Firearms Amendment (Trafficking) Bill
by Hon David Oldfield
52nd Parliament - Firearms Amendment (Trafficking) Bill
6 June 2001
Page: 76
Second Reading
The Hon. DAVID OLDFIELD [9.38 p.m.]: I support the comments made earlier in debate by the Hon. John Tingle. Clearly, his remarks in regard to the gun debate made a great deal of sense. His remarks in this House and in the public arena on this issue always make a great deal of sense. I refer, first, to the general assault on legal gun owners. Earlier, the Hon. Dr Arthur Chesterfield-Evans said that it was difficult to draw a line between legal and illegal gun owners. Let me make it clear for the benefit of the honourable member. It is not difficult to draw a line between illegal and legal gun owners. Illegal gun owners are people who do not have a purpose or a reason to own a firearm. They do not legally own the guns and they do not have a licence. They walk into places like service stations and gun down attendants whilst being watched by cameras. Imagine what their intellect is! Legal gun owners are people who do not commit crimes.
[Interruption]
The DEPUTY-SPEAKER: Order! If the Hon. Dr Arthur Chesterfield-Evans wishes to contribute to debate, he should come into the Chamber.
The Hon. DAVID OLDFIELD: I can tell the Hon. Dr Arthur Chesterfield-Evans that legal gun owners are those who have licences. They are members of clubs; they shoot on a regular basis as their pastime. Legal gun owners are people such as Michael Diamond, well-known Olympic gold medallist in at least two Olympic Games. These are legal gun owners.
Ms Lee Rhiannon: It was a legal gun owner who killed the children at Dunblane.
The Hon. DAVID OLDFIELD: For the information of the Hon. Lee Rhiannon, who is often misled, ill informed and foolish in her remarks—and her interjection this evening is an example of that—since the gun laws have been changed in England so that people such as the murderer of Dunblane and everybody else can no longer have handguns, crime with handguns has actually gone through the roof.
Statistics available through the British Parliament show clearly that since the time of the banning of handguns—which took approximately 200,000 handguns out of circulation at a cost of something in the order of around $A500 million—and the removal of legitimate ownership of handguns from legitimate owners who had not committed crimes, handgun crime, murder, burglary and assault has gone through the roof. Has the honourable member seen the statistics? I thought not.
There is no difficulty drawing the line between legal and illegal gun owners. Illegal gun owners have guns illegally by virtue of not having a licence and not having a proper purpose to have them, and they commit crimes with them. Legal owners own their guns for a good purpose. They are members of clubs and they shoot under the auspices of that which is recognised as legal, reasonable and fair. I support this legislation. I have to say in closing that it seems particularly clear that the Democrats would ban guns and legalise drugs. That is a situation we will not have to endure in our lifetime, if ever, because whoever will be in power it will never be the Democrats.
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