One of the things that Martin Bullock Lawyers is most proud of about Australia is its gun laws.
In 1996, our conservative Prime Minister John Howard fought against his Coalition to introduce Australia-wide gun laws. These laws prohibited automatic and semi-automatic weapons, as well as reducing the quantity of guns available, and ensuring that guns are registered and safe-kept.
This was a huge achievement because the Australian Constitution gives each state the right to create its own gun laws. There used to be vast differences between the gun laws of NSW, South Australia, Queensland, Victoria, etc. Prime Minister Howard changed the nation’s views about guns.
Unfortunately, gun ownership is again on the rise.
Watch this video, titled Generation Lockdown, made by two Australian filmmakers for the US organisation March For Our Lives. This video demonstrates the heart-rending reality of gun violence in America: daily school and workplace shootings.
Australia must avoid this fate. It must never adopt America’s approach to guns. Americans have widespread access to firearms, and particularly guns with far more firepower than was ever envisaged when the Second Amendment was created in 1791.
For further information about how this video was made, have a look at this ABC article.
Alternatively, head to the March For Our Lives website. Read about their efforts to tighten gun laws, in very limited ways, to greatly increase the safety of children and workers in America.
The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.
It is important that gun-lobby groups do not water down Australian gun laws. Australians are entitled to live without fear of gun violence.