Many anti-gunners in the United States want to see the U.S. adopt Australian-like gun control laws. These, they claim, are the ideal direction we should take our nation’s laws. I suppose that since you can still buy a gun in Australia, it preserves the Second Amendment or something.

The problem is, those laws aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.

An open letter by an Australian gun owner over at The Libertarian Republic illustrates some of the issues that anti-gunners here might not be aware of.

Self Defence? Only if you want to give the criminal the advantage.

Every State and Territory in Australia has provisions to allow for self-defence in varying degrees with some States in particular give reasonable protections which allow escalating force if someone is on your property etc. Sounds pretty reasonable? Not exactly. These self-defence provisions are only enforceable if you do not use a firearm (or other banned/restricted self-defence devices). If you use a firearm to defend yourself, your family or your property you’re likely to instead see yourself having your firearms seized, firearms licenced cancelled and a strong likelihood of criminal prosecution put against you.This isn’t based off speculation either – we’ve had this happen repeatedly to legal firearms owners in Australia. In 2017 is a prime example – where a farmer used an unloaded .22 rifle to defend his young family from an intruder who was under the influence of drugs and wielding a knife. For his efforts to defend his family, his firearms were confiscated by the police and restrictions put on his wife’s licence denying her the ability to keep her own firearms on their property. Thankfully due to strong community push back and lobbying by the industry, David Dunstan was able to have his firearms returned. Unfortunately that end result isn’t the case for everyone however with David being fortunate to have not pointed the firearm at the intruder or firing any rounds making it easier to make the case against criminal prosecution for his efforts – those who have to defend themselves and use their firearms are more likely to potentially see jail time.This absurdity means that under the gun control environment in Australia, if an armed intruder entered your home whilst you were in the middle of getting ready for a day at the range and firearm in hand, that you would be required to put down said firearm and instead face a significant disadvantage at protecting your life.This extends to beyond firearms now in Australia, with almost every jurisdiction making it illegal to own pepper spray/mace/stun guns/tasers – leaving our most vulnerable at extreme risk of physical harm.

Warrant to search your premises? Think again.

Firearms owners can receive visits from the police and are legally required to provide access to their home to inspect their safe and firearms. In some States this can be without any notice given and anecdotally there’s even cases showing the lack of discretion of police entering properties during childrens birthdays to conduct inspections, causing confusion and distress to those at the home. No misconduct, illegal activity or warrant is required for these ‘inspections’. Certain individuals can receive repeated inspections with no justification, whilst other firearms owners never being inspected.Not home when the police come to inspect? There have been reports of family members being asked if they know the location of the keys to open the safe so they can inspect the firearms whilst the owner is gone. If the family members comply with the Police then they seize the firearms, rescind the owners licence and prosecute for ‘unsafe storage’. (under legislation it is deemed unsafe if anyone other than the licenced owner can access the safe – that includes any family members)

So in Australia, self-defense is a human right unless you use the most efficient means to defend your life, then you face prosecution and heaven forbid that a family member needs a firearm while you’re away from home. (Go read the whole thing, though, because it’s worth it to see the rest of the stupidity being discussed.)

Yet this is precisely what far too many anti-gunners in the United States want. They want these exact laws in place.

Do they really know what they’re asking for?

Some would argue that yes, they do, is this is precisely what they want. They’d argue that anti-gunners want to use these laws as a wedge to destroy our entire way of life.

While that might be true of some, I don’t think all anti-gunners supporting Australian-style laws understand some of the ramifications of these laws. I don’t know that they’d care–after all, far too many of them don’t see us as people worthy of our rights anyway–but I’m fairly sure most of them are absolutely ignorant.

It’s also why so many of us would rather die than see these kinds of laws in place here in the United States.

Australians may have rolled over and accepted these unconscionable restrictions, but we Americans aren’t about to do the same.