Wrong. Allot of people in Australia legally posses semi automatic weapons. There appears to be a belief that ALL semi automatics were banned in Australia following the port Arthur massacre. Far from the truth. Each state is responsible for its own gun legislation as the federal government has no power to dictate gun laws to the states. Semi automatics were moved into a different category of firearms meaning that they can still be legally obtained & imported by those who are approved for that class of weapon. Gun owners undergo rigorous background checks & must have police clearance before obtaining firearms. They must also demonstrate a genuine need & reason to possess a firearm. Wouldn't you rather live next to someone who you KNOW police had run background checks on rather than someone who hasn't?
The belief that gun ownership rates & availability of semi automatic long arms directly correlates with mass murders is an outright lie. New Zealand's gun ownership & availability of semi automatics is proportionally comparable in many ways to that of the US & Canada. Australia also has very high gun ownership rates. The following list of historic massacres shows that New Zealand has never had a massacre crisis like the US. If its is claimed that the rates of gun ownership & availability of semi automatics directly translate to massacres then surely this list would be significantly bigger. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_massacres_in_New_Zealand
The claim that NZ's gun laws will make it a safer place is pretty dubious seeing as it was already a pretty safe place to begin with. The actions of 1 miserable sack of **** doesn't point towards a trend of systemic gun violence.
I wouldn't class myself as 'pro' or 'anti' gun. I support good regulation & common sense (something lacking of late it seems).
