[John]

Here in Australia we have fairly strict gun control laws, it all came about after the Port Arthur massacre in Tasmania in 1996 I believe. A man named Martyn Bryant walked into the complex with all kinds of guns, mainly semi automatic rifles, he ended up killing 35 people.

A few months later stricter gun laws came in. It is now illegal to own a semi automatic rifle, for those who don't know, it is a rifle that re-cocks itself after a shot is fired, making it ready to make another shot in less than a second.

This is what I went through to obtain my licence and obtain a .22 bolt action 5 shot repeater and a .22M 8 shot lever action repeater.
1. Do a firearms safety course ($20)
2. Obtain an application from the police station. On the application you have to have a valid reason as to why you need a firearm. I have a mate who lives on a huge property, I had him write me a letter giving me permission to shoot feral animals. The letter also has to have strict property details such as size and surrounding features.
3. Hand the application back to the police station ($20)
4. You recieve ur licence in the mail a few months later.
5. Obtain a permit to aquire a firearm, fill out the form stating what firearm you wish to purchase. ($15 each, i had 2, so $30)
6. Hand it to the police station, who sends it to weapons licencing.
7. A few weeks later you get an approval letter.
8. You then purchase your rifle(free for me)
9. The rifle serial numbers have to be inspected by a gun dealer ($11 per weapon, so $22 for me)

Look at all those fees and difficulties in obtaining a weapon in Australia. Yet shootings still happen.. Go figure..

When the laws came into place we had a gun buy back scheme. Now you can't tell me that criminals would hand in their rifles, you only get the good honest people hand them in. Such a stupid move by the government