This comes from a restricted list with the permission of the author
following the text. I know him to a certainty to be an Australian
Police Constable, and this is not related in anyway to NRA information.
His courage and disregard for the personal consequences to himself for
speaking out are to be commended. Read his post and repost it far and
wide.

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Date: Fri, 7 Jul 2000 01:14:29 +1000
From: sjames <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Another Word on Gun Control

Dear Alan,
I am a serving member of the Victoria Police in Australia.
I am also a licensed hunter of game species in Australia.
In 1996 there was a tragic and senseless killing of 35 people by a maniac with some semi automatic weapons in Tasmania.
This senseless tragedy brought about a knee jerk reaction from a Priminister who is about as sympathetic to the needs and wants of middle
class Australia as Slick Willy Clinton is to the feelings of his interns.
Virtually overnight this man brought about gun reform that took away the rights of law abiding citizens to carry legal, licensed firearms that statistically were rarely, if ever, used in the commission of crime.
Weapons such as pump action shotguns and semi automatic centre fire hunting rifles.
All of these licensed, registered, legally owned weapons were confiscated and destroyed in a buy back scheme that not only did not fully compensate the owners, but cost the Australian taxpayer close to a billion dollars.
This money was collected in a special addition to the health care levy that every tax payer must pay as part of their income tax. In other words, the licensed gun owners were compensated with the extra
tax they had to pay to finance the gun buy back scheme. This sounds to me like something that Josef Stalin, or Adolf Hitler would have done in
confiscating property from certain minorities during their time.
While it is true that there have been no tragedies of the scale of the Port Arthur massacre in Tasmania in 1996 since this gun reform has taken
place, this is no guarantee that it will not happen again, because the only guns that were actually handed in were the registered legally owned
guns of the same middle class Australians that our benevolent Priminister has for so long ignored.
Crime statistics involving firearms have not changed since the introduction of these draconian laws, nor has the murder rate, because traditionally Australia has never had a high rate of crime involving firearms, even during the days of less stringent firearms legislation.
The only reason that these laws were able to be passed was the lack of a
strong gun lobby like the N.R.A., the knee jerk reaction to what was a random and senseless killing by a homicidal maniac, and the fact that the balance of power in Australian Parliament is held by a leftist leaning minority party that attracts approximately 8% of the people’s
vote.
This in effect means that Australians have in large been disarmed by a socialist minority and an elitist Government for the ostensible reason of cutting down firearm related crime. This has not occurred, and due to the lack of a strong opposition in the form of a gun lobby there has
been no outcry by the ordinary people.
One wonders if there are hidden agendas behind the disarming of the country.
Only time will tell.
I look forward to any comments from other Police Officers not only in Australia, but worldwide.
Shane JAMES

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Please send my letter to as many people who are interested in an
Australian Police Officer’s view of gun control. Maybe someone over here
will listen too.

Shane James
Senior Constable
Victoria Police