At last, some common sense. The OP asked some reasonable questions, and they require reasonable answers. Apart from gun laws we have a lot in common with the US. We shared a few wars for starters. I've been a hunter and shooter most of my adult life, I'm currently a qualified Range Officer, and did my time in our Army. You get good and bad in any country, and when you consider the US population is over 300 million against our roughly 25 million, then realise Australia is roughly the size of the Continental United States. Then a little perspective creeps in. Sure we don't have school shootings and we can't go into a gun store and just walk out with anything we want. But that doesn't make us subservient to our Government. I have no reason whatever to carry a handgun, or for that matter a long arm in my car unless I'm on my way to someplace I can use it. Guns are tools just like chisels and saws. I bet more people get killed by cars and sharp chisels than they do with firearms. Yes, we have crime here, that's a fact of life. We also have what have come to be known as "home invasions" that can be dealt with using whatever happens to be close handy, like the shovel I use to pick up my dog [bleep]. Nobody wants to get hit in the face with that.
