California is about to suffer an anti-gun assault of epic proportions. Well intended elected officials are about to do fatal harm to the republic they are supposed to serve. Public safety will be endangered because of political hubris. Facts which contradict their preconceived (ill conceived) opinions will be ignored, and people will die.

I have received some interesting e-mail in the wake of my last column regarding the monumental failure of the Australian government's gun ban. One of the most interesting follows:

Dear Sir,

I found your web site and was very interested in your reports. In particular, the latest Australian crime stats regarding firearms. You seem to be extremely well informed on events external to the United States, and as dissemination of information is critical so those of us who still remember what freedom of the 1950's and 60's was really like, I have attached an item below regarding the failed attempt to reduce crime by disarming this country's law abiding citizens and patriots under the pretext of the gun buy scheme.  Just in case you haven't see this.

Cheers,
Ross Darben

Grifith writes "THE $500 million national gun buy-back scheme has failed, Queensland's foremost police weapons expert says. "This report mirrors the flood of communication I have received from Australia and elsewhere in support of my earlier column. He quotes an Inspector John McCoomb as saying the new government gun laws have served as a catalyst to solidify the underground market. Inspector McCoomb is quoted as saying "Once they're on the black market, they're there for anyone to buy."

I have asked dozens of Australian groups to provide me with some insight into the level of non-compliance. We know from first hand observation that the Roberti-Roos assault weapon ban in California was mostly form, and very little substance. Long on perception.....short on reality. Californians did not comply. As a result, it is unknown how many law biding Californians are now state created shake and bake outlaws". Inspector McCoomb, who heads the Australian Weapons Licensing Branch said Australians had handed in only a fraction of the weapons in the community. Gee that sounds familiar.

It was (and is) impossible to accurately calculate how many guns there were/are in Australia. Just like it is impossible to calculate the number of illegal aliens in California. However, the 643,000 (Australian guns) that were turned in, was chump change....... it "was a mere fraction of just two brands of now illegal guns in the country."

According to Inspector McCoomb, "About 800,000 (semi-automatic and automatic) SKK and SKS weapons came in from China back in the 1980s as part of a trade deal between the Australian and Chinese governments." He added that "...it was estimated that there were 1.2 million semi-automatic Ruger 1022s in the country." I have a Ruger 1022, and if Senator "Pistol Packing" Don Perata's SB 23 becomes law, my .22 will be classified an assault weapon.

Do the math. In Australia "That's about 2 million firearms of just two types in the country."

The Australian gun ban was supposed to halt gun crimes....the opposite has happened. "On November 1 last year, gang members fired a hail of bullets at a Sydney police station using high-powered 9 mm automatics or semi-automatics. Five police were inside. This barrage of shots in a city street was exactly the sort of scenario the buy-back was supposed to stop." Apparently the bad guys didn't get the memo.

According to Australian officials, despite the government buy-back program, firearms activity has increased, especially in Sydney.

Inspector McComb said he had estimated about half of guns in Queensland were now held illegally. "We did a 'guesstimate' before all this started and we conservatively estimated between 1.2 and 1.3 million guns in Queensland. We've now got about 520,000 guns licensed. Even when you take into account 130,000 guns handed in, we're well and truly short."

Only 25 per cent of those with guns were now licensed.

Owners (previously lawful citizens) have decided to go outside the system.

I have spoken with hundreds of California gun owners who quickly acknowledge that despite the registered guns they own, "there are a few no one knows about." And this is not the boast of the radical right wing fringe groups. I hear the same claim from law enforcement officers, retired military, hunters, target shooters, and grandmothers. 

Not surprisingly, these California scofflaws are not the Lone Ranger. In Australia, even newly licensed owners had not declared everything they hold in their personal arsenals.

Inspector McComb noted, "When we have checked after an incident, we've found they've got five guns registered to their license, when they actually have 10. The perception in the shooting community is that 'if you know all about my guns, you'll soon take them all off me'." Duh!

Meanwhile crimes involving guns have soared during and since the Australian buyback. "Australian Customs acknowledges only a fraction of containers entering the country are searched for illegal weapons. Customs spokesman Leon Bedington said one inspector would need eight days to check a container load thoroughly."

Before Perata, Polanco and their co-conspirators rush to enact laws most will ignore, someone, somewhere in the palace of petty partisanship may want to review a statistical analysis of what has already happened. They don't need to commission some expensive study. The studies have already been done. If they are too myopic, too lazy, or too stubborn to confront the facts, I will personally deliver to them the results of Australia's failed experiment. I will deliver to them Dr. John Lotts study from the University of Chicago, and arrange to have him testify for them before a bill mill committee.

Conversely, if or when the Perata cabal enacts their draconian plans for Californian gun control, and California crime statistics match or exceed the tragedy of Australia, they must be held accountable.

Geoff Metcalf can be heard 
Monday through Friday from 9:30 AM to Noon on KSFO at 560 AM.  Information on his newsletter 
can be found at:
http://www.geoffmetcalf.com

 

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