1 00:00:01,400 --> 00:00:04,720 Speaker 1: If we crack down on cynical, greedy reptiles who sell 2 00:00:04,800 --> 00:00:08,520 Speaker 1: cheap and nasty weapons to bad kids, it can only help. 3 00:00:09,560 --> 00:00:12,600 Speaker 1: You could buy a handgun, a revolver, or a semi 4 00:00:12,600 --> 00:00:15,960 Speaker 1: automatic cult pistol for that matter, in a hardware shop 5 00:00:16,360 --> 00:00:18,840 Speaker 1: or any gun shop or anybody that basically wanted to 6 00:00:18,840 --> 00:00:22,639 Speaker 1: sell them. They stopped that, and obviously it didn't remove 7 00:00:22,680 --> 00:00:26,479 Speaker 1: every handgun from every street in Australia, but it cut 8 00:00:26,600 --> 00:00:32,400 Speaker 1: down the number of them. I'm Andrew Rule. This is 9 00:00:32,440 --> 00:00:35,520 Speaker 1: life and crimes. A lot of interest in recent days 10 00:00:35,520 --> 00:00:39,000 Speaker 1: about machetes and the machete ban, the attempt by the 11 00:00:39,040 --> 00:00:43,120 Speaker 1: state government to impose a ban on sales and machetes. Now, 12 00:00:43,360 --> 00:00:46,040 Speaker 1: I think we shall get a few things straight about 13 00:00:46,200 --> 00:00:51,519 Speaker 1: what this salesman is and what it isn't. It is 14 00:00:52,200 --> 00:00:56,040 Speaker 1: clearly a cynical and insincere moved by a literally and 15 00:00:56,160 --> 00:01:00,360 Speaker 1: morally bankrupt government whose real attitude is revealed by the 16 00:01:00,440 --> 00:01:04,679 Speaker 1: fact it's done nothing about this in thirty odd years 17 00:01:04,760 --> 00:01:09,800 Speaker 1: since the late Les twenty men started agitating for controls 18 00:01:09,800 --> 00:01:13,119 Speaker 1: on edge weapons to cut down on gang violence. Now 19 00:01:13,200 --> 00:01:16,679 Speaker 1: Les twenty men, most of us will know, started up 20 00:01:16,800 --> 00:01:18,880 Speaker 1: as a youth worker out in the western suburbs. Back 21 00:01:18,920 --> 00:01:22,440 Speaker 1: in the eighties and certainly by the early nineties he 22 00:01:22,600 --> 00:01:26,720 Speaker 1: was calling for controls on eedged weapons because of the 23 00:01:26,800 --> 00:01:31,520 Speaker 1: increased use of knives and similar things by youth gangs, 24 00:01:31,760 --> 00:01:34,400 Speaker 1: mostly out in the West and the North and elsewhere, 25 00:01:35,000 --> 00:01:38,039 Speaker 1: and he didn't really get a big response from his 26 00:01:38,160 --> 00:01:42,399 Speaker 1: very good friends in the government, the state government. It 27 00:01:42,560 --> 00:01:46,399 Speaker 1: was only recently, in recent weeks that the state government, 28 00:01:47,200 --> 00:01:50,680 Speaker 1: this is the state government that has governed Victoria for 29 00:01:50,800 --> 00:01:54,960 Speaker 1: twenty two of the last twenty six years, that state 30 00:01:55,000 --> 00:01:58,760 Speaker 1: government has finally decided it would bring in a ban 31 00:01:59,040 --> 00:02:05,280 Speaker 1: on selling machetes or controls on selling machetes. And as 32 00:02:05,360 --> 00:02:08,320 Speaker 1: I've just said, I think it's insincere and to some 33 00:02:08,480 --> 00:02:13,639 Speaker 1: extent it won't be effective. But the government's motives and 34 00:02:14,040 --> 00:02:19,079 Speaker 1: perhaps lack of honorable motives, does not alter the fact 35 00:02:19,080 --> 00:02:22,160 Speaker 1: that this is a step in the right direction. So 36 00:02:22,880 --> 00:02:25,440 Speaker 1: we can bag the government for not acting for too little, 37 00:02:25,440 --> 00:02:28,520 Speaker 1: too late, for not really meaning it. We can beag 38 00:02:28,560 --> 00:02:31,640 Speaker 1: the government for letting repeat offenders out on bail, and 39 00:02:31,840 --> 00:02:36,520 Speaker 1: so we should. But a ban on the sale of machetes, 40 00:02:36,560 --> 00:02:42,120 Speaker 1: although it is doomed to some failure because the people 41 00:02:42,160 --> 00:02:44,600 Speaker 1: that use machetes to try and kill others and cut 42 00:02:44,639 --> 00:02:48,240 Speaker 1: their arms off and fingers off and so on are criminals, 43 00:02:48,440 --> 00:02:52,440 Speaker 1: and they aren't necessarily buying these things, they're stealing them. 44 00:02:53,080 --> 00:02:56,640 Speaker 1: But a ban is the right way to go because 45 00:02:56,919 --> 00:02:58,760 Speaker 1: in the end, it's the only way to start the 46 00:02:58,800 --> 00:03:01,720 Speaker 1: ball rolling. And let's look back at our own history 47 00:03:02,280 --> 00:03:06,959 Speaker 1: and see some other examples of that. So, as some 48 00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:11,160 Speaker 1: critics have pointed out, and I think they're largely right 49 00:03:11,800 --> 00:03:16,200 Speaker 1: as far as it goes the mere active banning sales 50 00:03:16,840 --> 00:03:21,760 Speaker 1: of machetes and edge weapons over twenty centimeters long, it 51 00:03:21,880 --> 00:03:25,240 Speaker 1: won't end the bad behavior that led to the ban, 52 00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:30,079 Speaker 1: because criminals steal rather than by because they're by definition 53 00:03:30,160 --> 00:03:34,120 Speaker 1: people who break the law. Otherwise, as one wag said 54 00:03:34,320 --> 00:03:38,400 Speaker 1: the other day, the Premier could just quote ban crime unquote. 55 00:03:38,880 --> 00:03:41,800 Speaker 1: That would be easier. But you know he was being funny. 56 00:03:42,480 --> 00:03:45,880 Speaker 1: Given that this government has run the state for most 57 00:03:45,920 --> 00:03:49,520 Speaker 1: of the last quarter century, it's fair to say that 58 00:03:49,880 --> 00:03:53,880 Speaker 1: when things are going wrong, perhaps it should be sheeted 59 00:03:53,960 --> 00:03:59,000 Speaker 1: home to that government. And this government has ignored this 60 00:03:59,040 --> 00:04:02,120 Speaker 1: sort of thing, this rising tide of violence and gang 61 00:04:02,160 --> 00:04:06,960 Speaker 1: warfare and so on, and they've largely ignored police views 62 00:04:07,320 --> 00:04:10,400 Speaker 1: for most of that time. Now know that the government 63 00:04:10,440 --> 00:04:12,680 Speaker 1: won't agree with that, and the Police Minister won't agree 64 00:04:12,680 --> 00:04:16,760 Speaker 1: with that, and possibly some tame police commissioners might not 65 00:04:16,800 --> 00:04:21,000 Speaker 1: agree with that. But it's fair to say that there 66 00:04:21,040 --> 00:04:25,839 Speaker 1: are people in cabinet and in the bureaucracy, and possibly 67 00:04:25,920 --> 00:04:30,599 Speaker 1: some in the judiciary who are deep down, if not 68 00:04:30,680 --> 00:04:34,920 Speaker 1: anti police, at least suspicious of police motivations and police 69 00:04:35,120 --> 00:04:38,919 Speaker 1: activities and police views of the world. Now, some of 70 00:04:38,960 --> 00:04:41,120 Speaker 1: those people have their reasons. Many of them have been 71 00:04:41,160 --> 00:04:44,680 Speaker 1: defense lawyers and have seen the dark side of police work, 72 00:04:44,760 --> 00:04:49,800 Speaker 1: let's say, But they and we should be careful not 73 00:04:49,839 --> 00:04:52,880 Speaker 1: to throw out the baby with the bathwooter, because the 74 00:04:52,960 --> 00:04:58,200 Speaker 1: police are, for all their faults, perceived alleged faults, they 75 00:04:58,240 --> 00:04:59,880 Speaker 1: are at a sharp end of this. They are on 76 00:05:00,120 --> 00:05:05,159 Speaker 1: streets coping with people that are killed, people that are disfigured, 77 00:05:05,440 --> 00:05:09,039 Speaker 1: people that are put in hospital with terrible wounds from 78 00:05:09,520 --> 00:05:12,760 Speaker 1: all the violent things that happen, from gun crime through 79 00:05:12,800 --> 00:05:17,599 Speaker 1: to machete crime, and people driving cars too fasten running 80 00:05:17,640 --> 00:05:21,159 Speaker 1: over each other. And so their views should be respected 81 00:05:21,200 --> 00:05:26,200 Speaker 1: at many levels. Now, regardless of the government's lack of 82 00:05:26,400 --> 00:05:33,440 Speaker 1: conviction on this issue, it ultimately works to some extent 83 00:05:34,520 --> 00:05:40,560 Speaker 1: because it ultimately will get fewer large knives, machetes and 84 00:05:40,720 --> 00:05:44,280 Speaker 1: similar weapons you know, samurai swords, whatever they might be. 85 00:05:44,960 --> 00:05:48,960 Speaker 1: It ultimately gets fewer of them on the street. Because 86 00:05:49,000 --> 00:05:52,120 Speaker 1: if there are fewer of them in the community, there 87 00:05:52,120 --> 00:05:55,120 Speaker 1: will be a trickle down effect that will at some 88 00:05:55,279 --> 00:05:58,840 Speaker 1: point help us in our quest to make the streets safer. 89 00:05:59,320 --> 00:06:02,640 Speaker 1: If we crack down on cynical, greedy reptiles who sell 90 00:06:02,720 --> 00:06:06,160 Speaker 1: cheap and nasty weapons to bad kids, it can only 91 00:06:06,200 --> 00:06:10,159 Speaker 1: help chop it off at the sauce, chop off some 92 00:06:10,279 --> 00:06:13,600 Speaker 1: of it at the source. If we can get all retailers, 93 00:06:13,680 --> 00:06:17,440 Speaker 1: legit retailers of knives and axes and all those things 94 00:06:17,880 --> 00:06:21,160 Speaker 1: to have them under lock and key, that will cut 95 00:06:21,200 --> 00:06:26,839 Speaker 1: down theft opportunistic theft by lunatic teenagers who aren't deep thinkers. 96 00:06:27,080 --> 00:06:30,960 Speaker 1: They can't plan anything, they're not heavy thinkers. And if 97 00:06:31,000 --> 00:06:34,000 Speaker 1: you can block them at the spot where they might 98 00:06:34,080 --> 00:06:36,440 Speaker 1: steal something and then run outside and hit somebody with it, 99 00:06:37,160 --> 00:06:40,800 Speaker 1: that is a win. It's just like the big effort 100 00:06:40,800 --> 00:06:43,320 Speaker 1: that was made, it has been made and continues to 101 00:06:43,320 --> 00:06:47,040 Speaker 1: be made to cut down the sails and the theft 102 00:06:47,680 --> 00:06:52,600 Speaker 1: of spray paint cans to beat the graffiti boom. If 103 00:06:52,600 --> 00:06:56,400 Speaker 1: you walk into Bunnings or any big hardware shop, the 104 00:06:56,440 --> 00:07:00,360 Speaker 1: spray cans are locked up behind the mesh cabinets there 105 00:07:00,760 --> 00:07:02,600 Speaker 1: and you have to go over and ask an assistant 106 00:07:02,680 --> 00:07:06,279 Speaker 1: who makes an assessment of your age and propensity for 107 00:07:06,560 --> 00:07:09,279 Speaker 1: doing the wrong thing, and then unlocks it and you 108 00:07:09,360 --> 00:07:12,960 Speaker 1: buy what you want. But it means that a you've 109 00:07:13,000 --> 00:07:15,880 Speaker 1: been sort of looked at, and b you're not stealing 110 00:07:15,920 --> 00:07:21,000 Speaker 1: it because it's behind a padlock. This sort of restriction 111 00:07:21,160 --> 00:07:26,000 Speaker 1: makes it harder for essentially lazy, stupid kids who act 112 00:07:26,040 --> 00:07:29,120 Speaker 1: on impulse. Now let's have an example from the past. 113 00:07:29,240 --> 00:07:33,000 Speaker 1: It's about one hundred years since my great grandfather was 114 00:07:33,040 --> 00:07:37,440 Speaker 1: a policeman between the wars in Melbourne, and in that time, 115 00:07:37,480 --> 00:07:40,200 Speaker 1: in the nineteen twenties, post World War One, there were 116 00:07:40,240 --> 00:07:43,160 Speaker 1: a lot of guns around, a lot of handguns around. 117 00:07:43,160 --> 00:07:45,640 Speaker 1: And one reason, of course was that there'd been World 118 00:07:45,680 --> 00:07:49,520 Speaker 1: War One and before that the Boar War, and Australians 119 00:07:49,600 --> 00:07:52,200 Speaker 1: went to the war and they came home with servannirs 120 00:07:52,200 --> 00:07:55,200 Speaker 1: and many of them brought home army pistols. They brought 121 00:07:55,240 --> 00:07:58,160 Speaker 1: home pistols they'd servenired from the enemy. You know, we've 122 00:07:58,160 --> 00:08:00,520 Speaker 1: talked about this on this show before. I remember a 123 00:08:00,520 --> 00:08:03,480 Speaker 1: family in Gippsland that had, you know, half a dozen 124 00:08:03,560 --> 00:08:06,280 Speaker 1: lugers or something from World War One. This was a 125 00:08:06,280 --> 00:08:09,720 Speaker 1: pretty typical thing in the bad old days or the 126 00:08:09,720 --> 00:08:12,120 Speaker 1: good old days. Guys would come home from the war 127 00:08:12,160 --> 00:08:16,640 Speaker 1: with the pistols and all sorts of weaponry. And in 128 00:08:16,680 --> 00:08:19,960 Speaker 1: the twenties, the governments of the day around Australia, I think, 129 00:08:21,000 --> 00:08:23,560 Speaker 1: were a bit worried about certain things. They're worried about 130 00:08:23,640 --> 00:08:27,640 Speaker 1: the rise of communist activism and are worried I think 131 00:08:27,680 --> 00:08:31,440 Speaker 1: about probably a rising crime. Because twenties was a pretty 132 00:08:31,440 --> 00:08:33,920 Speaker 1: willing time. A lot of people who've been in the 133 00:08:33,920 --> 00:08:37,840 Speaker 1: war were disturbed by it. They were the prayers, They 134 00:08:37,880 --> 00:08:41,440 Speaker 1: were angry, they were injured, some of them were suicidal. 135 00:08:41,679 --> 00:08:45,400 Speaker 1: They were aggressive. And for those guys to have you know, 136 00:08:45,679 --> 00:08:49,200 Speaker 1: forty five caliber Webly pistols under their pillow was not 137 00:08:49,240 --> 00:08:52,280 Speaker 1: always a great thing because it could lead to many 138 00:08:52,320 --> 00:08:55,720 Speaker 1: bad things. And so the government said, okay, let's cut 139 00:08:55,800 --> 00:09:00,280 Speaker 1: down on these, let's register handguns. And also they brought 140 00:09:00,280 --> 00:09:03,120 Speaker 1: in a law that said you can't go selling handguns 141 00:09:03,120 --> 00:09:05,920 Speaker 1: in hardware shops, which they used to be sold, you know, 142 00:09:06,800 --> 00:09:10,040 Speaker 1: from the gold rushes. Until nineteen twenty five or nineteen 143 00:09:10,080 --> 00:09:13,280 Speaker 1: twenty seven or something. You could buy a handgun, a revolver, 144 00:09:13,600 --> 00:09:17,080 Speaker 1: or a semi automatic cold pistol for that matter, in 145 00:09:17,120 --> 00:09:19,880 Speaker 1: a hardware shop or any gun shop or anybody that 146 00:09:19,960 --> 00:09:23,959 Speaker 1: basically wanted to sell them. They stopped that, and obviously 147 00:09:24,040 --> 00:09:27,640 Speaker 1: it didn't remove every handgun from every street in Australia, 148 00:09:28,000 --> 00:09:31,800 Speaker 1: but it cut down the number of them. It made 149 00:09:31,840 --> 00:09:34,520 Speaker 1: it harder to get them, and it meant that every 150 00:09:34,520 --> 00:09:38,400 Speaker 1: time the police arrested someone in the street with a handgun, 151 00:09:38,720 --> 00:09:41,760 Speaker 1: which was you know, it was then illegal to carry 152 00:09:41,760 --> 00:09:44,640 Speaker 1: a concealed weapon, they had the law to back them 153 00:09:44,679 --> 00:09:47,760 Speaker 1: to remove it and confiscate it, and that was one 154 00:09:47,880 --> 00:09:51,520 Speaker 1: less handgun on the street. We saw the same thing 155 00:09:51,559 --> 00:09:55,959 Speaker 1: applied seventy years later in nineteen ninety six post port Arth, 156 00:09:56,559 --> 00:10:01,720 Speaker 1: when the governments around Australia more or less held and said, okay, 157 00:10:02,280 --> 00:10:04,679 Speaker 1: finally we're going to bite the bullet and we will 158 00:10:05,160 --> 00:10:08,000 Speaker 1: essentially ban semi automatic weapons and these sort of semi 159 00:10:08,040 --> 00:10:12,160 Speaker 1: military type weapons, which should become pretty common in Australia 160 00:10:12,400 --> 00:10:16,560 Speaker 1: posts World War Two right through to the nineties because 161 00:10:16,720 --> 00:10:18,920 Speaker 1: a lot of people weren't hunting and so on, and 162 00:10:18,960 --> 00:10:21,680 Speaker 1: you could buy semi automatic weapons, and so many people 163 00:10:21,720 --> 00:10:24,560 Speaker 1: had them. Funny thing in my own family, my mother 164 00:10:24,640 --> 00:10:28,320 Speaker 1: and my grandmother both handed in semi automatic twenty two rifles. 165 00:10:28,920 --> 00:10:32,280 Speaker 1: My grandmother earlier than that, back in the seventies, had 166 00:10:32,280 --> 00:10:36,800 Speaker 1: handed in several handguns because her father, the old retired copper, 167 00:10:37,200 --> 00:10:40,920 Speaker 1: had kept several that clearly he had taken away from criminals, 168 00:10:40,960 --> 00:10:43,920 Speaker 1: and he'd forgotten to hand them in, and so when 169 00:10:43,960 --> 00:10:47,079 Speaker 1: he died, she found an x amount. I don't know 170 00:10:47,120 --> 00:10:48,800 Speaker 1: if there were two or three or what they were. 171 00:10:49,200 --> 00:10:52,360 Speaker 1: She handed them into the police, and I suppose they 172 00:10:52,400 --> 00:10:55,360 Speaker 1: were logged properly and disposed of or else the police 173 00:10:55,400 --> 00:10:57,880 Speaker 1: just put them in their glove foxes. I don't know. 174 00:10:58,240 --> 00:11:02,800 Speaker 1: But anyway, the point is it did help remove guns 175 00:11:02,800 --> 00:11:05,360 Speaker 1: from the community. And if you cut the numbers down, 176 00:11:05,920 --> 00:11:11,440 Speaker 1: it means the opportunity for opportunistic theft is cut and 177 00:11:11,480 --> 00:11:15,200 Speaker 1: it means, yeah, sure, cashed up crooks they can buy handguns. 178 00:11:15,240 --> 00:11:17,839 Speaker 1: We all know that if you've got five grand, six grand, 179 00:11:17,840 --> 00:11:22,160 Speaker 1: eight grand, ten thousand dollars or more, you can contact 180 00:11:22,480 --> 00:11:26,560 Speaker 1: underworld sources who can obtain any sort of weaponry for 181 00:11:26,640 --> 00:11:29,080 Speaker 1: you at a price, and you pay the money and 182 00:11:29,120 --> 00:11:34,480 Speaker 1: you get the gun. That's true. However, every silly kid 183 00:11:34,720 --> 00:11:37,680 Speaker 1: from out in the burbs that's running around fighting each other, 184 00:11:38,400 --> 00:11:41,160 Speaker 1: they haven't got that sort of money and they can't 185 00:11:41,200 --> 00:11:45,680 Speaker 1: access that sort of firepower. What the laws did was 186 00:11:45,880 --> 00:11:51,439 Speaker 1: remove thousands of handguns and tens of thousands of long 187 00:11:51,760 --> 00:11:56,480 Speaker 1: arms from the community, so that it meant that every 188 00:11:56,800 --> 00:12:00,360 Speaker 1: idiot burglar, every idiot kid couldn't just push open a 189 00:12:00,400 --> 00:12:03,319 Speaker 1: shed door or somebody's back door and put their hand 190 00:12:03,960 --> 00:12:07,200 Speaker 1: on a weapon and steal it, because suddenly those weapons 191 00:12:07,200 --> 00:12:10,640 Speaker 1: were either handed it during an amnestem, weren't there, or 192 00:12:11,440 --> 00:12:14,200 Speaker 1: what's just as effective, probably they were locked up in 193 00:12:14,280 --> 00:12:18,800 Speaker 1: secure safes, which made it a lot harder to steal them. 194 00:12:19,320 --> 00:12:23,080 Speaker 1: And therefore it's clear and this is not a popular 195 00:12:23,200 --> 00:12:26,640 Speaker 1: view among shooters because they get stirred up about these things, 196 00:12:27,360 --> 00:12:31,680 Speaker 1: but the reality is that the tougher rules have made 197 00:12:31,679 --> 00:12:36,680 Speaker 1: it harder for idiots and thieves to put their hands 198 00:12:36,840 --> 00:12:39,760 Speaker 1: on guns at the drop of a hat. It's made 199 00:12:39,760 --> 00:12:42,240 Speaker 1: it that much harder. It hasn't made it harder for 200 00:12:42,280 --> 00:12:46,000 Speaker 1: cashed up crooks, sophisticated crooks, no, no, no, But it 201 00:12:46,040 --> 00:12:50,880 Speaker 1: has at least made black market weapons extremely expensive, and 202 00:12:50,920 --> 00:12:54,839 Speaker 1: that in itself isn't a bad thing. What's better an 203 00:12:54,840 --> 00:12:57,520 Speaker 1: illegal handgun for sale for ten thousand dollars or for 204 00:12:57,600 --> 00:13:00,839 Speaker 1: sale for two hundred. Well, I think that ten thousand 205 00:13:00,880 --> 00:13:05,640 Speaker 1: dollars options better. It just reduces the numbers. Now, we 206 00:13:05,679 --> 00:13:09,720 Speaker 1: can't prove a negative. You never can, so we'll never 207 00:13:09,880 --> 00:13:15,480 Speaker 1: know how many lives have been saved by the laws 208 00:13:16,080 --> 00:13:19,760 Speaker 1: that have removed all those handguns and all those many 209 00:13:19,800 --> 00:13:23,920 Speaker 1: more long arms from the community, leaving thinner pickings for 210 00:13:24,000 --> 00:13:29,160 Speaker 1: the crooks. But have no doubt that it has saved lives. 211 00:13:29,400 --> 00:13:33,080 Speaker 1: It must have saved lives, probably scores of lives, in 212 00:13:33,120 --> 00:13:36,280 Speaker 1: some way or another, because we have a bigger population 213 00:13:36,320 --> 00:13:39,199 Speaker 1: than we ever had. We've got a pretty excitable population. 214 00:13:39,280 --> 00:13:43,199 Speaker 1: We've got ethnic groups that staying to dislike each other intensely, 215 00:13:43,920 --> 00:13:49,360 Speaker 1: and the easy availability of weapons would only tend to 216 00:13:49,559 --> 00:13:53,439 Speaker 1: accelerate our society into becoming more like America and South 217 00:13:53,440 --> 00:13:57,040 Speaker 1: America and various other places where there are too many 218 00:13:57,080 --> 00:14:01,520 Speaker 1: guns and too many angry people. There's another similarity between 219 00:14:01,840 --> 00:14:05,680 Speaker 1: those sort of band or semi band controlled weapons and 220 00:14:05,880 --> 00:14:11,240 Speaker 1: the machetes now they aren't essential. The reality is this, 221 00:14:11,440 --> 00:14:14,760 Speaker 1: regardless of what we all think our rights are. And 222 00:14:14,960 --> 00:14:17,319 Speaker 1: I mean, if I've got a semi automatic and I've 223 00:14:17,320 --> 00:14:19,480 Speaker 1: got a machete in the boot, I'm not going to 224 00:14:19,560 --> 00:14:24,000 Speaker 1: cause much harm because I'm a very respectable, middle aged 225 00:14:24,040 --> 00:14:27,000 Speaker 1: man and I'm not inclined to go, you know, down 226 00:14:27,080 --> 00:14:30,840 Speaker 1: the street chasing other people and entering into gang warfare 227 00:14:30,920 --> 00:14:33,840 Speaker 1: and trading in drugs and all the rest of it. However, 228 00:14:34,160 --> 00:14:36,640 Speaker 1: people like me are not the problem. The problem is 229 00:14:37,120 --> 00:14:39,800 Speaker 1: all the other guys that do the bad things, and 230 00:14:40,280 --> 00:14:43,400 Speaker 1: in the real world, we don't need to make it 231 00:14:43,440 --> 00:14:47,800 Speaker 1: easy for them by having all these things at their fingertips. 232 00:14:48,440 --> 00:14:53,080 Speaker 1: In the real world, semi automatic weapons are not that 233 00:14:53,320 --> 00:14:57,080 Speaker 1: essential to farmers or even professional shooters. To be fair, 234 00:14:58,880 --> 00:15:02,960 Speaker 1: of course, many farmers and professional shooters and other sporting 235 00:15:03,000 --> 00:15:06,160 Speaker 1: shooters did have semi automatic weapons back when it was 236 00:15:06,240 --> 00:15:08,640 Speaker 1: legal to have them. As I just said, my mother 237 00:15:08,720 --> 00:15:12,760 Speaker 1: and my grandmother handed in semi automatic rifles post nineteen 238 00:15:12,840 --> 00:15:17,520 Speaker 1: ninety six. Most families, farming families and others did do that. 239 00:15:17,720 --> 00:15:21,240 Speaker 1: Many truckloads of them were handed in. But were they 240 00:15:21,400 --> 00:15:26,480 Speaker 1: really needed. Well no, because you can use a bolt 241 00:15:26,480 --> 00:15:29,960 Speaker 1: action rifle effectively. You've got to kill a sheep or 242 00:15:30,360 --> 00:15:32,600 Speaker 1: a cow or a horse or something on a farm, 243 00:15:33,280 --> 00:15:35,600 Speaker 1: or shoot at kangaroos, or shoot it whatever it is 244 00:15:35,640 --> 00:15:39,280 Speaker 1: you're shooting at, you can use a bolt action rifle 245 00:15:39,800 --> 00:15:44,480 Speaker 1: very effectively. Really, is it vital to have a semi 246 00:15:44,520 --> 00:15:47,920 Speaker 1: automatic I have said they're back in the drought of 247 00:15:47,960 --> 00:15:49,880 Speaker 1: sixty seven. Ye oh, such and such a farm I 248 00:15:49,920 --> 00:15:52,320 Speaker 1: had to shoot three thousand sheep. And you know he 249 00:15:52,360 --> 00:15:54,440 Speaker 1: would have got tennis elbow if he'd had to cock 250 00:15:54,520 --> 00:15:57,240 Speaker 1: the rifle with a bolt each time. Maybe so, but 251 00:15:57,600 --> 00:16:01,400 Speaker 1: that is a once in a lifetime event. That isn't 252 00:16:01,520 --> 00:16:05,160 Speaker 1: really an issue for which you need an automatic rifle. 253 00:16:05,320 --> 00:16:10,240 Speaker 1: It's just not true. Really. Besides which, most good hunting rifles, 254 00:16:10,720 --> 00:16:14,680 Speaker 1: deer rifles and the like, most of them are bolt action. Anyway, 255 00:16:15,160 --> 00:16:19,480 Speaker 1: because semi automatics to some extent are derivative of military use, 256 00:16:20,160 --> 00:16:23,120 Speaker 1: one could make a sweeping assertion and say that semi 257 00:16:23,160 --> 00:16:28,400 Speaker 1: automatic weapons are derived largely from a military background, and 258 00:16:28,440 --> 00:16:32,440 Speaker 1: therefore to some extent are anti personnel weapons. Now, we 259 00:16:32,480 --> 00:16:35,160 Speaker 1: want our army to have those, we want some people 260 00:16:35,280 --> 00:16:38,280 Speaker 1: in our police force to have those, but we don't 261 00:16:38,320 --> 00:16:40,960 Speaker 1: want every Tom Dick and Harry to have them for 262 00:16:41,000 --> 00:16:43,840 Speaker 1: a good reason. But every Tom Dick and Harry should 263 00:16:43,840 --> 00:16:46,480 Speaker 1: be entitled to have a bolt action rifle or something 264 00:16:46,520 --> 00:16:49,680 Speaker 1: if they have a legitimate reason, if they're sporting shooters 265 00:16:50,080 --> 00:16:53,680 Speaker 1: or farmers or hunt you know, professional hunters, whatever, of 266 00:16:53,720 --> 00:16:58,120 Speaker 1: course they should. Now, what's this got to do with machetes, Well, 267 00:16:58,440 --> 00:17:02,680 Speaker 1: got a bit to do with the Machetes are no use. 268 00:17:04,000 --> 00:17:07,440 Speaker 1: Let me say this and I will argue with anybody 269 00:17:07,520 --> 00:17:10,960 Speaker 1: about this out in the real world, in Victoria, in 270 00:17:11,000 --> 00:17:17,200 Speaker 1: Southern Australia, in Tasmania, in New Zealand. Machetes are no use. 271 00:17:18,000 --> 00:17:21,840 Speaker 1: They are a nasty thing that is neither one thing 272 00:17:21,880 --> 00:17:24,800 Speaker 1: or other. It's not a farm tool. You go to 273 00:17:24,800 --> 00:17:27,840 Speaker 1: a farm where they've got trees and they've got bush, 274 00:17:27,880 --> 00:17:30,439 Speaker 1: and they've got all sorts of things to cope with. 275 00:17:31,640 --> 00:17:36,960 Speaker 1: They have full size axes. Yes, they have chainsaws. They 276 00:17:37,000 --> 00:17:40,160 Speaker 1: have hand saws. They have pole saws for cutting branches 277 00:17:40,160 --> 00:17:43,240 Speaker 1: that are above your head. They have shovels for digging. 278 00:17:43,480 --> 00:17:47,040 Speaker 1: They have fern hooks and to implement now, but I 279 00:17:47,040 --> 00:17:49,680 Speaker 1: grew up with them. Fern hooks and long handled slashes. 280 00:17:49,720 --> 00:17:54,920 Speaker 1: These are for cutting thistles, for cutting ferns, and they 281 00:17:54,960 --> 00:17:59,960 Speaker 1: have hoes for cutting thistles and things, but not machetes. 282 00:18:00,480 --> 00:18:02,840 Speaker 1: They just aren't much use. You want to cut kindling, 283 00:18:03,200 --> 00:18:06,560 Speaker 1: you use a real axe. Some little old ladies might 284 00:18:06,680 --> 00:18:09,520 Speaker 1: use the tomahook. But I can recall my father, who 285 00:18:09,640 --> 00:18:14,280 Speaker 1: was an expert axeman, saying tomahawks are no use except 286 00:18:14,359 --> 00:18:17,520 Speaker 1: to cut your fingers off or you know, maybe it's 287 00:18:17,520 --> 00:18:19,760 Speaker 1: the sort of thing that people who couldn't lift a 288 00:18:19,840 --> 00:18:23,439 Speaker 1: full size act can lift a tomahawk. But they're really 289 00:18:23,800 --> 00:18:26,720 Speaker 1: not much use. You could kill a chock with one. Yeah, 290 00:18:27,400 --> 00:18:29,400 Speaker 1: you can cut your fingers off with one accidentally while 291 00:18:29,400 --> 00:18:31,880 Speaker 1: you're trying to split kindling, because they're not particularly good 292 00:18:31,880 --> 00:18:34,920 Speaker 1: at that. They're not heavy enough. Machetes are even worse. 293 00:18:35,320 --> 00:18:39,640 Speaker 1: They've got this long, sharp blade that's effectively very dangerous 294 00:18:39,640 --> 00:18:44,040 Speaker 1: for you to use when you're handling it yourself. And 295 00:18:44,359 --> 00:18:47,320 Speaker 1: what do you do with it. Well, they're made for jungle. 296 00:18:48,000 --> 00:18:50,840 Speaker 1: They're made to slash your way through the jungle. They're 297 00:18:50,880 --> 00:18:53,840 Speaker 1: made for cane cutters. Cane knives we use for cane 298 00:18:53,840 --> 00:18:57,919 Speaker 1: cutters to cut cane. They're made to cut bamboo again 299 00:18:58,040 --> 00:19:01,240 Speaker 1: in the jungle. Now have been some use for them 300 00:19:01,480 --> 00:19:04,560 Speaker 1: are in the cane fields of course of northern Australia 301 00:19:05,080 --> 00:19:09,800 Speaker 1: and other places, and those sort of machetes bush knives 302 00:19:09,880 --> 00:19:13,680 Speaker 1: call them what you like, they are and were useful 303 00:19:14,160 --> 00:19:17,920 Speaker 1: in that sort of jungly setting where there's undergrowth that's 304 00:19:18,000 --> 00:19:20,639 Speaker 1: very thick and heavy and you've got to hack your 305 00:19:20,680 --> 00:19:23,040 Speaker 1: way through it and you want to something in your hand, 306 00:19:23,080 --> 00:19:26,880 Speaker 1: if there's snakes, et cetera. But I have to say 307 00:19:26,880 --> 00:19:30,280 Speaker 1: that in all these years of traveling around and seeing 308 00:19:30,600 --> 00:19:35,280 Speaker 1: other places seeing what people actually use, the only place 309 00:19:35,560 --> 00:19:40,560 Speaker 1: I personally have seen machetes alias bush knives in use 310 00:19:41,480 --> 00:19:45,480 Speaker 1: is in Papua New Guinea, and that is where people 311 00:19:45,600 --> 00:19:48,239 Speaker 1: use them for a lot of things. Really, they're a 312 00:19:48,320 --> 00:19:52,040 Speaker 1: very handy thing around the villages in Papua New Guinea 313 00:19:52,040 --> 00:19:57,240 Speaker 1: where there's continual undergrowth and where they like to hack 314 00:19:57,560 --> 00:20:02,480 Speaker 1: stuff away. Also I noticed another thing in Papua New Guinea. 315 00:20:03,000 --> 00:20:06,239 Speaker 1: Hundreds and hundreds of people have very nasty scars on 316 00:20:06,280 --> 00:20:10,119 Speaker 1: their heads and on their arms, and I saw a 317 00:20:10,119 --> 00:20:14,320 Speaker 1: lot of disfigured people who have been badly cut. And 318 00:20:14,359 --> 00:20:16,760 Speaker 1: there are also quite a lot of dead people there 319 00:20:16,960 --> 00:20:22,119 Speaker 1: who have been very badly cut. So even in those 320 00:20:22,200 --> 00:20:26,240 Speaker 1: few countries where those instruments, or those implements or those 321 00:20:26,280 --> 00:20:30,200 Speaker 1: weapons are in use, they're used more often for bad 322 00:20:30,240 --> 00:20:36,440 Speaker 1: purposes than good ones. Thanks for listening. 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