. So I’d say per capita, Australia has a higher Mass murder rate than the USA…peace out

  74. A mass shooting is classified as 4 or more victims. While the Lindt cafe seige was tragic it doesn’t come under mass shooting category as there were 2 victims killed.

  75. A mass shooting is considered to be 4 or more victims, the lindt Cafe, was 1 victim, killed by the nutjob, and one victim and the nutjob, by Swat… so it doesn’t count as a mass shooting. Yes, there are still death by firearms in Australia, the difference is, Nutjobs don’t have access to Military style assault weapons, and with having to have a firearms permit, back ground checks are done, only those who fit the criteria of responsible gun owner , can own a firearm. a few slip through the net, but in the USA loonies with guns appear to be the norm, rather than the exception

  76. “I don’t think America should be so hard on itself about the mental state of thousands of lonely white virgins. We have those people too,”

    “I think America needs to realise that it’s not really the criminals you need to worry about as such. I’d be more concerned about the weirdos,”

    Ok, thanks for the heads up….I’ll be on the look out for white virgin weirdo’s, you know because they’re probably planning a mass shooting……SMH

  77. In the case of the attack in Sydney… that was a planned terrorist attack. It was not a random mass shooting. The fact that so many people are trying to latch on to that one event is ridiculous. The problem in the US is the mass shootings that are going on almost every day. No other democratic country has that problem.

  78. @some1ntyyme California has strict gin laws? Surely all the US has strict gin laws as per the 18th amendment of the US constitution, and being part of the constitution is set in stone?

  79. I guess the author doesn’t count the Hunt Family Murders as a mass shooting? Because it would count in the U.S.

    There have been many massacres since Port Arthur, but I guess it doesn’t matter as long as you weren’t shot? Killed with a blunt instrument, stabbed, or burned to death is fine and dandy…

    We haven’t had 300+ mass shooting this year, that number comes from a reddit list that use much more broad terms than the FBI, etc. If someone accidentally dischareges a shotgun, and puts a pellet into 4 friends causing no serious injuries and no criminal charges are filled, it counts as a mass shooting on that list.

    That same list had 363 mass shootings in 2013 in the U.S. The FBI counted 17…

    Bear in mind comparing gross numbers is silly when Australia has the same population as LA County in the U.S.

    “”Russian-made automatic assault rifles ”

    They were semi-auto, not automatic… Automatic rifles ARE NOT easy to come by in the States.

  80. As an Australian living in the USA for the last 25 years I have some interesting facts to present. In WW2 the Japanese were unwilling to invade the US because of the armed population. The British were armed by US citizens in WW2 with donated weapons to repel Nazi Invaders. Americans have always been free to decide on gun ownership. I have owned a concealed weapon permit since my arrival. I am a former soldier and weapons instructor in the Australian Army. I decided long ago to be in a position to defend family and friends, (or innocent bystanders), from armed aggressors. If trained gun owners were present at all of our mass shooting sites, the death toll would have been much lower. Terrorists pick vulnerable targets like schools, Christmas gatherings, etc, where armed resistance would be non-existent. I expect that ISIS and others will mount a significant number of attacks in the US and around the world, (including unarmed Australia) in the forthcoming years, (probably weeks and months). I would hate my last thoughts to be, as I watched my loved ones and friends being slaughtered, “I wish I had something to fight back with”. Guns don’t kill people. People, (particularly the mentally disturbed, ) kill people. Well-meaning politicians and activists want to take our means of self-defense away, instead of tightening controls over the radicals and mentally disturbed. Like Australia has experienced, the criminals will always have access to guns and will not submit to weapons registration. Paris has very strict gun controls, but AK 47’s still appear. I have no answer to the violence in the world, or how it can be solved. I do know, however, that I will be ready and able to save innocent lives if the need arises. I hope it doesn’t. Sheep are lead to the slaughter because they have no means of fighting back. The US Supreme Court has reinforced the Right To Keep And Bear Arms on numerous occasions. Tens of Millions of Americans want to retain the right to self-defense against criminals and terrorists. It amazes me that we lose 25,000 innocent drivers a year to drunk drivers, and 500,000 to tobacco-related issues, including secondary smoke, but we conveniently don’t try to restrict those products that cause more death and carnage than all of the criminals and terrorist in the world combined.

  81. A mass killing can still happen in Oz and you don’t need a gun (see below). The point is this, bad people who want to harm others will find a way to carry out their terror. I’m not yet a gun owner but if I decide to purchase one, I’ll go through the process and get the proper training to carry. With so many nuts and psychos becoming inspired by what they see on TV and the web, I’d like to have a fighting chance against those who wish us harm. Think about this, If one person (besides the two killers) had a gun in that room then many lives may have been saved.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/australia/11302916/Eight-children-murdered-in-mass-stabbing-in-Australia.html

  82. Just face it these Americans just won’t listen and don’t understand. No we are not all mentally well that is why I am glad that me and others can’t get out hands on guns whenever we feel like it.

  83. The fact that people die from events that are not shootings doesn’t mean that we should do nothing about those who die from shootings. It’s like saying “well, just as many people die from heart disease as from car crashes, so why make cars safer?” Guns are an incredibly efficient tool for killing. Let’s not just shrug our shoulders and ignore that fact.

  84. We here in the USA are looking to find ways to cease the current trend of using Assault Rifles to murder people. Here are a few ideals we have come up with:
    1. Deport the families of the Attacker – It may give these cowards pause if they know their actions will ruin the lives of their loved ones.
    2. Have every citizen serve in the military for two years minimum – much like Israel, this will make all people between the ages of 18 and 60 much better prepared to deal with these cowardly scum.
    3. Ban Assault Rifles from civilian use – Hand Guns and Hunting Rifles to remain legal.
    4. Terminate Firearm ownership from anyone that has a criminal record – Scum should lose the right to gun ownership.
    5. Terminate Firearm ownership from anyone on Medication that effects the Mind – Obviously
    6. Increase the Police Force nation wide by 100% – The greater the number of Peace Keepers, the less chance of Scum taking out their insecurities on others.

    Obviously some of these are far-fetched, but we are desperate to find real solutions that will stop us being the laughing stock of the world. It is pathetic and must cease. Rather than just whining are there any other ideals?

  85. Someone can fact check? Good job Eric. Nice to know not everyone is such a sheep and believes every piece of propaganda written… as long as it is in line with their views.

  86. When you are taken over by the Chinese People’s Army……enjoy…..
    I see all of the stabbings going on there in your peaceful country of non “projectile” weaponry….Morons abound everywhere…..

  87. Do you want fact, or just rhetoric? Because the facts show that Australia has a mass shooting just last year, and another instance of a hostage situation with a totally illegal sawed-off shotgun. They also show that mass arson attacks, stabbings, & blunt instrument attacks continue.

    The facts show that suicides, homicides, domestic homicides, & accidental gun deaths did *not* go down with the 1996 gun ban. The facts also show that 53 more people died in the 18 years before Port Arthur than in the 18 years after … but that includes the 35 (God rest their souls) at Port Arthur. 53 people in 18 years in a population of 18 million is so small as to be merely a result of chance.

    So the facts show that while the 1996 ban *reduced* the number of mass *shootings*, it saved almost no, or no, lives at all.

  88. Just look at the facts. Why are you people soooo blind. Carry on with what you are doing. Survival of the fittest at work!!!!!

  89. What ever happened to “reporting the facts..” “doing your homework”. Utilizing one’s own opinion is what gets everyone in trouble. Incites riots . Incites revenge. Incites radical, religious , racist, actions. Opinions are not facts. Can’t believe I just wasted my time posting this is well. Makes me angry.

  90. The odd shooting like the Sydney has occurred yes and 2 people died as a result. We had a man in my town shot and killed by a relative as well. The article isn’t saying that shooting people doesn’t occur. Just that mass shootings don’t occur. Sydney was not a mass shooting. The last one I can remember with any great knowledge was the Port Arthur massacre in 1996. I remember that vividly, it was exactly one year to the day that we were there on are honeymoon. Yes there has been arson and stabbing sprees, and family shootings but nothing on the scale you find in America. It simply doesn’t happen due to the gun regulations. Yes I can own a gun if I want to, but why would I want to. It isn’t a God given right. there is no such thing…remember a little commandment…..Thou shalt not KILL…guns kill.

  91. A mass shooting is more than 2 in Australia (I think its more than 4 in the US). Only 2 people died at the Lindt Cafe. One of those was shot by the police accidentally. The gunman actually only killed one because he had an antique shotgun rather than an assault rifle.

  92. Re: the Sydney shooting – it does not meet the criteria for a “mass shooting” (actually “mass murder”), missing the threshold of “four or more killed” by one.

  93. Though many people in Sydney were shot, for it to be a “mass shooting(TM)” 4 or more people need to have been killed. The number here was 3, so the article is accurate.

  94. Accepted definition of a mass murder is 4 victims killed. 2 were killed in Sydney plus the shooter. 2 is less than 4. Thus, NOT a mass murder. Tragic yes, but if you counted all gun violence in the US where 2 people and more were killed the numbers would rise very quickly! And the discussion her is about GUN violence, not knife violence (…now that’s a knife!).

  95. The Lindt shooting wasn’t a mass shooting, so the article is correct. A mass shooting is over 4 people killed, It is terrible for even one person to lose their life but this is by all Gov.standards.

  96. Coming from a farm down-under, I will never understand how an intentionally lethal device has become culturally enshrined and worshipped to the point where effectively controlling its repeated and demonstrated killing is not a rational decision for the majority. While you continue to claim that the right to fire a lethal projectile while using prayer and fear to stop the killing, is better than any alternative , you will struggle to gain the respect of most other Western nations who’ve looked at the facts and seen how gun control improves things.

  97. I guess it shows Americans can be adult about things…sure there are nuts out there who will shoot up a place..then again there are nuts out there who will knife a few folks too….I rather love the fact that I can and DO own guns…but guns are not the problem people are. And surely I dont need a government body to tell me whether I can or can not own a fire arm! My parents are dead and I sure dont need some self appointed elitist to dictate to me!

  98. The article is correct in saying that no MASS shooting has occurred on Australian soil for 7158 days. A mass shooting is defined as one in which 4 or more people lose their lives, this can include both victims and perpetrators. However tragic the Lindt cafe siege was, it is not classified statistically as a mass shooting, thankfully, just 3 people lost their lives…
    Thank you John Howard, Australian PM, 1995.

  99. In response to the anti-anti-gun rhetoric chap, no, no you are wrong. I live in Australia and read the newspapers and travel the whole country. There are not as many people being killed by knives or fires as a result of the restrictions we have on firearms here. They just don’t. If there were however my country people (hard to argue with the response about mental illness, everyone knows living in the sun is depressing which is why so many nutters go on those ‘holidays’ every year) would do something about it. The Sydney cafe siege was acted about by a mentally unwell criminal not a terrorist, not a violent Muslim. He took hostages and they attempted to negotiate him out (see the difference here already US he would have killed everyone immediately because he knows everyone around him is armed too, military state?) he killed someone the police went in and a second hostage died from crossfire injury. That wouldn’t be newsworthy in the US at the moment. Here the whole country stopped, was appalled and a national enquiry ensued to look at why the courts let this criminal on the streets. The U.S. is seen with pity by the rest of the world as a dangerous place where people are so frightened of one another they all have to be armed. When, when when will you all get together to acknowledge proliferation of guns, like everywhere, results in more gun deaths? It’s the same with food too by the way.

  100. It occurs to me that while all Americans are allowed to or do carry firearms, with all these mass shootings none of them have the balls to actually use the fire arm to defend themselves !!!
    300 plus mass shootings this year and not one shooter shot by a civilian,
    The Yanks are a bigger threat to themselves than the Muslim they are so intent on destroying !!

  101. Do some fact checking before you write your articles of lies and disinfo.
    A shooting spree by Huan Yun Xiang, a student at Monash University killing 2 in 21 October 2002.
    A shooting that took place on 29 April 2011, in Hectorville, South Australia.Three of whom died, and also wounded two police officers.
    Why is this editor so racist and sexist to white men.

  102. How stupid are all of these people talking about the hostage situation in Sydney last yr.
    Your idiots. 3 people died. To be considered a mass shooting 4 or more innoccent people need to diem and 1 of those 3 was the hostage taker. So technically it was two.
    Not a mass shooting. Imagine if the idiot had easy acces to assult weapons like you idiots in America do. Then it would have been alot more deaths. So actually its proof that gun control works.
    Fricking nra gun loving hicks

  103. No body likes to have their country denigrated especially from anybody that does not live there and with what is probably an incomplete knowledge of the people and culture. All countries, including Australia, compile murder statistics because murder is a reality in all countries. The main difference is the rate of mass killings in the USA compared to other western democratic nations. Mass killings have occurred in Australia but when it does occur generally we have to go back many years to remember the last one. In the USA you only ever have to go back to the morning of that day or the previous afternoon or evening. USA you have a problem, a very serious problem. Wake up to your very real and dangerous reality. When Martin Bryant murdered those 30 to 40 strangers the Australian Government took action. When mass killings occur in the USA what is noticeable is the complete inaction. What you do get is the voiced and selfish self interest masquerading as liberty. To voice and paraphrase an oft used expression – Evil flourishes when good men and women do nothing. No citizen of the US can ever be certain now that they or their family or friends won’t fall victim to the next dysfunctional, disturbed individual.

  104. Please readers recognise that this article is trying to put a bit of humour into a very dark space. For those who point to the Lindt Café event was it a mass shooting? One person was killed, possibly by the gun man and the other was killed by a ricocheting police bullet. Regardless gun violence is much more than the mass shootings as most will be singular events, domestic violence in the extreme, accidental shootings and suicide. If there are lots of guns around, lots of people are going to die. Most Australians don’t need or want guns and that is our secret.

  105. A few people have made reference to the Lindt Café siege – as “evidence” or “example” that Australia is hypocritical and “full of kangaroo faeces” (they’re right, it is, just not on this point) – this piece is still correct in that there have been no “mass murders” in Australia in nearly 20 years now (mass murder being defined (by the FBI?) as 4 or more fatalities); the inquest into the incident showed that the hostage taker himself killed one hostage; the other two deaths, of the perpetrator and a hostage were due to police bullets during the rescue operation following the first gunshot (which resulted in the death of the first hostage). Personally, I think banning the sale of military/assault weapons to civilians is a good thing.

    I think Australian comedian Jim Jefferies sums it up nicely in this 15 minute stand-up routine (lots of swearing) – http://m.liveleak.com/view?i=89d_1411198955

  106. while tragic its only 2, so not a mass shooting, I live in Australia,and since 1996 there has only been 1 mass shooting where a guy killed his family, we may be a small country, but that’s almost a 20 year period, how many mass shootings have you had this month?

  107. You might want to do some research because banning assault weapons had no effect on anything.

    The Clinton ban of ’94 had a zero sum effect on violent crime in America. Crime was on the decline when that ban passed, and violent crime stayed on the decline after that ban expired. Violent crime continues to decline today. That ban also led to the Republican sweep of both houses and the White House in the following election cycles- not to mention the ouster of then Speaker of the House (and WA State icon) Tom Foley. Little surprise that the wholesale alienation of over 100 million law abiding gun owners would cause a backlash, especially when compounded by all the spiteful rhetoric promoted and fostered by the likes of the Huffington Post

    And as far as mass shootings (defined as four or more people shot, and not including gang shootings and such), they’ve gone way, way, way up under Obama. Even the left-leaning rag Mother Jones has published information on mass shootings by year. From 2000 to 2004, there was at most one mass shooting and oftentimes NO mass shooting each year.

    Information, including the link to Mother Jones research found here:

    http://abcnews.go.com/ABC_Univision/News/mass-shootings-rise-us/story?id=17978004

    *Quote*
    When you look at a list of mass shootings in the last 30 years, in which a single gunman killed at least four people, this year does have the highest number of incidents with six mass shooting incidents excluding today’s tragedy, according to a list compiled this year by Mother Jones. The Aurora movie theater shooting in Colorado, the Sikh shooting in Wisconsin, and the Seattle cafe shooting are among this year’s massacres.

    And the last few years have also had slightly higher incidents than those in the past three decades. Six of the 12 deadliest shootings have taken place since 2007, and Newton will rank second on that list, according to a report done by The Washington Post.

    In 2011 there were three such tragedies, including the Tucson shooting which injured Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.). In 2010, there was one killing classified as a mass shooting. And in 2009 there were four tragedies, among them, the Fort Hood massacre in Texas, in which Army psychiatrist Nidal Malik Hasan, opened fire at a U.S. Army base.

    Between the years of 2000 and 2004, however, there was either one mass-shooting incident or no incident each year.
    *End Quote*

  108. In 1996 as a 19 year old I went to Australia as a student studying over seas from America. As I was walking down an Australian Street I saw a woman sitting on the side of the curb wailing and balling. As I ran over to assist I saw she was covered in blood from head to toe. All up and down her arms were slashes and cuts. In her had was a broken beer bottle. I ran into the bar she was sitting outside of to call for an ambulance. The bar tender informed me that her boyfriend just broke up with her… Maybe if Australia would have outlawed boyfriends, beer, and glass bottles none of this would have happened. Shame on you Australia for not outlawing boyfriends, beer, and glass bottles! Clearly these things were the issue and not her mental state.

  109. Walt
    You just let the kids
    And
    Innocents get gunned down
    99 percent of the time it is the police that stop these nut jobs not citizens self defence
    Less guns less chances straight Math
    God given right don’t drag him into it that’s just an excuse
    Fact we bought in gun control Mass shootings stopped No god involved just politicians with enough guts to stand up for the majority

    We’re happy your call when more kid die

  110. Australia is not filled with gang violence and crime, you lying twit. If someone was gangraped, beaten and left to die in a field it would have made the national news in Australia, it didn’t happen. Take your gun nut lies elsewhere.

  111. The gunman in the lindt cafe situation didn’t kill anyone. And chances are with a sawn off shotgun, the most he would have been able to do is shoot one person Before the police shot him also. That’s the real difference. It’s not 15 people who die BEFORE emergency services get there. It’s one round.

  112. quote: The trouble with anti gun rhetoric is it ignores the fact that just as many people have died in mass killings except by other means such as knives or fires

    yes, we’ve read all about those mass murders with knife fights. But, for those that haven’t read about those mass murders (like all of us). Can you help me out. In the last 10 years how many mass murders from knive fights have there been?

  113. Common sense.
    1. No civilian needs a gun in an urban area. Farmers only need one bolt action rifle “ever”.
    2. It took a great deal of time and effort for our Aussie govt to cull down firearms to the point where it became hard to get them. We are still fighting that fight, and winning.
    3. Criminals generally only attack their own kind with guns when “deals” go wrong.
    4. If you can’t get an automatic or semi automatic weapon, you have much more chance of being stopped before more die.
    Simple as that.

  114. Ok first off if you don’t reside here I don’t care about your opinion. Switzerland owns more guns than the US yet have a low crime rate. Yet guns are evil apparently. And gun control is so great at stopping violence that South America has a four times or higher crime rate. Case closed.

  115. It’s a little bit funny because we can still own guns in Australia. Anyone with permission to shoot on a rural property owners land can own a rifle. You are just subjected to police checks for a licence and can’t buy a gun without said licence. Also subject to random door knocks from the cops to check your gun is locked in an approved gun safe.
    Criminals also still have guns….
    Case in point…Monis who shot 1 person before he was shot (Lindt Cafe Siege) never had a gun license, the weapon that Monis used was a sawn-off French made Manufrance La Salle pump-action shotgun that was more than 50 years old.

    Gun control didn’t stop him. Gun control doesn’t stop any criminal or nutjob from getting a gun or alternative weapon. Our lack of mass murder sprees probably has more to do with a low population of only 24 million and a good health care system including mental health and early intervention on crazy.

  116. I would also observe that the 10.5 per 100k figure for the United States includes gun suicides, which outnumber gun homicides 2 to 1. The overall U.S. gun homicide rate is 3.5 per 100k. Overall suicide rate for Australia is slightly lower (10.6 per 100K) than for the U.S. (12.1) though it is doubtful if the difference can be attributed to firearms ownership, given that very high suicide rates are encountered in many countries where gun ownership is rare.

    I would also observer that the U.S. gun homicide rate has fallen by about 50% since 1993, due to many factors, gun control not being among them, so anyone who thinks that Australia’s decline in gun homicides results from firearms laws should bear in mind that post hoc, ergo propter hoc is an elementary logical fallacy. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/10/21/gun-homicides-steady-after-decline-in-90s-suicide-rate-edges-up/

    And I would also observe that no U.S. mass shooting (whatever that means, the author does not define it) has involved a “machine gun”. The police officer quoted here apparently does not know what a machine gun is. A machine gun fires multiple times with a single function of the trigger. An autoloading or semi-automatic gun fires once per function of the trigger.

  117. The author was pretty clear about MASS SHOOTINGS by crazed and probably drugged up gunmen, opening fire at basically anybody for no good reason.

  118. Wow! the comments coming from those pro-gun respondents are ignorant beyond the belief! How anyone can defend gun ownership as exists in the US using fatuous (I think that’s the word?) examples as cited, beggars belief. The stats are there folks and cannot be denied! I gave up 3 guns during John Howard’s gun buyback scheme and am grateful for that every day! How did gun ownership by the general citizenry help stop/prevent the most recent carnage in the US, a defence often cited by those deluded idiots from the NRA? Anyway, better stop, I’m off to enjoy another peaceful day knowing there’s next to no chance of getting shot.

  119. It is accepted worldwide that a mass shooting needs to involve 4 or more dead (or is 3 – i am not sure) – so the Lindt cafe siege does not qualify as a mass shooting. In the 18 years prior to the Port Arthur massacre Australia has 13 mass shootings (Hoodle St, Queen st etc). In the time since Port Arthur Australia has had 0.

    Just an FYI for those who claim that the author’s memory is defective……..

  120. I get the spirit of the article but the U.S. homicide rate (all causes, not just firearms) was 3.8 / 100,000 in 2013, not 10.5.

    Still much higher than Australia yes but nowhere near 10.5, nor has their rate been at that level in recent memory (they came close in 1980 at 10.2)

  121. Worldtraveler ends their comment above with this “The reality is that gun ownership has no effect on murder and crime. (It makes no difference)…Sorry but this isn’t true. A city in Georgia passed a law that if you are a homeowner, you must be a license gun owner…here is the link, read the short version and results for yourself! http://www.wnd.com/2007/04/41196/ or google, GA city were you must own a gun if homeowner and read any of the stories!

  122. Man Haram Monis very likely didn’t even get to fire the shotgun because it was registered with the federal registry in Canberra, but not in the state registry in Sydney, meaning that it was handed him by a govt agent, since anyone buying a gun has it first registered at the state level before the details are passed on to the Canberra registry.
    What I mean by it likely not being fired is that the govt agent probably had the firing pin removed beforehand.
    The two hostages were most probably killed by police bullets because they were determined to kill him before he could give himself up, and in their haste accidentally killed the two innocents.
    The govt could not allow Monis to be brought to trial, or his grooming by the govt would all come out, including the fact that Iran was refused their extradition request made several times, based on outstanding fraud charges.

  123. Yes and on the 5 dec 2015, 2 days after this report, there was a GUN related siege that lasted 7 hours in Victoria, Very Safe indeed,
    I don’t know what country your in but the gun violence has not stopped.
    2002- Monash shooting,2011 SA shooting,Martin place siege,a 15 year old shooting at police, in Victoria police getting shot. Peaceful maybe for you but not for us
    If you know anything about guns you would know the an AR 15 is not used by any military anywhere in the world to shoot down helicopters.
    You Claim victory by ignoring the facts and lying to your readers

  124. No disrespect but, the Sydney shooter only shot one person. The other was shot by police. Technically not a mass shooting. As for the others saying Australia his full of mentally ill people etc, may be true, but they are all alive. As for the nutjobs, they have time to settle down without access to a rifle and therefore, nothing happens.

  125. There has not been that many mass shootings. The homicide rate went up when Australia disarmed law abiding citizens. Crime has also increase. Here in the US the crime rate steadily declines when gun sales increase. Go figure. Also…we had another beautiful day in the US with all those 80 million gun owners.

  126. Which is why you Aussies should stay down where you’re at. You women can keep getting abused by your half whitted Aussie men, and then when a group of US Marines pull in you can keep cheating on them with us…that’s all you’re good for anyway!

    You men…if that’s what you call yourselves…keep verbally and physically abusing your women…it makes you more manly. You all are mad because you’re still living in the shadow of your master (Great Brittian). You have bigger problems that require more attention than guns anyway… We’re doing just fine, I personally have more guns than some towns have people…literally and more ammo than most sporting goods stores after re supply. NOT ONE of them have ever shot a helicopter out of the sky, or killed anyONE person let alone a “mass” of them…so what happens when all those refugees rise up and start imposing sharia law on you guys? In such large numbers your police with their whistles and Billy clubs can’t do anything about it? You’re gonna get your asses shot off and blown up, just like Paris did…then what??

  127. Lindt Café Sydney Shooter killed one person…another died from a police bullet ricochet. So it was not technically a mass shooting…there are still fruit loops here, and yes only 23m against 340m: but the figures are 10.5 per 100,000 killed in US against less than 1 per 100,000 in Australia. People can still own weapons…shotguns and the like, but are not allowed to own weapons similar to an AR15 or anything high powered. If the Lindt Café Shooter had access to an AK47 or AR15 then for sure it would have been a mass shooting…but he only had a shotgun. This goes to prove that Australia has it right…same as Canada, UK and most European Countries…in fact almost 100% of other westernised countries around the world, only the USA has this as a huge problem. The NRA and it’s supporters must be so proud of their stance and happy to see 33000+ per year die from guns.

  128. Why would the average normal person need a gun for any away? unless you are a farmer and need to kill wild animals, they should not be in the hands of people who would use them in a fit of anger, jealousy or insanity.

  129. What a load of rubbish. You can’t kill as many people with one knife as you can with one gun and to say that as many people have died from non gun related mass killings is patently false

  130. “Nutjobs” ability to kill and maim innocent bystanders is severely restricted by a lack of firearms. We put up with them muttering instead.

  131. Hang the fuck on…….. out off all the comments only one person has picked up on the fact that apparently it’s only white people this has helped. .. if it has helped at all….. like any society these days there are still murders and are not all white….. I find this quite rasist…. but I guess I’m white so this doesn’t count……..

  132. Sadly, the point of the article is overshadowed by the pathetically gloating tone – all the more since it is a response to 14 people losing their lives. This says more about the quality of the writer than the point that tighter gun control in the US is needed. Not a very intelligently written piece unfortunately.

  133. Is the author or editor of this rag going to print a retraction and acknowledge the attack of almost one year ago today in Sydney???

  134. Australia has had “mass shootings.” It’s how you define “mass shooting.” Mimi Johanson quotes the “354 mass shootings this year.” That number includes two kids that shot people with a BB gun. Nobody killed, nobody hospitalized. The criteria is that at least four people are injured. Compare that to the FBI with the standard of 3 or more people killing in one shooting.

    This brings us to the Hectorville siege in 2011. Six people were shot and three died. How is this not a mass shooting?

    Then there’s the Hunt family massacre. Five shot dead there.

    Point is, depending on how you count, Australia still has mass shootings or it doesn’t. However, the nation also has a number of multiple deaths due to arson and knives.

    2011 Hectorville siege – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia – https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Hectorville_siege

    Mass Shooting Tracker’s definition of a mass shooting as any gun violence event in which 4 people including the shooter
    Fact Check: 355 Mass Shootings So Far in 2015? – Ben Swann’s Truth In Media – http://truthinmedia.com/fact-check-355-mass-shootings-far-2015/

  135. Re: Lindt cafe shooting. The gunman killed one hostage. The police shot the gunman and another hostage. Hardly a mass shooting.

  136. It’s the mindset and the availability. Take away the guns and you will probably see more pipebombs being thrown in theaters etc.

  137. Australia never had a “Constitutional Right” to own weapons. And it was not exactly a weapons ban. It was a buyback.

    Australians has never had to worry about defending themselves against their own government as it’s becoming increasingly more obvious Americans may have to be able to protect itself against both tyranny and terrorism.

    Accidents are the fourth leading killer in America. Accidents with guns are listed by the CDC as fourth under that sub heading.
    Suicide is the number one cause of death by firearm. Not mass shootings. More depressed, deranged people end their own lives without considering taking others. Without help, these unfortunate people will find other ways.

    People who commit mass shootings, be it deranged Americans or terrorists, have a death wish and their goal is to go out in a blaze of glory. Take away guns and there are plenty of web sites explaining in detail how to build bombs. There won’t be any effort to shut these sites down until bombs become more commonly used.

    People will find ways, legally or not, to commit their crimes. Taking guns is not the answer. Maybe making them inaccessible to crazy people would help but how do you go about that?

  138. Nick Meinzer, what you are describing is the prefatory clause (a reason among others as to the need of the 2nd Amendment) to justify your collectivist argument. The operative clause guarantees that the 2nd Amendment is an individual right, even though the term ‘the people’ is used. There are other instances in the Constitution where the term ‘The people’ and it is understood to be an individual right: “the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances” and “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures…” are a couple of examples. Moreover, if you look at the pattern of The Bill of Rights, there is a pattern favoring individual and states’ rights while there is no mention of federal rights. So, unless you understand the history of the Constitution, along with what was going on at that time period, coupled with court decisions, do not call others idiots or boneheads. Please, please, please do not ask me why a person needs an automatic weapon (as that is a strawman argument) to hunt or anything else. There are laws in place for the average person to not be able to acquire said weapons. Said weapons are acquired illegally. Additionally, you put your trust in a government who performed a gun-walking operation only to have those weapons involved in the deaths of 2 Border Patrol agents? If the federal government can’t adequately protect its own agents/employees, how can it protect you? You should be able to protect yourself with anything, since the average police response is 12 minutes. The beauty of the 2nd Amendment is that you don’t have to exercise said right. If you find a firearm repugnant, feel free to defend yourself with a golf club, machete, slingshot, taster gun, harpoon, crossbow, bow and arrow, an axe, etc… .

  139. — Sexual assault
    There was a 3.3% increase in the number of sexual assault victims in Australia, from 20,025 in 2013 to a five year high of 20,677 in 2014.[11]
    In Australia during 2014:
    The sexual assault victimisation rate increased to a five year high of 88 victims per 100,000 persons;
    The majority of sexual assault victims (83% or 17,072 victims) were female;
    Persons aged 19 years and under accounted for 60% (12,446 victims) of all victims of sexual assault;
    Over a quarter (29% or 1,014 victims) of male sexual assault victims were aged 0–9 years;
    Over two-thirds (68% or 14,105 victims) of sexual assaults occurred at a residential location

  140. While the Sydney Lindt Cafe incident was certainly horrific, it does not qualify as a “mass shooting”. The term “mass shooting” refers to an incident where 4 or more people die as a result of gun fire. Hence this article is correct in the days stated since the last “mass shooting”. I do agree that the strict gun laws that we have in Australia are protective and effective in reducing gun crime.

  141. And the funny thing is that the gun nuts are so steeped in their delusion that they will see everything burn around them as long as they get to cuddle with their lead, it’s a sickness. And ironically most of them are the ones who put their faith in god lol

  142. Note that the number of deaths by firearms used in the article includes deaths by suicide, law enforcement, accident, self defense and all other causes. Perhaps the murder rate would be more significant.

    Murders per 100,000 people in 2012 (Wikipedia)
    Australia: 1.1
    USA: 3.8

    Contrast this to the total death for all reasons.

    Deaths per 100,000 people in 2015 (Estimated – CIA World Fact Book)
    Australia: 942
    USA: 815

    It appears that while you have over four times the chance of being murdered in the USA, you still have significantly better chance of living through the year there. Of course, like all figures, these could be justified or distorted to “prove” almost anything.

    Whatever the case, whether the murder rate was doubled or if all murders were eliminated, between 99% and 100% of the average number of people would still die. While even a single murder is horrible thing, neither country is greatly affected by it. Perhaps there are more important causes of death to examine.

  143. You idiots who still cling to the US ownership of guns not being the cause. Islamists take hostages? Get it right it was one dickhead and from memory he killed one person not 30 or injured 80 others. As for crime gangs owning guns, yes they do but that also was the point of the article. Someone from any part of the world find a news article about an Australian crime gang busting into a classroom and gunning down the students. Cant thats because of our strict gun laws you twats. Crime gangs wont be gunning down theaters full of people. US citizens need to grow up and realise you dont need to military grade weapons. sure a pump action shotgun can kill people but after the 8 or so rounds you fire you have to reload and it aint a quick thing to do. AK assault rifle just wack another 30 round magazine into the gun and keep firing. Dont you arse clowns see the difference? Probably not since it keeps happening.

  144. you sir obviously don’t know what the definition of ” a well regulated militia” is. All able bodied and armed men are candidates for service in a militia. The term “well regulated ” means well supplied. This is because by the very definition of militia, its members own the weapons they bear. Militia members are “NON REGULAR VOLUNTEERS” only regular military members are sworn to duty and supplied with weapons. Militias are every day young and old men who are called to duty on an as needed basis. A comparison would be to our modern volunteer fire departments. Our founders recognized the security of a free state depended on these volunteer men. Read your history and you MIGHT understand that the revolutionary war would never have been won without the Militia supporting our armed forces. Once again just in case you missed something….militia members are completely volunteers that bring their OWN WEAPONS to bear on the enemy thus the wording of “well regulated” which if you look in your dictionary means well supplied. A militia wouldn’t be well regulated/ supplied unless the American people were able to bear/ own weapons.

  145. Let me ask you this question; “How many Muslim refuges have you allowed to come into your country, 10,000 or 20,000 or more ?” Many of the concerns in the USA have been caused by radical Muslims. Why does your country not allow these refuges to come into your country ?

  146. And so the American ‘nut jobs’ are again defending their rights to arm themselves to the teeth, and use an ‘error’ in this article to point out that Australia has mass shootings (use the Lindt cafe as their supporting evidence). Only problem is that firstly, the gunmen took hostages (did not simply walk into the cafe and murder 14+ innocent people) and secondly, only 1 person was killed by this “mass murderer” (the other was killed by ricochets from police bullets when they ended the siege). This hardly can be used to justify that Australia is as dangerous as the US – but don’t let the facts get in the way of a great story!!! I suppose desperate people will use anything to justify their stance – ignore their own problems and throw the burden of proving the need for gun control back onto us!! Well, if the Lindy cafe siege (not mass murder) is an example of poor gun control in Australia, then give me Aussie gun laws any day over those that have already resulted in over 350 mass shootings in the US.

  147. Walt!!
    THE shooting in Sydney last year??? Yes, there was ONE shooting in Sydney last year in which ONE person was shot by the “mass murderer” and one died as a result of ricochets from police bullets upon ending the SIEGE (not mass murder). There are other shootings in Sydney – these are basically ‘drive by’ shootings, gang/criminal related, just the same as there are across the States everyday. The issue is about the NEED to arm yourselves with semi/full automatic weapons that do cause MASS shootings (I suppose you need these types of weapons in case you are attacked by 20 mountain lions at once!) – it is these gun controls that you guys need as a MINIMUM. Since the Port Arthur mass shooting and the new strict gun laws, there HAS NOT BEEN ANY MASS SHOOTINGS anywhere in Australia – and as for a small nation making a ridiculous claim – our population is 25 million compared to 320 million in the states (about 13 times larger) yet our MASS SHOOTINGS have been 1 (if you classify the Lindt Sydney siege as a mass shooting) compared to 350 in the past year in the States (if the US population was 13 times smaller – making it comparable to Australia – you would still have had 27 MASS SHOOTINGS). Get your collective heads out of your collective butts, and wake up – or will it take the murder of a relative, quietly watching the movies at a theatre, to do it??

  148. The Lindt cafe siege was just that – a siege. A guy stormed in with a gun and took hostages and control of the land.

    He didn’t enter a premises with the intent of murdering as many people as possible. THAT is a mass shooting. The Lindt cafe wasn’t, so it cannot be compared to those mass shootings happening daily in the US.

    Australia has achieved a great result from strict gun control and we didn’t mind doing it, because we aren’t chicken shit like the yanks and we don’t live in fear.

  149. Walt, 2 people died in the Sydney cafe seige, the gunman killed one whilst another hostage died in the crossfire when the SWAT guys rushed in… so 2 people is your definition of a mass shooting?
    The stats don’t lie, your homicide rate from guns is 10x that of Australia per 10,000 population, not too hard to work out why is it?

  150. John: You ask “What do the nutjobs do now when they go off, sing nursery rhymes, run around hugging people instead of killing them?” Australia still has nutjobs who go off on rampages. It’s just that those rampages are expressed by punching walls and screaming at bystanders rather than shooting groups of innocent people. I think you’re assuming that gun control laws are intended to change crazy people, rather than simply to restrict crazy people’s access to tools of violence.

    I assume you’re comfortable with strict car control laws, requiring training, periodic registration, continuous police monitoring, background checks, and so forth. I also assume that, despite these fascist draconian car control laws, you are allowed to own and operate a car.

  151. GOOD ON YOU MR.SIGMUND REMENKO, OF BETOOTA HOTEL FAME, I REMEMBER YOU WELL ! IN 1997 YOU PROTESTED & DID NOT GIVE UP YOUR RIFLE WITH OUT REQUESTS BY CHARLIEVILLE, QPOL, SGT BRUCE DIMOND. <3 <3 <3 .

  152. No one in the USA believes it is a God given right to own guns. However, the founders of our country made it a Constitutional right!

  153. Since 1996, Australia’s massacre death rate outstrips Canada’s death rate by a massive THREE TIMES, even though Canada has 50% more people, and 1/4 of the households has guns – oh and no weirdo massacres since 1989 – longer than Australia. Oh – and New Zealander civilians can own semi-automatic rifles too and they haven’t had massacres since 1996. Switzerland, where 40% of the population own firearms haven’t had massacres since 1996 either. What does that say about Australians?

    The problem with Australian anti-gun propaganda is that it is full of half truths. Instead of using the US as a negative example, how about looking to Canada, NZ, Switzerland and most European countries? All these countries have gun licensing, which the US does not have, so it’s no point comparing Australia to the US.

  154. Australian Gun Law Update;
    Here’s a thought to warm some of your hearts….
    From: Ed Chenel, A police officer in Australia
    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 6.2 percent,
    Australia-wide, assaults are up 9.6 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, while the resident is at home.

    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 on the American evening news or hear your governor or members of the State Assembly disseminating this information.

    The Australian experience speaks for itself. 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 too late!

    FORWARD TO EVERYONE ON YOUR EMAIL LIST.
    DON’T BE A MEMBER OF THE SILENT MAJORITY.
    BE ONE OF THE VOCAL MINORITY WHO WON ‘T STAND FOR NONSENSE
    AUSTRALIA: MORE VIOLENT CRIME DESPITE GUN BAN

  155. @Nick Meinzer, if you ever read the second ammendment to the US Constitution, you would notice a little thing called a “comma”. “A well regulated militia”, <<(COMMA) "being necessary to the security of a free state," <<(COMMA) "the RIGHT of THE PEOPLE to KEEP and BEAR ARMS, <<(COMMA) SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED." <<(PERIOD) Further, if you had any idea what you were talking about, you would have a clue who "a well-regulated militia" is and why the Founding Fathers penned the Second Amendment, as documented in The Federalist Papers.

  156. If Australia had a completely foreign culture invading them via a porous border, on top of importing legal millions of non-assimilating opponents of Australian culture, I’m sure they’d be having a heck of a lot more America-like gun issues too. Instead they are an island, basically. Not a world leader for the past 100 years and the target of every oppressive regime or ideology in the world.

  157. Oh? No Mass killings since, eh? Hate to burst your bubble, but….
    After the Port Arthur massacre on 28 April 1996 in Port Arthur, Tasmania that left 35 dead and 24 wounded in a spree shooting by Martin Bryant, there were the Snowtown murders August 1992–May 1999 Snowtown, South Australia 12 dead in an attack by John Bunting, Robert Wagner, and James Vlassakis, a total of 12 bodies were found in acid filled barrels and rainwater tanks. Then there was the Childers Palace Backpackers fire 23 June 2000 Childers, Queensland arson attack by Robert Paul Long, which killed 15 international backpackers.Don’t forget the Monash University Shooting on 21 October 2002 in Melbourne, Victoria a shooting spree by Huan Yun Xiang, a student at Monash University killing 2. The
    Churchill Fire 7 February 2009 in Churchill, Victoria arson attack by Brendan Sokaluk that killed 10 people, during the Black Saturday bushfires period. But wait! There’s more….
    Lin family murders 18 July 2009 North Epping, New South Wales unknown Blunt instrument attack which killed 5 members of the Lin family. Hectorville, South Australia a shooting that took place on 29 April 2011, in Hectorville, South Australia. It began after a 39-year-old male, Donato Anthony Corbo, shot four people on a neighbouring property (three of whom died), and also wounded two police officers, before being arrested by Special Operations police after an eight-hour siege.
    Quakers Hill Nursing Home Fire 18 November 2011 Sydney, NSW arson attack by Roger Kingsley Dean, a nurse, which killed 11 people. 9 September 2014 Lockhart, New South Wales Murder-suicide shooting spree by Geoff Hunt who killed his wife and three children before turning the gun on himself.
    Cairns child killings 19 December 2014 Cairns, Queensland Stabbing attack. 8 children aged 18 months to 15 years killed. Thirty-seven-year-old woman also found injured. The woman, Raina Mersane Ina Thaiday, was later charged with the murder of the children, 7 of whom were hers, plus her niece.

    My, my….It HAS been peaceful, hasn’t it? I didn’t see any information listed here about how ALL of your violent crime is up, especially home invasions. Americans are sick of hearing other countries lie about how safe they are….especially one roughly the same size as ours, but with less than 10% of our population.

  158. randy guy, you are so far from the truth it’s laughable; i bet you’re one of these nut jobs that think we have kangaroos bouncing down every street and koala’s to tuck us into bed at night….do your research before you comment dickhead…

  159. Walt, “Did you forget about the shooting in Sydney last year” –

    US def’n of mass shooting is 4 or more ded’ns, non family.

  160. A “mass shooting” is described as 4 deaths or more. The unfortunate incident last year in Sydney wouldn’t qualify.

    3,400: Americans killed by terrorists since 2001

    3,400: Americans killed by household firearms in the past 5 weeks.

    Disgraceful.

  161. “…Just in our country those people don’t have access to Russian-made automatic assault rifles that have been invented purely to help military personnel win wars,”

    No one in the USA has ready access to automatic assault rifles. You need a Federal Firearms License to own any kind of machine gun, and those are very hard to get. All the mass shootings have been done with semi-automatic pistols or rifles.

  162. Another difference between the usa and ..well…everywhere, is the total lack of ability to spot and use sarcasm and many other types of humor.

  163. If you eliminate Chicago, New York, St.Louis and Los Angeles (The highest gun control cities in the) US then the death rate by gun moves the US to one of the lowest in the world. US crime statistics per the FBI.

  164. Australia is not even a 10th of the population of the US. And also, is pretty much all white people. They, like Canada, for the most part only let in the “good” cultures and races that are less likely to cause a bunch of problems when trying to assimilate. See many blacks in Canada? No, they mostly let in Asians and Indians. When a bunch of immigrants tried to come to Oz from New Guinea they quickly got turned around. So please don’t compare Oz to the US because there is no comparison.

  165. Mimi, you are way off base and flat out wrong. First there have been (4} mass shootings in the U.S. this year. 355/is a false number as they include injured/(this is not what the FBI and the rest of the world use for a mass shooting standard). If that were the case them Australia has indeed had several mass shootings over the years. Second, so called semi automatic weapons account for less than 4% of shootings in a given year in the U.S. you are more likely to drown in a pool than be murdered by an AR-15, or AK47

  166. Silly article.. we all know gun crime in USA particularly mass shootings are false flag operations to strip gun rights much like the Australian shooting by Martin Bryan who wasn’t the actually shooter but the fall guy for it. We all fell for it, much like the mainstream population who are to dumb to research or realize how these secret societies work. We have a right to bear arms but its not that right which causes mass shootings, its the false flags to give the impersonation that human beings are all crazy and can’t control themselves if they have the right to bear arms. What about all the law abiding gun owners? Do we just forget them because of some nutjobs? No. Australia is under illegal occupation by a defacto government and untill we address that we will still live under oppression. Right now we have peaceful slavery, but real free men and women should have peaceful freedom.

  167. Not sure where you get your facts but there were not 354 mass shootings this year in the US. And I am happy to follow our Constitution and protect myself from nuts and criminals.

  168. I wrote a comment stating that Canada, NZ, Switzerland etc. have high rates of gun ownership including ownership of semi-automatic firearms and have not had a gun massacre since 1996 either, but the editor has shamefully not published it. Shame on you for biased reporting! I wrote that Australia’s anti-gun propaganda is brain-washing its citizens with half truths by comparing with the US instead of other countries – and by not publishing my comment, it proves how deep the indoctrination goes!

  169. The authors math is as incorrect as the claims of peace on the land. If mass murders committed by terrorist in the US amounted to10.5 per 100K that ratio would have 31,000 people in the grave each year from mass shootings. If we added up all the people murdered by terrorist in the States proper, in the last 20 years it would not amount to 10.5/100K, including the automatic weapons used to take down the twin towers. Her math must be a fine example of the new math for no child left behind.
    When are people going to wake up and realize that the world is at war. Good against evil. Terrorist extremist are the most evil army for a culture, not a religion a culture. A culture that wants me to succumb to their way of life or die, and that’s ok with me because I am a libertarian, as long as they die.
    As for terrorist invading my property and threating my way of life, I will exercise my god given right to protect my love ones. As for the terrorist, god rest their soul because Allah won’t take them, my bullets are soaked in pigs blood.
    If the person turns out to be a crazy that is taken down, well sorry but Darwin was probably correct.

  170. Yeah gotta file this under no one gives a $hit. Aussies wanna be unarmed thats fine. The majority of Americans want to be armed so the stupidity of the opinion of an Aussie on American politics is kind of like beating off with a cheese grater…..very painful to observe and has very little point or effect on outcome.

  171. Less than 100 deaths a year occur in the US due to “assault rifles” thats in a country of over 350 million .. more people die from Bee stings and falling out of bed.. almost none of the mass shootings that have occurred involved an “assault rifle” .. For example the V Tech shooting where that Asian kid committed the largest mass murder in US history, he used a hand gun. So ask yourself. Why are they after the rifles. .. shouldnt they be more concerned with protecting us from large swarms of bees

    P.S Almost every country in Europe has a high violent crime rate than the US.. Canada is 950 per 100K people the US is 375 per 100K .. in the UK 2300 defenseless people are victimized each year .. that previous comment was correct almost all crime in the US is urban and almost all in 3-4 cities … after that the US is among the lowest crime per capita countries in the world Some cities in Texas over 100,000 are .10 per 100K

    • PS? More like BS. Thanks for playing, though. for violent crime per capita, the US is @ 14th in the world … beating a number of South African countries that are tearing themselves apart with civil wars. (Europe doesn’t show up til the 70s, with the UK coming in at 71)

  172. There are two uses for guns. 1. Hunting wild animals…and/or using a gun to defend yourself against a wild animal attack…which could go either way: you kill the attacking animal in time before it gets to you or a loved one; or it gets to you or a loved one anyway, while you shoot at it, accidentally hitting your leg or a loved one in the process due to the flight/fear response and all the adrenaline pumping through your system. 2. Killing other people. And then take into account all of the various excuses for owning a gun related to why it is “necessary” to own a (or many…welcome to the USA) gun/guns so that you can “protect” yourself and/or your family. Statistics show that you are more likely to accidentally shoot a loved one or a friend or a neighbor just by owning a gun. Children in households with guns are more likely to shoot themselves or a loved one usually accidentally, if there is a gun or guns in the household.

    http://www.gunviolencearchive.org/

  173. I had thought the article was funny enough until I read the comments left by irked gun nuts! (Yes, I think “nuts” is apropos.)

  174. Normal gun owner – happy with my hunting rifles, enjoys various types of shooting for sport. Good bloke.

    Angry gurn urnerrrr – Unhappy with no mighty automatic cannons, has tiny penis, is angry about it. Sad lil man.

  175. It is not a “God Given Right”. Do you know how stupid you sound? The 7th Commandment says, “Thou Shalt Not Kill”. The 2nd Amendment gives every American the right to bear arms…not God!!!

  176. Aussies are nice folks, for the most part. We are glad the US saved your ass*s in WWII, especially so your quite lovely women can visit us here. If I travel to Australia I would want a weapon or two for protection from snakes, crocs, sharks, jelly fish, spiders and other insects and animals that kill or maim. Dangerous country.

  177. The USA is facing two questions. Will they do anything constructive about gun control and with they elect Donald Trump and give him the launch codes. The rest of the world, including us Australians, is viewing this as your national IQ test. It’s not looking good…….

  178. I recall the words of Oscar Wilde on one of his visits to America when he said: “Advocating the irght to bear arms makes about as much sense as advocating the right to arm bears!”

  179. I also recall the words of a guy you have never hear of called Henry. He was a reformed armed robber and the finest shot with any calibre weapon I have ever seen. He used to say “The only people who need automatic weapons are mugs and thugs!”

    • Reminds me of some idiot you don’t know called Dave. He said “The only fuckers who listen to Henry are grunts and cunts!”

  180. Well, we were planning on coming to Oz this year. Maybe not. You used to sort of like us. BTW I’m not a gun owner, and won’t vote for Trump. Can I come?

    Sixteen years ago we rode our tandem push-bike right the way round in 11 months, so we know a bit about your country. Friendly, funny, creative and forward looking (except maybe that little aborigine blind spot we saw a few times). We’re coming to ride another outback track from Alice SW. Hope to see you. We promise no guns. Our democracy is messy sometimes, particularly now. It was in 2000 when we were there when a stacked Supreme Court stole the election. We almost stayed in Oz. Maybe we should have. Check out the web site; http://newbohemians.net Oz is still on there. It begins with typical Aussie humor; “You’ll never make it mate!”

  181. Yes, but why the “lonely white virgins” line? What has race got to do with mass murder? Oh, I know, it’s politically correct to beat up on whites, but it would be racist to point out that the two biggest mass murders in the US in recent times have been by a man of middle eastern/Muslim heritage and a Korean university student. I guess the whites made them do it.

  182. Australia was peaceful before hand. The overall gun crime continued to decline at the same rate it always had after the law passed no changes.

    Australia is a homegenous well to do culture on a massive Island. The greater NYC area matches Australia population wise. Let alone the level of diversity.

    No gun laws did not make Australia peaceful that was how Australia always was.

    PS you had two major firearms crime attempts, had the shooter chosen a different venue instead of a police station that would be it.

  183. Wow, maybe just maybe it might not be the guns that are the problem in the US vs Australia. You see, we have more illegals in Southern California than the entire population of Australia. We have more poor than the entire population of Australia. The problem in the US is not the gun, it’s allowing so many illegals in. If Australia had the numbers of illegals the US has the population would quadruple.

  184. In 2002 two people were killed and five were injured in a shooting at Melbourne’s Monash University. In 2011 three people were killed and three were wounded in the Hectorville siege. In 2014, three people (including the gunman) were killed and four were injured in a Sydney hostage crisis.

    What you need to know is that even with mass confiscation of weapons, Australia could not end all mass shootings and the rate of gun homicides wasn’t actually affected.

  185. Not all Americans are crazy weapon-loving nut jobs, trust me. I just read that one of our states just put a ban on semi-automatic weapons. There’s a great start. The people that have the guns and cry about the government taking them away are the same ones I wouldn’t trust with a water pistol. Seems every time there’s a mass murder, the NRA is out, sometimes in the same area that it happened, telling everyone that we NEED more guns. Well, we don’t. I hate guns. I knew a 12 year old that accidentally killed himself with a rifle because his father didn’t have the guns locked up. The neighbors had to clean his brains off the ceiling before the parents came home from their anniversary dinner. Semi automatic weapons have no place in civilian hands. No, we’re NOT all soldier here, we’re civilians although I must say there seems to be many that aren’t so civil. Wishing I had somewhere to go that people weren’t so nasty.

  186. These comments are just too funny.
    DONT RISE TO THE BAIT YOU SILLY SAUSAGES!
    It makes you look bad regardless of how many facts and statistics you throw at it.
    Take it on the chin, keep quiet and move on.
    Stop embarrassing yourselves

  187. It’s not a God given right. It’s a CONSTITUTIONAL right. Right up next to freedom of religion. A constitution written by men, for men. Notice how Americans don’t sound like British but you do?

    • You no nothing we have nothing in the way of a civilian protection if Indonesia wanted to take this country, at least America at present has a great civilian protection against an invading army. That’s why Hitler never attempted to take America due to this reason. But you are living in self denial living as this might never happen. So sitting on a beach thinking how wonderful it is the country has no guns with terrorists all around us.FOOL

  188. BEST EGPYT MAGIC SPELLS CASTER.
    Dr. Mirko Maistrello-spells caster Is the EGPYT /ITLAINA expert in magic spells.

    Try my spells and be amazed!
    *Relationship spells, love spells, stop divorce, break someone up
    *Clear debts, positive moneyflow, lottery and casino wins.
    *Remove curses, Protection against black magic and bad evils.
    *Get a well-paying job, boost your career
    *Beauty, body modification and weight loss/gain.
    *Custom powerful spells for HARD CASES/Court cases

    NOTE; My spells never disappoint.
    Get the very powerful spells now
    email: [email protected]
    http://digilander.libero.it/egpty_caster

  189. The incredible incident at Port Arthur was predicted by two politicians years before it happened, 1 was Unsworth 2 Fisher how could they have known the location in advance? Regarding what Howard did was reflected by the Canadian Government as being the biggest act of treason they have seen. So Mr Howard certainly has got nothing to be proud of.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here