Time for governments to keep the 1996 Port Arthur promises on gun safety

Yes, Howard used similar jingoist language when he said “we don’t want Australia to become like the US”. Totally irrelevant judging one culture by another. It cost the Liberals a lot of trust and votes, still does.

Lol I guess there is an important distinction I’m missing. Let’s decriminalise small quantities of firearms for personal use then!

LOL’s at the Canberra Liberals and supporters like you! It is only the Canberra Liberals and their supporters who are desperate enough to try and draw a distinction between drug reforms and gun control laws. A party that does not represent ACT voters and is on their way out!
Roll on election night 2024!! 😂

Jack, got to love your broad, sweeping generalisations towards certain groups of people. And political parties too. And their policies.
Let me correct you. The Liberal party is not representative of all ACT people but not is Labor and neither are the Greens. And for a small amount of people, none of the three are representative. Within each of the two main parties, you will have centrist voters, moderates, left or right wing voters and far left or right wing voters.
Some people on the right voted yes recently, including Mark Parton, a man with proud Indigenous heritage. Some people on the left voted no for whatever reason. Including here in Canberra.
Never generalise or make sweeping judgement calls. Just makes you look like an idiot.

As I pointed out Gregg Heldon, it is only the Canberra Liberals and their supporters who are desperate enough, and have been trying to draw a correlation between drug reforms and gun control laws. The party, their supporters including their federal colleagues, the ACT Young Liberal movement, media and right wing fringe groups have been very active and vocal over a long period in their opposition to these new drug laws. This opposition has been way over the top, alarmist and dishonest.

You bring up Mark Parton’s pride at his Indigenousness. Mr Parton our tik-toking MLA and man about town has only recently discovered his Indigenousness. I have never seen this man lift a finger in support of the ACT’s large Indigenous population before or after this discovery.

This included him and his leader Elizabeth Lee refusing to answer questions during campaigning for the Voice and turning a blind eye to deputy leader Jeremy Hanson who, in collusion with far right fringe groups, used the local Liberal party’s platform to run his vociferous, toxic and divisive No campaign. 

Mr Parton’s relief the morning after the vote said it all on his Facebook page “It’s over”. Yep thank God for that he doesn’t have to try and answer questions any more. Many of the replies to his post said it all about the people he was appealing to!

Past election results are clear, the Canberra Liberals support in the ACT is diminishing. Canberra voters voted overwhelmingly YES in the Voice referendum and have long memories. They won’t forget!

Tell me Jack, how many MLAs do the three parties each? It’s about even, isn’t it?
You do like to draw a long bow, don’t you? It’s all you have argument wise. That, and your blind, rusted on Redness.
Whatever keeps you asleep and warm at night.

There are only two major parties in Australian politics Gregg Heldon, Labor and the Liberals. The irrelevance and hopelessness of the Canberra Liberals has seen the minor Greens party emerge as the second major party in the ACT. A pretty remarkable feat but considering how far right the Canberra Liberals have moved since the leadership of their moderate and only Chief Minister Kate Carnell it is not surprising.

Whether I am blinded or a rusted on Red is irrelevant. My political leanings, and I presume most other Canberrans if past ACT election results are any indication, can sleep soundly and keep warm at night knowing that the right wing crazies of the Canberra Liberals are not in government!

Don’t get me started on those up and coming wannabes in the ACT’s Young Liberal movement!

You don’t answer the question but just continue your rant.

The Labor and Liberals are close Gregg Heldon. A little too close for comfort considering the abysmal number of votes the Canberra Liberals secured at the last two elections. Leader Elizabeth Lee barely made it over the finishing line and was rewarded with the leadership! This is an unfortunate outcome of the Hare-Clark voting system.

This type of voting system gives an unfair advantage to the larger parties in which they pool their preferences to ensure their candidates get elected. This method of electing candidates means that quality candidates, often independents who do well in the popular vote, lose out to second rate candidates. Peter Cain and Ed Cocks are two such examples who only won on their party’s preferences.

Hopefully we will see these underwhelming underperformers gone after the next election!

Not for children.

“you should also acknowledge that knife violence is the biggest killer of children in Australia, also.

Why would they acknowledge something that isn’t true and you just made up?

“On 19 December 2014, at 11:20 a.m., police were called to 34 Murray Street in the Cairns suburb of Manoora in Australia, where eight children were found dead. The victims were aged between 18 months and 14 years. The bodies, with stab wounds, were discovered by the children’s 20-year-old brother.”

I didn’t make it up, I recalled it.

The Manoora tragedy does not prove your claim that knife violence is the biggest killer of children in Australia CR! If you did a bit of research you would find that injuries and disease are the leading causes of child deaths in Australia!

You had a bit of a hiatus for a while CR. I am glad you have returned!
Your comments bring a smile to my face!

They didn’t say “a major cause”. They said “the biggest killer”. Which means the leading cause. And looking at https://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/leadingcauses.html it seems both are false. The leading cause is accidents – mostly poisoning and car accidents. Suicide is really high up there too…

Bahahaha, did you really just try to double down with you claim by pulling a 10 year old anecdote?

Your claim was that knife violence was the biggest killer of children in Australia.

Which is completely false.

Vousie that doesn’t necessarily disprove CR’s claim as knives can be involved in either of those two things. But funny how your “statistics” don’t include abortions and euthanasia huh? As though both of those are good outcomes for society!

A national gun register isn’t happening because the mindset of non-cooperation and data sharing between the states (and Territories) since the days of colonisation is still alive and well.

An example is recently a friend (Canberra driver) was driving north on the Hume Highway near Gundagai and a NSW highway patrol car stopped him. It was alleged that my friend was exceeding the speed limit and this was disputed. My friend has never had a traffic offence and the officer said that if he had a NSW driver’s license his driving record could be instantly accessed via the patrol car’s computer and if there were no previous infringements recorded a warning could be issued but no financial penalty would be levied.

As NSW police are denied access to the ACT Police computer the officer issued an infringement notice and fine but told my friend that he could contact ACT Police when he reached Canberra and request a copy of his driving record (for a fee) and then send it to NSW Police and consideration would be made to waive the fine if no previous convictions were recorded. This was done.

So much for the MOU between NSW and the ACT.

With respect Jack D., the context of this post is “violent” death but if we accept what you say, then the same would apply for America, no?

Whatever you say, chewy14.

Meantime in the case of firearms all licensed firearm owners in Australia have that fact noted on their driver’s licences. The data is kept on Crimtrac and will flag on the police car’s computer if a highway patrol officer stops a speeding motorist. The cop may ask “are you carrying firearms in your vehicle?”. They cannot search the vehicle without reasonable cause.

In Switzerland, they have national service in the military and after that the participants take home their service assault rifle and 50 rounds of ammunition and become army reservists.

This policy gives assurances that an armed invasion from another country would be unlikely.

No it isn’t what I say CR, it’s what the actual statistics say.

You won’t find “knife deaths” anywhere on the list despite your ridiculous claim.

https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/life-expectancy-deaths/deaths-in-australia/contents/leading-causes-of-death

You are deliberately going outside the context of what the author of the post is alluding to and her claim that “gun violence in the USA is the biggest cause of death” etc. but then you always look for the fifth leg on the cat when I express an opinion, don’t you?.

“In recent years, the most common cause of death for homicide victims in Australia was a stab wound: this accounted for 37% of deaths. This was followed by blunt force (19%) and gunshot wounds (13%). Other causes of death included strangulation, shaking, burns and poisoning”. – Bond University study.

Rubbish chewy, are you suggesting it is impossible to die from a knife? It’s not listed because they don’t specifically track such deaths. It falls under other undefined causes such as suicide!

Rubbish Sam Oak,
Statistical analysis of suicides are also conducted with death by “sharp implement” being well down the list equating for about 5% of total suicides.

There is not a shred of evidence for Capital Retro’s claim and your attempted support of it is ridiculous.

If you think you are correct, give us a link for anything remotely supporting it.

Oh, I hadn’t even seen Capital Retros latest attempt at ridiculousness yet in flopping around like a fish because his claims around gun and knife violence in Australia don’t remotely relate to his claim.

You wrote this:

“If you are going to say “Gun violence is now the biggest killer of children in the US” you should also acknowledge that knife violence is the biggest killer of children in Australia, also.”

Why do you think the Homicide rate of adults in Australia is remotely related to your claim of what kills children in totality?

There are around 400 homicides in Australia yearly. Of around 200000 total deaths.

The author talks about gun violence of children in the USA being the biggest killer because it has literally been the number one killer of those age groups in recent years. Of all causes.

There is nothing even remotely out of context in pointing out that the situation in Australia is completely different because of our gun control laws.

Our rates of homicide, all causes are not even close to the USA.

Our children do not die of gun or “knife” violence anywhere near the rates of the USA.

Those are straight statistical facts. Try to understand how ridiculous you sound when you claim something different.

Once again, happy for you to provide a link if you think this information is wrong.