By Casey Slaughter
I recently moved to Melbourne Australia to finish up a graduate degree in mining engineering. Since starting my degree in Missouri I have started a small collection of firearms and started keeping track of the politics regarding them and the statistics (as an engineer I love data). I am shocked at how the public down here perceives firearms and really weapons of any kind. Still, guns aren’t as scarce as you would think. My housemate has a pair of rimfire rifles for small game (rabbit and fox) hunting and many of the rural people I talk to have a rifle or shotgun of some kind . . .
Since moving down here last September I have heard of 3 or 4 shootings, many more stabbings and violent attacks but people just seem to brush it oft. There’s usually at least a pair of armed guards at all the major subway/metro stations and designated “safety zones” (these are really just some extra lights shining on a painted box on the platform next to a police call box). I have passed armed guards on the street and even here on campus.
Not sure where I am going with this except that Obama’s statements that this never happens outside the US are blatant falsehoods (as you well know). A couple links (maybe for a DGU of the day):
Very recent attack by a pair of men after the demanded their money back from a bloke who sold them a van online.
An attack with a gun that occured in 2002 on the campus I am attending in Melbourne: attacker used a legally acquired pistol to kill two and injure five more.
You may have heard of these already, but thought I would share.