By Brendan Doyle
SYDNEY — Less than a week after the Port Arthur massacre, about 1500 people rallied in Hyde Park to call for stricter gun laws. The rally was organised by the Coalition for Gun Control. The mood was sombre, matched by the dark skies that occasionally sent down showers of rain.
Rebecca Peters of the coalition listed the mass killings over the last few years, then reminded people that 80% of all gun deaths are suicides, that most gun violence occurs in domestic situations and that therefore "guns are a health and safety issue for all Australians".
She outlined the failure of politicians to act decisively on the problem. "Every time there is a gun massacre, the people of Australia have been horrified and outraged. Yet every time, the politicians have refused to act."
The coalition, she said, has a long history of meeting with politicians to discuss gun laws in NSW. But each time they had left the negotiations "ashamed at the sheer gutlessness of both major parties". In a major victory for the campaign, she said, both NSW government and opposition leaders had put their names to a document supporting her organisation's main demands on gun reform, which would be taken to the gun summit in Canberra.
In a moving and courageous speech, Virginia Handmer then told how her 15-year-old daughter Dali was shot dead as she was crossing the road in Mudgee. Five men were ready to go kangaroo-shooting. One of them had Dali in the sights of a Ruger .223 semi-automatic rifle. Joking about shooting her, he pulled the trigger and killed her instantly.
In the country, Handmer said, among men, "It's normal to point a loaded semi-automatic gun at your friends ... It's exciting to have that much power; you know, people leap out of the way. If they know what's coming."
Simon Chapman, Associate Professor in Public Health at the University of Sydney, who previously campaigned against the tobacco companies over the damage caused by smoking, also made the point that gun control is a public health issue.
All the speakers' comments left two huge questions unanswered. First, why have politicians from the major parties failed to implement the gun control recommendations of countless reports on violence, such as the 1990 National Committee on Violence Report? In the light of this failure to act, must we conclude that allowing a climate of violence and insecurity to go unchecked actually suits those who hold power?
From Perth, Rin Glenn reports that 50 people rallied in support of federal gun control on May 10 at the Perth Cultural Centre.
The rally was opened by a representative from the Women's Emergency Services Network, who said, "Not only should there be a national gun register, but there should be a national gun register of restraining orders to prevent deaths due to domestic violence and to protect the police officers intervening in domestic disputes".
Other speakers included Helen Muhling from the Domestic Violence Legal Unit, opposition leader Jim McGinty and Bill Cullen, national president of the Australian Crime Prevention Council. All these speakers portrayed police officers as constantly coming under the threat of gunfire. Yet no mention was made of the many who have been shot by police, some without guns themselves.
McGinty's call to "seize the opportunity of such immense public anger to change guns laws" makes one wonder whether the ALP is looking to prevent crime and violence, or launch a savage law and order campaign for the upcoming state elections.