Former Attorney General Daryl
Williams has announced that he will be retiring from politics. More than a
million Australians will surely wish him "Good Riddance". Williams treated
people as potential criminals, because they legally owned guns! Williams, as the
Nations top Lawmaker, will go down in history as the Attorney General who, after
the Mass Murders at Port Arthur in 1996, refused to hold any inquiry, even
though many of the survivors and relatives of victims, demanded a full
investigation. A full Judicial/Independent Inquiry might have led to a review of
the treatment of people with Mental Health problems. An investigation might have
exposed the lack of action on the part of Tasmanian Police, who should have
locked up Martin Bryant, (for other Firearms Offences), well before that tragedy
occurred. A thorough inquiry might have led to a crack down on violent videos,
of which Martin Bryant had a large collection.
Instead, Williams trotted out some
hastily prepared "Gun Control” laws, which appear to have been based on the
alcohol prohibition laws of USA in the 1920’s! Without even consulting the
million or more Australians who would be adversely affected by those laws, the
Hunters, Farmers, Sporting Shooters and Firearms Collectors, Williams, fully
supported by John "I hate Guns" Howard, reacted with such haste that we are now
all suffering the consequences, 8 years on.
Murders have continued to make the
headlines; criminals still have guns, or chose to use knives, broken bottles or
fists. The increasing number of suicides has the experts baffled. (Even though
John Howard claimed that access to guns caused suicide) We have even more mass
murders, including the Childers Fire (15 Murdered), the Snowtown "Bodies in the
Barrels" (12 Dead). We note as well, the increasing number of cases where
Parents killed their Children and themselves, by such methods as pillows, car
exhaust, knives and bathwater.
Everyone now accepts that the "Buy
Back" of legally owned Firearms, which was part of the Williams Gun Prohibition
program, was a complete waste of taxpayer’s money. In most cases law-abiding gun
owners who handed in prohibited firearms simply bought new ones. There were also
many reports of those collected firearms having been recycled back into the
black market, or kept by Police themselves.
Meanwhile we have been left with a
Williams legacy of a Firearms Registration system, which is at best about 60%
accurate. Similarly, a vast amount of valuable Police Resources has been
squandered in harassing Law Abiding Gun Owners, who had never been a problem in
the Community.
Those with mental health
disabilities continue to be ignored by Governments. Hospitals suffer through
lack of staff and funding. Hundreds die each year on roads that should have been
upgraded.
The REAL causes of crime, such as
Drugs, Poverty, Ethnic Gangs, poor education, family breakdowns etc. remain. How
many hundreds of lives could have been saved if the money, time and effort
wasted on Gun Control had been put into more productive use?
