'They Have Started Mounting Raids to Retrieve Firearms'

By Vin Suprynowicz
[email protected]

Special to The Libertarian Enterprise

         Americans who warn that gun registration leads inevitably to confiscation are usually dubbed "paranoid."
         In 1992, Australia enacted mandatory gun registration. In 1996, Australia proceeded to enact laws banning all semi-auto weapons of 22 caliber and larger. All such firearms are to be confiscated and destroyed, under a 12-month amnesty program.
         Noting that 7,000 United States Marines have been stationed in Australia since July 31, 1995, supposedly for training, one Australian wrote me recently, contending our Marines are there "quite probably to assist the Australian government in forceful and violent confiscation of weapons at or before the end of the amnesty period."
         While that fear may be overblown, I did think readers might be interested in this May 9 posting from Australian Carolyn Dillon ([email protected]):
         "Good day to you. ... I am in Australia and the amnesty is finished. Stick up for your rights now! Speaking out is easier than what we now face here.
         "Gun owners who did not comply with new regulations in Australia are now faced with the fact that their name is flagged on govt. computers, (and) they are liable to four years imprisonment and a fine that is about the cost of an average house.
         "Those with firearms licences and those who did not hand in their weapons are liable to search of person or premises without warrant.
         "People cannot organise because what the govt. has done is now legislated, enacted law. Therefore any attempt to communicate or organise is liable to the charge of subversion. If an individual says to another 'I would suggest that you do not hand in your firearm,' the speaker may be charged with subverting another to commit a criminal act.
         "They have started mounting raids to retrieve firearms and this is likely to intensify.
         "WHATEVER YOU GUYS DO, FOR GOD'S SAKE DON'T REGISTER YOUR WEAPONS. It really is happening and it seems to be global.
         "U.S. brothers, watch your six. If you don't with the politicians then you will have to watch it for real against your own troopers.
         "Australia to America: God bless you and pray for us poor bastards down under."

# # #

         That "global" business sounded a bit high-strung, until S.T. in Utah forwarded the following report by Elizabeth Fullerton of Reuters:
         "U.N. presses for action on worldwide gun control
         "VIENNA, May 5 (Reuter) -- Momentum is gathering for worldwide action on gun control to stem the increasing number of deaths from firearms among civilians, a U.N. crime body said on Monday.
         "The United Nations Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice is expected to approve a resolution this week to urge countries to impose tighter restrictions on gun ownership and export.
         " 'We strongly believe that effective national regulation is important to international controls, particularly on the illicit movement of small arms,' Australian commission delegate Daryl Smeaton told Reuters. ...
         "Smeaton said there was no plan for a legally binding convention on gun control but that the resolution looked likely to have broad support from member states, including the United States, despite pressure from the powerful gun lobby. ...
         " 'At this stage we understand that the U.S. will be able to support the resolution as it is drafted and that is a very, very encouraging sign,' Smeaton said."

# # #

         Recently, I dated the start of the great witch-hunts of the 16th century to the 1486 publication of the book "Malleus Maleficarum," which I attributed to Pope Innocent IV.
         Let us now recall the importance of "looking it up."
         "Malleus Maleficarum" -- "The Hammer of Witches" -- was indeed the book that launched the massive witch hysteria. However, the book was authored by two ethically-challenged Dominicans, Heinrich Kramer and Jakob Sprenger, who inserted the 1484 bull "Summis desiderantes affectibus" (issued by Pope Innocent VIII) as a foreward to their work, creating the impression that the current Pope had fully endorsed their efforts.
         All three certainly share the blame for tossing aside the safeguards of the Canon Episcopi, allowing the Burning Times to begin.
         As to whether the instructions to Christian clerics to sensibly dismiss charges of witchcraft as so much fantasy -- the section of the church law which became known as the Canon Episcopi -- really dates from the early church counsels at Ancyra and Nicea, or were in fact inserted by the canonist Regino of Prum around 906 A.D., we may perhaps leave to another day.

# # #

         And while I was busy getting things wrong, I recently wrote that in Nevada, concealed handgun permits are issued only for a single weapon, by serial number.
         A number of readers wrote in to remind me that -- gun owners having complained that they need a lighter-weight pistol during Nevada's broiling summers -- Nevada actually permits the gun owner to list two guns on the "carry" permit, by make and model.

Vin Suprynowicz is the assistant editorial page editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The web site for the Suprynowicz column is at http://www.nguworld.com/vindex/. The column is syndicated in the United States and Canada via Mountain Media Syndications, P.O. Box 4422, Las Vegas Nev. 89127.

Imagine a government bent on sharing its sensitive, caring, environmentally friendly ways with an entire universe. Then imagine the army it needs. CLD - Collective Landing Detachment. Dark military SF. By Victor Milan. From AvoNova.

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