“Police forces across the nation stand to be granted extraordinary powers to tackle gun crime, including the ability to search suspects without a court warrant, amid rising concerns over the links between organised crime and terrorism,” theaustralian.com.au reports. “Other states and territories are now considering or drafting laws comparable to those introduced in NSW allowing officers to search anyone subject to an existing firearms prohibition order without obtaining a court warrant.” A quick note about “firearms prohibition orders” from a New South Wales Ombudsman report on their use . . .
Since 1973, the [New South Wales] Commissioner of Police has had the power to make an FPO against any person who, in his or her opinion, is not to, in the public interest, possess firearms (the FPO subject). The effect of an FPO is to prohibit a person from possessing or using a firearm and to prohibit others from selling or giving a firearm to the FPO subject.
The Commissioner of Police in NSW – the Australian state that recently made it a crime to keep or transmit electronic blueprints for 3D printed guns – has the personal power to prohibit any citizen from keeping or bearing arms, without any judicial oversight. That couldn’t happen here, could it?
Back in 2011, Republican Peter King of New York introduced the Denying Firearms and Explosives to Dangerous Terrorists Act. Under the Act’s powers, the Attorney General can ban anyone on an administration “terrorist watch list” from possessing a firearm. Specifically, anyone . . .
known (or appropriately suspected) to be or have been engaged in conduct constituting, in preparation for, in aid of, or related to terrorism, or providing material support thereof, and the Attorney General has a reasonable belief that the prospective transferee may use a firearm in connection with terrorism.
King’s bill – which the Dems have resurrected – frees the government from any obligation to provide the courts with information on their suspicions should someone “inappropriately suspected” of terrorism sue Uncle Sam to restore their natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms.
Back in the Land Down Under, the theaustralian.com.au reports that “More than 1000 people, houses and cars have been searched for guns or gun parts since the NSW laws came into effect in November 2013, with the majority of those people targeted by police linked to organized crime.” How reassuring is that? How reassuring is this:
Australia is widely seen as having some of the most comprehensive gun laws of any country, although the most recent estimate by the Australian Crime Commission suggests there are more than 250,000 rifles and 10,000 handguns on the illicit market nationwide.
Bottom line: despite the President’s post-Umpqua Community College spree killing enthusiasm for Australian gun confiscation/gun control laws, they don’t work. Unless your goal is to establish a police state. And then they work a treat, mate.