Jihadist hostage-taker enabled by Australian gun laws
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December 15, 2014 1:04 PM MST
A Sydney cafe hostage is taken out on a stretcher.
Photo by Joosep Martinson/Getty Images
An Islamic gunman who took Sydney cafe employees and customers hostage is among the three people reported dead after automatic weapon-wielding police using flash grenades stormed the building early Tuesday morning Australian time, Fox News is reporting. Man Haron Monis, an Iranian immigrant charged with the murder of his wife and the sexual assault of another woman, and who waged a campaign against families of fallen soldiers by mailing them letters calling the deceased "murderers," highlighted both the problems of a country welcoming hostile foreign nationals, as well as the ease with which one armed assailant can victimize multiple unarmed citizens.
Touted as a model for the U.S. to emulate after passing sweeping gun control legislation in 1996, Australia has adopted many of the laws currently existing in some states and being pushed for in the rest. Per GunPolicy.org, a project of the Sydney School of Public Health, which, while decidedly anti-gun, nonetheless provides instructive and useful compilations of gun laws from around the globe, Australian gun laws are "categorized as restrictive.
"In Australia, the right to private gun ownership is not guaranteed by law," the analysis advises. "[C]ivilians are not allowed to possess automatic and semi-automatic firearms, self-loading and pump action shotguns [and] private possession of handguns (pistols and revolvers) is only permitted subject to stringent conditions."
In addition to registration and regulation of sales for what is permitted, there are waiting periods, "safe storage" requirements for firearms and ammunition, and transport regulations. Carrying firearms openly or concealed, "in a public place is prohibited without genuine reason. In law, personal protection is not a genuine reason."
The people with no "genuine reasons" Monis took captive were all unarmed and "law-abiding," and thus helpless to do anything to protect themselves except wave an Islamic flag when ordered to, wait for men with guns to save them, and hope or pray they would survive. If domestic advocates of citizen disarmament have their way, petitioning U.S. cafes and other businesses to disallow guns on their premises, and further, demanding government pass laws prohibiting them, Americans obeying such edicts could find themselves in the same dilemma as the Sydney hostages.
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<broken link removed>
Next: Houston cop threatens to jail open-carry activist: 'I'm tired of you idiots'
December 15, 2014 1:04 PM MST
A Sydney cafe hostage is taken out on a stretcher.
Photo by Joosep Martinson/Getty Images
An Islamic gunman who took Sydney cafe employees and customers hostage is among the three people reported dead after automatic weapon-wielding police using flash grenades stormed the building early Tuesday morning Australian time, Fox News is reporting. Man Haron Monis, an Iranian immigrant charged with the murder of his wife and the sexual assault of another woman, and who waged a campaign against families of fallen soldiers by mailing them letters calling the deceased "murderers," highlighted both the problems of a country welcoming hostile foreign nationals, as well as the ease with which one armed assailant can victimize multiple unarmed citizens.
Touted as a model for the U.S. to emulate after passing sweeping gun control legislation in 1996, Australia has adopted many of the laws currently existing in some states and being pushed for in the rest. Per GunPolicy.org, a project of the Sydney School of Public Health, which, while decidedly anti-gun, nonetheless provides instructive and useful compilations of gun laws from around the globe, Australian gun laws are "categorized as restrictive.
"In Australia, the right to private gun ownership is not guaranteed by law," the analysis advises. "[C]ivilians are not allowed to possess automatic and semi-automatic firearms, self-loading and pump action shotguns [and] private possession of handguns (pistols and revolvers) is only permitted subject to stringent conditions."
In addition to registration and regulation of sales for what is permitted, there are waiting periods, "safe storage" requirements for firearms and ammunition, and transport regulations. Carrying firearms openly or concealed, "in a public place is prohibited without genuine reason. In law, personal protection is not a genuine reason."
The people with no "genuine reasons" Monis took captive were all unarmed and "law-abiding," and thus helpless to do anything to protect themselves except wave an Islamic flag when ordered to, wait for men with guns to save them, and hope or pray they would survive. If domestic advocates of citizen disarmament have their way, petitioning U.S. cafes and other businesses to disallow guns on their premises, and further, demanding government pass laws prohibiting them, Americans obeying such edicts could find themselves in the same dilemma as the Sydney hostages.
Suggested Links
View at the website
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