Please stop using Australia as an argument. Carrying guns in the street was never legal here, so we could pretty easily tell that someone with a shotgun was up to no good. Did that stop criminals having guns? Of course not, that's why they're criminals. Heroin is illegal too, but junkies will always find it.
It is also illegal here to carry a crossbow, a knife (larger than a Swiss army knife), or even a slingshot in public. Can we still use these things in the right context? Sure. I grew up on a farm and learned how to shoot as a kid. I love it... but I'm sure as hell not going to demand to show off how much I love it by walking into a supermarket with a .22 over my shoulder.
I live on the Gold Coast. There are shooting murders here occasionally -- there's a big bikie gang presence (although it's slightly less now that the laws have been tightened). Thing is, we know that the only people getting shot are the ones already involved in criminal activity, and those murders are solved pretty damn quickly. Most doctors here have never seen, and will never see, a gunshot wound.
PS. Most of your points are very cogent. To most of the rest of the world, it is unbelievable that background checks are not enforced in the US, including psych evaluations. It is also unbelievable that certain elements of the population consider an assault rifle necessary to hunt rabbits.
It is also illegal here to carry a crossbow, a knife (larger than a Swiss army knife), or even a slingshot in public. Can we still use these things in the right context? Sure. I grew up on a farm and learned how to shoot as a kid. I love it... but I'm sure as hell not going to demand to show off how much I love it by walking into a supermarket with a .22 over my shoulder.
I live on the Gold Coast. There are shooting murders here occasionally -- there's a big bikie gang presence (although it's slightly less now that the laws have been tightened). Thing is, we know that the only people getting shot are the ones already involved in criminal activity, and those murders are solved pretty damn quickly. Most doctors here have never seen, and will never see, a gunshot wound.
PS. Most of your points are very cogent. To most of the rest of the world, it is unbelievable that background checks are not enforced in the US, including psych evaluations. It is also unbelievable that certain elements of the population consider an assault rifle necessary to hunt rabbits.
It could be worse