Thread: Australian Group Calls For Boycott Of U.S. Until America Fixes Its Gun Laws

Australian Group Calls For Boycott Of U.S. Until America Fixes Its Gun Laws

by Emily Atkin Oct 4, 2015 1:44pm

Samantha Lee, director of Gun Control Australia.

In the wake of yet another mass shooting in America, there are a lot of Australians unhappy with the United States. America has failed, they note, to implement any gun control measures to prevent these recurring tragedies — no background check expansions, no bans on larger assault weapons, no nothing.

But besides expressing disgust and leading by example, is there anything Australians can actually do about it?

One group thinks there is. In an interview on Australia’s Today Show, Gun Control Australia director Samantha Lee suggested a boycott of non-essential travel to America to protest its inaction on gun control.

“We have 2.1 million Australians visiting the U.S. every year and over 200,000 expats in America,” Lee said. “So I believe we have a duty to respond to this tragedy in the U.S. And the way to do this is have a boycott of non-essential travel to the U.S.”

Watch it here:

Though there’s been no indication yet that Australians will boycott travel over America’s inaction on gun control, Australians have been calling out the U.S. for not responding to gun massacres the way their country did two decades ago. In 1996, after a man went on a rampage with a semi-automatic rifle and killed 35 people, Australia banned high-powered rifles and enacted strict licensing requirements.

Since then, Australia has seen no mass shootings, which are defined as five or more people being shot. And millions of Australians still own guns.

In his address to the country following last week’s mass shooting at an Oregon community college, President Obama cited Australia as an example of a country with common sense gun laws. On the Today Show, Lee said Australia should “act as an international community to assist Obama to push those laws through Congress.”
Gun deaths in Australia decreased significantly after the country reformed their gun laws.

Gun deaths in Australia decreased significantly after the country reformed their gun laws.

“Having criminal record checks, and mental health checks, and increasing security checks in schools,” Lee said. “This is in no way radical in terms of Australia and our gun laws.”

Lee also suggested that Australia ban donations from the firearms industry to their political parties, which she said would “allow us to raise that issue with America to ban donations from the gun lobby.”
The gun rights lobby has spent considerably more influencing U.S. policy than the gun control lobby.

The gun rights lobby has spent considerably more influencing U.S. policy than the gun control lobby.

CREDIT: Boston Globe

“Millions of dollars are donated by the [National Rifle Association], particularly to the Republican party [in America],” she said, lamenting the “cozy relationship” between the gun lobby and politicians in both countries. “In Australia, we need to be cautious that we also don’t take any donations from the firearms industry, and we need to raise this issue with the U.S.”

Led by the NRA, gun rights activists have spent millions of dollars influencing U.S. politics, though more of their money goes toward lobbying for and against legislation than to actual candidates. The top recipients of contributions from the gun rights lobby include current House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), according to the Boston Globe.

But even though millions of Australians have guns, conservatives have been decrying Obama’s attempt to look to countries like Australia for inspiration on gun control. On Fox News on Sunday, Clayton Morris asserted that Australian citizens “aren’t allowed to have guns.” “They also have no freedom!” another host retorted.

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/201...rica-gun-laws/

See, whenever we talk this global crap, these other countries think they have some right to interfere in our business. You dish it out long enough then sooner than later it works its way back to you, like a Boomerang.

I guess now that Australia is part of our new TPP, they think they can exert pressure on US to abandon our constitutional rights.

Well, GUESS WHAT?! I don't own a gun, don't want to own a gun, could care less about guns, but hear me on this, I will stand and fight for anyone else to exercise their constitutional right to own a gun or many guns of whatever type or style they want, because I see nothing wrong in it and it's their right under the US Constitution, not only their right, but a right that shall not be infringed upon. That means no waiting period, no registration, no background checks, no permits, no nothing. That is what it means when it says "shall not be infringed".

Now there were criminals when our Constitution was written, there were bad people in our country when our nation was formed, there was mental illness, there was then, everything we have now. But there was also something they had then, that we don't have now.

Then, EVERYONE had a gun. Every home had guns. Every farm had guns. Every business had guns. Every school had guns.

An armed society is a safe society. Even then it didn't stop some crimes, but you could fight back and defend yourselves and by doing so limit the carnage.

Weapons were quite primitive at the time of the creation of our Constitution. Our founders intended for our citizenry to be armed so that it could repel subversive and tyrannical government. Government today has tanks, nuclear weapons, fighter jets, etc. My interpretation of what the founders intended I need a tank in the back yard, a fighter jet at the nearest airport, that jet armed with nuclear weapons.

The Australians are freaking idiots to have allowed the socialists to disarm them all via full gun confiscation.

W

Well, you have to remember Australia got its start as a Penal Colony so was founded by criminals. I guess it's criminal guilt.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufDTDUPZrag

Hmm, guess I'll be needing a Donk.