What it’s Like to Own Guns in a Country with Strict Gun Control

[flamin lib]

http://time.com/4172274/what-its-like-to-own-guns-in-a-country-with-strict-gun-control/

How an Australian gun lover came to accept regulation

I love firearms. I collect them and I enjoy shooting them. I probably have 30 pistols and 20 rifles or shotgun combinations. My family has always had lots and lots of firearms. My father was a shooter and we had a property when I was growing up, so from the age of 12 I had a rifle. Target shooting was offered as a school sport and I used to carry my .308 rifle to the rifle range unsupervised with my friends on Saturday for practice and competition.
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Australia is a great country. You can go hunting, you can go shooting. And as long as you hurt nobody and abide the law you can continue to do it. That to me is freedom. The idea of having people own guns with no concept of gun safety and no reason to have a gun? That is not my idea of freedom.

[Puha Ekapi]

1. So what would you consider...

...a legitimate reason to own a gun?

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

2. re: "a legitimate reason to own a gun..."

...would be to shoot something.

[mwrguy]

4. fear of minorities, rambo-fantasies, preparing for a zombie apocalypse

the usual

[Duckhunter935]

5. good thing that is not me

but zombie robots really should not be messed with.

[Puha Ekapi]

12. Fear of minorities?

Interesting, as I am an enrolled tribal member of the Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation. We know a thing or two about being disarmed, and the results of that. So that right there is a good enough reason to own a firearm, doncha think?

[beergood]

14. 12. Fear of minorities.

that's why we disarmed them. much easier to defeat an unarmed populace.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

3. Yeah, Ramone, that'll happen...

..."Another part of the law that changed is that the police can come to your house and inspect your storage."

[catnhatnh]

6. Good article and should be discussed

but I'm betting it won't be....Sigh

But K&R anyhow...

[gejohnston]

8. has been discussed for years

and rejected.

[jmg257]

7. No thanks...too many hoops and justifications required. nt

[TeddyR]

9. Why do I need to have a reason

For owning a firearm? Do I need a reason to vote? What about a reason to go to the church of my choosing? No thanks, I'll keep my constitutional rights as is and the rest of the world can f#*k off.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

10. The very best reason...

...and fundamentally only valid economic reason to buy a Bushmaster® ACR® DMR:
http://www.bushmaster.com/firearms/acr.asp


...is that it is worth more to you than the $2,799 it takes to buy one.

In terms of economics purchases are a special class of exchanges. An exchange, either a purchase or a barter, takes place when both parties find the other's possession(s) more desirable than their own. In the case of the DMR you want the it more than the $$2,799 you have in your wallet and Bushmaster wants your $2,799 more than they want to keep one of their DMRs. Therefore you make the exchange, a purchase happens.

[Kang Colby]

11. Tl;dr. FYI - we live in the United States.

This one goes out to all the gun controllers....

[beevul]

13. In other words, a privilege.

The article could have saved us all a lot of reading by simply saying:


"Owning a gun isn't a right in Australia and we even dug up a random assclown who likes it that way".

In other words, in Australia, owning guns is a privilege.


Summarily rejected on that basis.

[DirtDart1319]

15. Hilarious

Perfect summarization

[Duckhunter935]

16. that is right

[ileus]

17. Unless you value your life and family at zero, everyone has a reason for a firearm.

Not caring about life isn't a progressive value.

[benEzra]

18. Except you can't even own many guns that are popular in mainland Europe, Canada, and even the UK.

You have very little gun freedom left in Australia, and the prohibitionists are now moving to steal what little you have left (such as the recent push to ban 1860's-style lever-actions). No thanks.