An article published on Sunday in which an Australian hits back at President Barack Obama saying that the U.S. laws about guns should be closer to those of Australia is trending across the web.
The article, published on conservative website Allen B West, says that Australian author, and partner in the Liberty Alliance, wanted to set the record straight in an open letter.
The letter was originally published at Joe for America.
See part of the letter below:
Dear Mr. President,
You recently hailed “Australian gun laws”.
In doing so:
- you praised a government for forcefully removing all semi-automatic firearms from its populace,
- you admired the banning and confiscation of guns.
We expect to hear that from a European leader. But not you.
You’re the leader of America:
- the world’s first free country,
- the nation that has inspired many to be free,
- that has protected the freedom of others,
- that has spread more freedom than any other.
I am an Australian and I must set the record straight.
The “success” of the 1996 Australian gun reform is a myth.
The only thing achieved was to take away the guns of the law-abiding, leaving only the criminals armed. Is this what you wish for America?
In Australia, if a citizen has firearms, the police have a right to search their property without a warrant any time. Does that sound like America?
The laws you praise outlawed the Daisy Red Ryder BB Gun that my father played with as a child. Now you need a special permit, gun safe and serial number.
For what?
There are just as many guns on the street today. Gun crime is no lower. In Australia, mass shootings have been a rare event. If strict gun laws mean no massacres, explain Britain’s
Cumbria shootings, Monkseaton and Dunblane. Or Anders Breivik of Norway?
Gun laws achieve very little.
Mass shootings are about illness, not guns. Any other so-called “gun issue”, if there are any, is related to the breakdown of the family, cultural decline and the age of entitlement.
The Second Amendment defines American exceptionalism. It speaks to the character of America, and reflects why America is America.
Civilian disarmament is based on the assumption that people are irresponsible (unless they work for the government). America was founded on the opposite premise.
Don’t make America a namby-pamby society.
The right to bear arms is not wrong nor unnecessary. It is:
- the greatest test of genuine freedom,
- the best protection of you, your family and your property,
- the ultimate deterrent against government overreach.
The Constitutional right to bear arms is pivotal. The American idea is a value system. If you take away the guns of America, you take away America.
(*Gun image via Shutterstock)
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