The push is on to establish a National Firearms Register, following the tragic murder of two police officers. For the legacy media it seems that if such a register existed, where police in any Australian state could access via the tap of a few computer keys, all the firearms details about any firearms owner in any state, terrible crimes like this would be prevented. That point is delusional, as while such a register, to cost a cool $ 200 million plus, would give information, that X owns a firearm, so what? How exactly would that help, since surely police tactics would assume that any suspect was armed anyway?
I note in particular the spin given in the article: “three religious extremists, none of whom were legally allowed to possess the arsenal of high-powered weapons and stockpile of ammunition they had hoarded on the remote property, more than 300km west of Brisbane. Shooter Nathaniel Train’s Queensland gun licence had been suspended four months earlier, and his brother, Gareth Train, and Gareth’s wife, Stacey Train, were not licensed to own or shoot firearms at all.” So, the criminals were not in lawful possession of firearms. Well, shouldn’t police had removed the guns from them sooner, taking all precautions of course, that is going fully armed to the premises, with plenty of backup officers? Nothing wrong with that, it is just sound situational awareness.