[A. G. Maisey]

Khanjar, there is no heat that I can detect in this discussion, and it is a discussion, not an argument.

If you were not preaching, fair enough, if that was just your normal way of communication, and I mistook it for preaching, it is I who owe you an apology.

Population is one factor, but there are others. Population alone does not account for Australia's position. Look at the USA:- currently something over 300 million, and they've still got their guns & etc. But they've also got the Second Amendment, the NRA, and a vastly different history to that of Australia.

Australia has one of the most urbanised demographics on the face of this earth, it also has several well structured criminal organisations that have risen in most cases from ethnic bases. Although highly urbanised, it is subject to the tyranny of distance which has the effect of fragmenting opposition to restrictive legislation.

There is the fact that from the time Australia was settled, restrictive firearms laws were in place, made necessary of course by the criminal population who were Australia's first settlers.

It is textbook strategy to work through one's local member of parliament, and of course, we do, but any member of parliament works on the numbers, and if only a couple of percent of the electorate want softer weapons legislation , while perhaps 50% want tougher weapons legislation, and the balance don't really care, what do you think that MP is going to do?

The public education system has been whiteanted by green activists who as you would undoubtedly know are rabidly anti-gun, Its goes without saying that "anti-gun" includes anti everything else that could conceivably take a life. Children are taught to hate and fear firearms and other weapons as soon as they enter school. A quite different attitude to that which prevailed during the 1940's and 1950's. I was using a rimfire by the time I was 6 years old, and I owned my own rifle that was my responsibility at 8.

So, with this change in the attitude of the greater part of the population, those of us who struggle to try to maintain some of our freedoms are fighting a very uphill battle. Even my own grandchildren think I'm some sort of very peculiar person who cannot quite be trusted because I have all these terrible guns and other weapons around me. Regrettably, one of my daughters-in-law is a school teacher.

Then we have the media. Anything that smells of an anti-gun, tougher anti-crime-law story sells papers, so these paragons of integrity work it to death.

No, there are many reasons why the New Zealand canvas is different to the Australian canvas. What can be painted on the New Zealand canvas with relative ease could not be painted on the Australian canvas by Leonardo DaVinci. The current situation for pro-weapons people in Australia can probably only get worse. Please do not interpret this as defeatist, it is not. It is a realistic assessment of the actual situation. We will continue to fight, but the whole thing is political, politics works on numbers, and in our urbanised society, we simply do not have the numbers.

Khanjar, our politicians do most definitely listen.
They listen to their analysts and strategists who tell them that if they support softer weapons legislation, and somebody dies, seemingly because of that softer legislation, it will cost them perhaps 15% of the potential vote, whereas if they support the softer legislation and nobody dies, they will gain less than 1% of the potential vote.

It all works on numbers, and in 2008, with no threat of invasion, a highly urbanised population, and no perceived need for a normal person to own guns or other weapons, we just do not have the numbers.