Australians have no right to carry arms and would be better off without them, says Pallaras
5AA (Adelaide), Mornings, 08/10/2008 09:34am
Compere Leon Byner asks Stephen Pallaras, SA DPP, about what he thinks of what has happened regarding recent violence in the city. He says there has been comment about metal detectors in night clubs and stiffening laws. He says he would have thought there were laws addressing firearm use. Pallaras says there have been three shootings in five months. He says when the day comes that Adelaide residents comment on another shooting without a sense of alarm then we would have lost the battle. He says Australians do not have the right to carry arms and would be better off without them. Byner says banning guns would not affect outlaws. Pallaras says there is no room in the community for law-abiding shooters in our community, because the penalty the community pays for the existence of guns is far too great than to pander to hobbyists. He says offences are sometimes made with guns that were previously legally owned. He says the Police Commissioner is on the right track in looking at how to tackle the latest violence.
Caller Dominic says he wants to talk about the shooting in Gouger Street. He says he respects the DPP’s proposition on banning all guns but he thinks that move is very extreme. He says sometimes politicians make legislation for emotional reasons rather than basing law on common sense. He says this only creates bigger issues. He says guns do not commit crimes, criminals commit crimes. He says banning guns will not help the issue since criminals will acquire weapons illegally anyway. He says in the UK they banned handguns and crime went up by 40%. He says this disarms the public when they should have the right to defend themselves. Byner says it is not a right to have a gun in Australia, unlike in the US. Dominic says we need to educate people more to respect guns. Byner says the DPP stated we have to take guns out of the hands of everyone if we can.
Caller Paul comments on the proposed prohibition for gun laws. He says he owns horses and wonders what happens to animal cruelty if we’re not allowed to have guns. Byner says he’d think there would be authorised people like police to carry firearms. He says the problem is, there will always be unauthorised people who get them whether legal or not.
Caller Mavis says her husband handed all his guns in about 15yrs ago. She says after that all the knives came out. Byner says the gun buy-back did not make Australia safer or reduce the number of guns. He says a lot of shooters handed in guns they had to and used the money to buy other guns. He says the DPP today suggested the guns need to be taken away.
Caller John says he is a gun collector and taking guns away from people who legally have them will not stop crime. He says many guns coming into Australia come in undetected because we lack proper security and do not source enough revenue to check every container.
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