Just wondering why everyone is getting so worked up over something that's happening in the U.S.A.?
Like I care about the internal laws and policies of Australia?
No I don't carry a gun with me on the streets, I don't even have one out at home all the time. I was just saying that if I had ever had to get the gun out of the cabinet/safe to confront an intruder, I should be able to. If members of my family were abused or even killed, even once in my lifetime it would be hard to forgive myself. I want the odds stacked in my favor as much as possible (and a 12 ga is a decent way of doing that) as you never know what the morals of the intruder may be.
Call me old fashioned, but I think there is a 'duty of care' a person with a family should commit to (ie: taking measures to make a family safe; be it putting a fence around the pool, having working smoke alarms, making a house safe for infants, not letting teens drink excessive amounts of alcohol (too often), no smoking in the house (in my case, not at all), etc).
But in the meantime while your waiting for someone to go ahead and make your day your gun is sitting there when you're not home and said intruder can steal it, and where does it end up then...
No gun, no issue...
And a lower chance the crim will have a gun and hence lower chance you will have to murder another human being.
I have guns anyway for hunting.
If someone comes at me with an iron bar/gun/knife/fists to abuse or steal in my home and put my family at potential mortal risk, Id say they've given up their rights to a fair fight. Don't do break and enter and you have nothing to worry about.
I'm guessing you don't believe its a human right to be able to protect your family/self in your own home?
My guns primary purposes are hunting, a task I will be doing my entire life. Yes, I guess they also give some degree of protection but its not why I bought them.
Are you also implying that an intruders life is equal to, or worth risking a wifes/husbands/sons/daughters?
^^^
Protect them by all means but I just believe in another human right called the right to life, something that guns are quite often used to take away of the innocent, see numerous massacres, war etc....
Yes in some circumstances there use is justified.
And I agree with your right to have guns but I don't agree with a private citizen deciding to take the life of another in 99.9 % of cases.
And my point is if guns are hard to get it makes them hard to get for criminals to..
Let's consider gun control in Australia.
I'm taking it that it's been a great success in getting guns out of the hands of criminals?
I'd upgrade to a baseball bat at least Doggie. I've witnessed a fight where a golf club was wrapped around someones head, and it didn't do much more than get the attacker bloody and extra angry. Plus, I don't feel confident that unless I sconed someone in the head with a club, that I would do much to stop them. Again, it all depends of the perp. and what type of human they are. Not a bet I'd be willing to make considering the potential consequences of losing.
I should of said earlier that hiding is plan A, once I have the family together and safe. Its not like you would be looking for trouble unless it was absolutely necessary.
I wish the anti-private-gun-ownership people would put as much effort into lobbying against crooks with tyre irons, knives, bats etc getting real penalties as they do lobbying against guns.
Fact of life - guns are used for lawful purposes including culling ferals. That will never go away, particularly as we try to sustain agriculture for 7bil people.
I have a (bloody dangerous) chainsaw that only gets used rarely. Maybe we should ban them cos on the rare occassion I need it I could get a licensed professional in....
Do we ban nail guns? I mean, roof chippies could convert them to shoot other stuff and go psycho 
Strewth, nobody needs more than one or two knives in their house. Maybe we should seriously consider restricting them, and really folding pocket knives are designed for concealment and nobody really needs to carry a knife as they walk the street.
We give needles to junkies for free so they can use an illicit product, organised crime identities get a $500 fine for having an illegal pistol on them ..... yet you fellas reckon a law abiding average citizen can't have a rifle. Stop the world, I wanna get off...
The thing is Lachlan......you like guns and shooting, ......great. Can you make your hobby safer for everyone, your kids included. If you can't, then the community will make rules for you. And no amount of mental gymnastics, political conspiracy theories, wrong assumptions, and ridiculous logic will make your position any better.
Strewth, nobody needs more than one or two knives in their house. Maybe we should seriously consider restricting them, and really folding pocket knives are designed for concealment and nobody really needs to carry a knife as they walk the street. Stop the world, I wanna get off...
Logman seems you ignored all the lightest colours
Most of Africa
All of Asia (incl China, real big on civil rights aren't they?)
All the ex- soviet union
Pakistan, Afghanistan, India
Half of south america
All top places to live.
Every time I hear the penalty a crim gets for a firearms offence is a joke! They just get fines in the order of hundreds of dollars, where as if it were me I'd lose my licence, lose my game licence, lose my guns, maybe lose my assets (police may sieze my boat and or vehicle), and therefore lose my way of life...
Where's the deterrent?
Gun used against people is just old barbarian artefact that has very limited future regardless of result and consensus on this forum.
Nobody is allow to take somebody life just like that , doesn't matter offender of defender.
If society think otherwise there could be capital punishment , but there isn't.
That is matter of time that all guns will be replaced with teasers to incapacitate victim not to kill.
