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Australia keeps getting brought into the American gun debate but it's really not that helpful to anyone. Gun reform in Australia has been successful and in the end was relatively easy but it's Australian law for Australians.
Our attitude to guns is one of the more significant cultural differences between our two countries.
When the laws were coming in the most vocal opposition was from farmers and sport shooters that were being asked to give up semi auto hunting riffles. There wasn't the concern about giving up guns for personal protection, we didn't have them.
The average Australian couldn't tell you what's in our constitution, most don't know the words to the second verse of our national anthem. Most Australian's have an anti authority slant (comes from descending from convicts) but the idea that our military could ever be used against us is insane to us.
Most Australians believe that we enjoy more freedom without the fear of gun violence than we would have if we were armed to defend ourselves. Most generally accept that criminals have guns but that they tend to shoot each other rather than innocent bystanders.
The point of the rant is that Australia doesn't have any answers to an American issue, we generally don't relate to it or understand it. If we had been successful banning beer then we'd have something to share.
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