The National Firearms Agreement didn’t stop an Islamic Terrorist killing innocents
The NSW Coroner today delivered a voluminous report into the Lindt cafe siege of 2014. It gives us the basic facts about a terrorist frequently brought to ASIO’s attention who emigrated to Australia from the Middle East. Despite early lies to the contrary, he was NEVER a licensed firearms owner and could never be one given his criminal history.
[H]e adopted extreme violence with a view to influencing government action […] concerning Australia’s involvement in armed conflict in the Middle East. That clearly brings his crimes within the accepted definition of terrorism. – Chapter 10, paragraph 71
Where did he get his shotgun?
The Coroner finds the shotgun as lawfully imported into Australia around 1960. It was shortened to just under 60 cm (which would make it a pistol in Queensland) (ch 6, para 21). It was never registered on an Australian firearms registry. It wasn’t surrendered in 1996 (ch 6, para 26). The Islamic terrorist in this case undertook a highly premeditated course of action to buy the illegal, sawn-off firearm (ch 6, para 34). There wasn’t some 28-day waiting period that would’ve deterred him.
But didn’t the firearms registries stop this?
There are eight registries. On the back of the envelope each costs about $6m/year in today’s money and has been running 20 years. A billion dollars or more has been thrown down the drain on firearms registries that have never solved a single crime nor prevented a single death. None of the billions of dollars spent on the 1996-7 firearms buyback or on the firearms registries since 1996 did one ounce of good for the Lindt cafe hostages.
Let’s spend the money on real policing instead of imaginary policing in the land of paperwork. Stop giving bail to violent criminals.