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Given the only mass shooting in Australia in almost 30 years, the question of guns, gun ownership, and needs/desires to own them is in question

I've never handled a gun except once. I fired a .22 rifle once and once only in my youth when visiting an uncle who had friends that owned a rural property. I was shooting at a line of coke cans.

Despite that I have never had a desire to shoot guns, or have a gun license, or own any guns, and that's never changed. Guns are designed for one thing - to kill.

Here in Australia we want freedom from guns (and religion), not freedom of guns (and religion).

Plenty of Australian's have gun licenses and legally own guns for legitimate reasons, including military and law enforcement, rural landholders and primary producers, licensed security guards, etc.

But that's it apart from a small subset of the population subscribing to being criminals who want usually illegal but sometimes legal guns. The general population doesn't for the most part need, or want, guns here.

I know that's completely different to the USA, or many other parts of the world where gun culture is bizarrely linked to the concepts of freedom and safety with a belief that you can't be free or safe unless you have a gun.

Guns are meant for one purpose - killing.
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RosaMarie · 46-50, F
Can you get a license for a rifle in order to hunt?
zonavar68 · 56-60, M
@RosaMarie If you can demonstrate a legitimate reason to obtain a license for the particular type of weapon you want, pass all the police and crim int checks, and meet all the other rules, probably. If you live in a suburban area, the police would most likely refuse the application simple because you don't live in a rural area where hunting could be something legitimate. Note that 'hunting' in Australia is nothing like 'hunting' in North America (USA + Canada).

Each state's rules are different. From the NSW form:

"When you apply for a NSW firearms licence you must provide evidence of your genuine reason for the possession and use of firearms.

The protection of yourself or another person is not considered a genuine reason.

You can have more than one genuine reason on your firearms licence."

https://www.service.nsw.gov.au/transaction/apply-for-a-firearms-licence-individual