GUN-CONTROL- CONTROVERSY

by Desmond Kelly

What IS the controversy here,what.IS the problem? ,
I cannot see any problem at all. In Australia,s former Liberal Prime Minister John Howard decided, a few years.ago, to have as many unregistered firearms as.possible, handed in, to be disposed of, the reason being that while a much greater percentage of people here understood the handling of these instruments of death, did the right thing registered the unregistered guns and even had them “stored” correctly in their homes, there were a few nut-cases who, feeling very tough with a gun in their hands, went out and killed innocent people. If they don’t have “guns”, killers will unfortunately use other methods, knives, bombs, their bloody hands, if they have to. There is no mystery here.

Guns have been around since Adam was a boy (well, shortly after, anyway). We do know what happened in Australia to try and curb overuse by unexperienced persons. However, ban or no ban, there are thousands of unregistered firearms still around, tens of thousands of bullets of various calibres plus other weapons that could be used (by nut-cases), with disasterous results, whenever & wherever they go “around the bend”. Nothing will stop this. We might as well face the fact that while “mental-medical-care” is STILL very much of a problem here in Australia, innocent people are still going to be killed. Since the John Howard “decision” however, thankfully, multi-massacre-maniacs seem to have retreated into their lairs. Again, I say, only about 10% of “killers” actually pre-determine their future crime/s. They “plan” every murder, for many varied EVIL reasons. These paraihs also plan to “escape” the punishment that WILL come,
be it, years later. However, to my mind, 90% of these crimes are committed “on the spur of the moment”, still cannot be considered “Manslaughter”, for the simple reason that the weapons used, the “venues”, etc., have to be pre-planned, so, “Murder” is the verdict.

Let me now go into the most recent mass-murder in America. A 64 year old “ordinary man” suddenly ends up at a “concert-venue” where he has already stacked a multitude of weaponry with which he “opens-up” killing a few dozen innocent concert-goers. He, quite definitely knew that he would have either been shot or captured for his crime, so ended up taking his own life with possibly the very weapon that he used to kill all these very unlucky people, leaving his “motive” for this disaster totally unsolvable because “the dead can’t talk.”. These sort of murderers are MAD, eithout a shadow of a doubt. Close relations of HIS could have been in that audience. There is NO mystery here. He, & many others like him are insane.

Which brings me to America’s “Gun-Lobby”. Let us not waste too much time & effort on this one. Many, is the President, Obama, being the last one, who tried to get some “narrative” into what seems to be an almost impossible problem, their HUGE “Gun-Lobby”, all Americans seem to think (for very good reason, I may add),is that they need a gun in every household to protect themselves from “guns” pointed at them, by outsiders. Fair enough. Self-protection is the name of the game. NOTHING or no-one will stop the Gun-lobby in America. It is a shame that, in Australia, if you DID shoot someone in proven self-defence, the person who was going to shoot YOU, now becomes the hapless “victim” while you, “the hapless victim that would have been,” now becomes the bloody murderer.

It is all “arse-about bloody face”, in Oz., so here is the “Gun-Lobby” SOLUTION, anywhere in the World, as I see.it.

There are GUNS, & then, there are guns. There are “Gunshops” by the dozen in America. There are also dozens of hand-guns of all types avaiable. Gunshop owners should be restricted in the “type” of gun sold to any customer that wishes to purchase one. It STARTS here. If it is “self-protection” , all you need is a pistol that can fire a single bullet at anyone who is obviously going to kill you unless you get in first. You certainly do not need a sub-machine gun to do this.

GUNSHOP OWNERS ALL OVER THE WORLD, BEWARE.
Sell your weapons only after the most thorough investigation of EVERY Custoner. Pistol-Club owners are generally law-abiding customers who will present their “authority of purchase” without even being asked.to do so. Animal-Hunters (even with identification), do NOT need sub-machine guns to go out and shoot a deer. There is no need to “pepper” the poor animal with bullets. If you cannot hit the side of a barn with ONE bullet, then give up hunting & take.up fishing. If, however, you are a confirmed “Elephant-Hunter”, you may need a SHOTGUN, but, don’t miss, because Elephants never forget. I cannot STAND animal-hunters anyway. They(the animals) are better than most humans & deserve to be protected, not shot.

When I served the Royal Ceylon Navy as a “Supply Assistant”, I was given the job of getting all the Navy requirements from our Government Stores with a minimum of delay. “What has this to do with the gun-lobby”? , you ask. “Well, don’t get your bloody knickers tied up in a knot & I’ll tell you”.!!, says Des. There was this official “form”(S.549), filled out in triplicate for every requirement, the form had to be presented to the Official at the Govt.Stores, BEFORE any supplies were forthcoming. To make a long story short, EVERY GUN-SHOP OWNER, ANYWHERE, should ask for a “form” of this nature, before selling ANY AUTOMATIC RAPID-FIRE, MULTI-BULLET FIREARM TO ANYONE OTHER THAN A MEMBER OF THE ARMED FORCES OF A COUNTRY. This should not present too much of a.problem for the Gun-Lobby in America to legislate, after all, THEY do NOT wish for innocent people to be killed unnecessarily. The Gun-Lobby in America CANNOT be ERADICATED, but it CAN BE CONTROLLED.

Desmond Kelly
Star of eLanka.