We had a shooting yesterday as it happens. A 15-year-old "radicalised youth" from Iran visited the Parramatta mosque before attacking the Parramatta police HQ and shooting dead a civilian IT worker there.
Sydney has also seen the rise of drive by shootings; there were three in one night some weeks ago.
Update: It's been confirmed that the shooting was an act of terrorism, although the latest report says that the gunman was from Iraq.
True. But we don't have mass shootings like they do in America. Thanks to former Prime minister John Howard, who introduced tough gun control laws, we have not had a mass shooting, since.
ReplyDeleteIt's very misleading to compare any country with America on mass shootings.
DeleteAmerica you see has almost negligible mental health facilities. It can't be compared to a nation that has a functioning mental health system and the ability to commit the ill involuntarily [we can't unless imminent danger].
We have 150K beds for 320 million. When we had 150 mil. pop in 1950 we had 2 million beds. Our mental health system was sued out of existence in the 1980s under Civil Rights [for the mentally Ill] lawsuits. As it stands 60% of the mentally ill institutionalized are in prison as it's the only place to put them.
Nearly all the mass shooters would have been institutionalized prior to the O'Connor Decision in 1985 [imminent danger the requirement] and our Mental Hospitals being sued and closed.
You can't compare a country that treats and hospitalizes the mentally ill and has beds to do it with a country that can't.
As for the guns we really aren't going to ever disarm, especially now.
Mr Richardson
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised you only mentioned Sydney, Melbourne (where you and I live) had a decade long gang war where high profile gangsters killed each other. And lets not forget the drive by shootings that never existed twenty years ago, but now hardly a week goes by without one. All carried out with weapons that are illegal.
I remember the gun lobby saying that when you take away guns from law abiding people, then only criminals will have guns. Well now it's true.
Mark Moncrieff
Upon Hope Blog - A Traditional Conservative Future
Mark M, I heard just the other day that it's now possible to buy an illegal firearm in Australia for under $1000, such is the supply. You are right - easy for the criminal class to buy guns, not so easy for the law abiding.
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