Last night I was mystified listening to Bob Katter, a prominent political figure (of a “minor” party) in my state of Queensland, saying the following on a respectable documentary program:
I want more firearms sold because I want more firearms. I want more people involved in protecting our country.
What? How can giving citizens guns help protect our country? Don’t we have armed forces for that? How can my neighbours and I having guns be an assistance to national defence? Unless we are occupied by enemy troops. But it’s going to be a bit late by then.
So I kept listening for his explanation and it soon followed:
I want my nation to be able to protect itself. We’re a tiny little country, 25 million people. And a lot of those people would owe allegiance to other countries that may well be our enemies in any future confrontation. So, I mean, not only have you got the threat from outside, but increasingly, you’ve got a threat from inside. And it may not just be a threat. They might have a majority in this country in within the next 25 years – if you want to extrapolate the number of people coming in. So you’ve got a threat from within as well as from without.
Could the link between wanting guns and racism be any clearer?
One detail that I found curious and troubling was that as soon as Bob Katter launched into the above words his voice suddenly changed. It moved from matter-of-fact normal into a kind of defensive, victimhood, high-pitched whining.
Guns, racism, victimhood.
Just to end on a totally irrelevant note, I suppose we should not be shocked by anything from the guy who pelted eggs at the Beatles when they arrived at Brisbane airport in 1964: I am the egg man: Katter
Neil Godfrey
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Here In US of A we have what is called Insurance. We put this insurance on our Automobiles our Home and even on our person. A gun is just like Insurance. If you come home one day and walk in to find a man raping your wife or daughter, No worries mate, You got Insurance that will cover the situation.
That’s all Katter was saying. Just in case you need it, just like insurance!
You are joking, I hope. If I came home to find a man raping my wife I would not waste precious time dashing to the cupboard where I kept my gun. Perhaps in the US of A I would instead tell my wife it served her right for not carrying her own gun with her at all times.
Seriously, how many men do you know who were glad they were carrying their gun when they came home to find someone raping their wife?
I have two issues with Katter.
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Firstly he wants to change the mindset of the Australian people to be more like the US – that if the bad guys have guns, so must the good guys. Could he be right if he thinks that two wrongs make a right because he just wants to stop or minimise the first wrong ? But that would mean we will all be desensitised to the danger of guns. I will be looking to whether the collateral and overall damage (i.e. deaths and crime) are greater with more guns in the hands of the public. It would seem so if we consider the US experience. WE all agree that there is a place for legal guns on farms and for carefully regulated sports and police etc. just as there’s a place for drugs under the auspice of the medical and pharmacy profession. My second issue delves into Katter’s psychology.
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Secondly, we must face it that Islam is taking over the world population and will work its way into government by the democratic system. In less than 10 7 years, on third of all European children will be born to Muslim families. I suggest everyone do some research on this. If Katter is in the camp of demonising Islam then you can see where he’s going with his views. Because of 911 we are all in a flurry about this. I suggest everyone do some research on the facts of 911.
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My conclusion is that we must arm our kids with truth and help them dialogue with their oponents.
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When I was a teenager I would have idolised him, throwing eggs at the Beatles, what a feat, well done. Now I’m an adult we’ve parted ways.
London has a Muslim Mayor. Is London therefore now in greater danger from violence because of that fact?
I am against gun ownership for the same reasons I am against nitroglycerine ownership. While I would store my nitroglycerine safely and use it responsibly, and teach my children how to handle it with minimum risk, I would be uneasy if my neighbour possessed it.
You miss the point Neil. I’ll try again. I carry a spare tire in the trunk of my car. I have gone through 3 sets of tires an have not needed the spare, but as soon as I take a road trip with out it I will need a spare. In America we have the freedom to “keep and bear arms” that is not something you understand. We call it freedom and it’s worked just fine for 240 plus years.
Worked just fine for 240 plus years? That’s not what we hear over here. How many massacres have you had now? What was all that “wild west” about?
But remind me to carry a loaded pistol in my pocket whenever I return home to visit my wife just in case I find someone raping her. I could make sure she had a pistol, too, but then my argument for me carrying a gun would collapse.
We’ve had freedom from guns now for about 20 + years. It’s great. Like freedom from fear, want, tyranny, etc. No more gun massacres. Imagine ….
The price of “insurance”. I can do without the high U.S. premiums, thank you.
But at least in your country no man caught raping another’s wife gets to finish his act peacefully. (I get your point. You just can’t think of a plausible or sensible justification for it.)
Most people find that strong locks and neighbourhood-watch programs are good insurance.
But your examples speak loudly of fear. And I do get the impression that Americans are among the most fearful, if not the most fearful, people of all, both individually and collectively as a nation, fearful of other nations. Strange. Very strange. No need — at least collectively if one was more interested in just getting along with others instead of trying to constantly control or exploit them.
“Well-regulated militia”, matey. Look at Neil’s chart, can you see Switzerland on it? Go look up the Swiss, up until recently there was a StGw57 in every home because of they have such a “well-regulated militia”. That’s a proper battle rifle; not an M16 peashooter. I can think of one incident in several decades of the kind that happens so regularly in the US they hardly make the national news anymore. You might have an argument if you had a “well-regulated militia” as real part of your citizenship commitment and your defence policy; you don’t, so you don’t: Neil’s chart confounds you.
In response to Marty:
Yes, it is wonderful to have a gun handy in the event you come home to find someone committing atrocities.
Unfortunately, with the proliferation of gun ownership, percentages are high that the perpetrator also has a gun.
And since he is in the midst of committing an act frowned upon by all decent citizens, he probably has his ready in case he gets interrupted.
Someone will die in this scenario. Can you be assured it won’t be you or your wife or both?
After 911 (which like the Jesus of the Bible has as its most reasonable explanation of the facts that it’s a fraud) and the American Financial Crisis (which is eroneously called the GFC) I do not wish to travel to the US again. An American I met came to visit a good friend of mine in Bondi for a wedding about 5 years ago. When he passed immigration going back to the US he was kept in custody for over 4 hours with no explanation. When he asked politely why this was happening they politely told him “We cannot tell you sir”. By the way he was a retired airline executive. Very polite people the Americans. We should politely decline to copy their culture and firmly say no to relaxing gun laws. Let’s not get into a fight about it.
There are two countries to which I have no wish to fly direct: USA and Israel. Maybe I could try to enter them via Canada or Egypt but I would not wish to risk a fare only to be turned back for some unknown or stupid reason at the airport.
Katter’s comments were in a context of immigration and “outsiders” coming in. Australia is loosing its country. The data shows he is most likely correct, 25 years or less is all you have. We in America have the same problem and that is what we are working to correct. The one difference is when the “outsiders” in Australia turn on you….. and they will, you will not be able to defend yourself s against them. Here in America, we might loose our country but, the “outsiders” many of them will pay a heavy price.
The fear factor in America has to be understood in context. I know people from one coast to the other, from North to south and they do not generally live in fear. But, they do not live as an Ostrich either.
I wish you and your country peace and prosperity in the future. But, I would not bet on it. Neil, America’s context for “freedom” is different then yours and if you try to remember that it would help you understand Americans better. Australia’s understanding is fundamentally different then ours
By the way…. The Tim O’neil stuff / links was really good if one really listen’s to what he says.
I’d prefer you to actually address the details in the post and subsequent comments head on instead of simply ignoring them and making sweeping assertions with no supporting evidence.
If you want to talk about the “Tim O’Neill stuff/links” then I would encourage you to do so in the appropriate posts, correcting anything you think I have said amiss.
After reading this exchange and in other contexts please be sure I am not the same “Marty” as this fellow!!!