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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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SunshineGirl · 36-40, F
I read in the news that Australia enacted a serious crackdown on gun ownership after the last mass shooting in Tasmania n 1997. Clearly this worked and this sight of men openly carrying arms at Bondi Beach was unusual enough for members of the public to tackle them and prevent more fatalities. Yet there are estimated to be more guns in circulation today than there were in 1997, so scope for improvement.