I Wish I'd Said That

Thursday, 31 October 2002

Adelaide University economics lecturer John Whitley weighs into the gun debate with this opinion piece in today's Age. It's obvious that the gun-control debate hasn't gone away completely, so perhaps I can look forward to using this issue to exercise my limited talent for comic invention again. But I doubt even the best of my occasional brilliancies is a match for this gem from Whitley:

... as the Monash shooting demonstrated, it is law-abiding citizens who are most frequently called upon to stop crimes. Guns make this task easier, especially for physically weaker people such as women and the elderly.

And later there's this on a study of gun control (or the lack thereof) in the US:

The only policy found to be associated with a decline in multiple-victim public shootings was allowing the concealed carrying of firearms. States that passed such laws experienced an 84 per cent drop in the number of events and a decline of deaths of 90 per cent and injuries of 82 per cent. The reasons directly derive from what happened at Monash.

The shooters in these events generally desire to kill as many people as possible and often do not plan to live through the attack. Criminal penalties will not deter them, and it would be impossible to eliminate the possibility of them obtaining a gun. The only effective deterrence appears to be the prospect of failure.

Well, there you have it - what we need to get this country back on track is a chicken in every pot, a baby in every crib and a hand-gun under every armpit.