Hoplophobia – our national illness

In WA, merely having the wrong opinion is sufficient for your firearms licence to be revoked and guns seized, with no evidence of violent intent or advocacy needed. But only sovereign citizens need be concerned; radical Islamists are fine.

Hoplophobic Australians regularly assert that our gun laws are an example to other countries, yet cannot name any. Policies motivated by a mental condition are not a model for anyone. Indeed, there is no objective reason why they should be: countries with more liberal gun laws and more guns per head of population, such as Switzerland, Czechia and even New Zealand, have firearm homicide rates that are as low or lower than ours.

Australia cannot even explain what its gun laws are intended to achieve. If they are to reduce the criminal use of firearms, or lead to fewer firearm homicides, there was no obvious need for change even in 1996. Firearm homicides were already low by international standards and falling.

If they are to keep guns out of the hands of people who are likely to misuse them, there’s no point prohibiting certain types of guns. Someone who is not safe with guns, whether due to criminal intent or mental instability, is obviously not safe with any kind of gun.

If the billions that Australia devoted to bans and buybacks had instead been used to understand and treat mental health, including phobias, perhaps we would have something other countries would be interested in.