"Peter Lucas" > wrote in message
...
> GCA believe that it is profoundly unwise to be associated with
> organizations that preach the possibility of insurrection against an
> elected government.

You are in breach of the terms for this group (aus.sport.shooting) which
does not allow political comment.

> We are worried, therefore, that some shooter
> groups in australia remain associated with such extremist American
> groups.

Name them!

> Guns murdered more than 7000 people in australia in the past decade.
> Nine out of 10 of the victims were male.

and more than 90% of those firearms were not legally registered or owned by
registered shooters. In other words, they were already in breach of firearms
laws in place at the time. Trying to connect a reduction in shootings to
stronger gun laws is flawed, because many of those shootings would still
have occurred regardless of what the law said.

> The number of killings caused by firearms dropped almost 65 per cent
> between 1991 and 2001, with the biggest yearly fall in deaths coming
> after the 1996 Port Arthur massacre.

So before and after Port Arthur firearm deaths dropped...so what relevance
is this to anything? I'm sure shooting deaths before and after WWII were
comparably low to.

> A report by the Australian Institute of Criminology found that the
> number of deaths caused by guns each year dropped to 333 in 2001 from
> 729 in 1991.

Good to see the rate is reducing but to conclude that is solely the result
of tightened gun laws is flawed. Perhaps better customs screening reduced
the death toll through a reduction in illegal arms imports, perhaps it's all
related to the 'recession we had to have', perhaps there was an ammunition
shortage. You've ignored all other possible influences of shooting so as to
credit gun laws for the full reduction in death toll.


> The above facts tell me its CASE CLOSED when it comes to the benefits
> of proper gun restrictions;

If you ignore all other possible factors so as to leave only a conclusion
that supports your belief.

Please explain the frequent shootings that are still occuring now.

> anyone who argues the collary is ignoring
> the big negatives

You're ignoring the fact that a total ban on firearms won't eliminate
shootings, plenty of illegal firearms make it into Australia every year.
Those that buy them aren't interested in what the legislation says.

No one is going to argue against proper firearms legislation provided it
doesn't disadvantage citizens who wish to use firearms in a safe and proper
manner. The problem is that legislation doesn't stop criminals from getting
illegal weapons.

> to allowing guns freely available like this.

What freely available guns?