absolute right to bear arms?, page-31

"The Japanese in WW2 avoided a full scale land invasion due to the fact they thought most ordinary Australian citizens carried firearms and were crack shot shooters..... '
I find interesting. Is this really true? If so, it adds an interesting dimension to national security."

Hi LJ,
Yes, it would be true, or at least Japan would have carefully considered it. Just think, Aussies were "naturals" in the World Wars & the Boer War, etc, because they were all gun-proficient and could ride.
The Commonwealth Government tried to maintain that status quo after WW2, and to this aim, rifle clubs were heavily subsidised. In the '50's & '60's you could buy a military rifle (good old Lee Enfield .303's, Mk3 & Mk4) for the equivalent of a few bucks. Military ammo was cheap as chips, being heavily subsidised. Virtually all country households had at least 1 rifle and 1 shotgun, and most fanily members could shoot. Flying training was subsidised, and upon completion of your flying training, a portion of your expenses were refunded by the Commonwealth Government.
The CMF ( Citizens' Military Forces - forerunner to the Army Reserves ) was in effect up to the the advent of National Service. School Cadet Units did serious military training, including firing Automatic Weapons, albeit Bren Guns, Owen Guns, and the water-cooled Vickers Machine Gun.Oh, and 3" mortars and hand-grenades. We learnt how to arm & fit the fuses, but not all got to play with the latter.
We could strip & reassemble blindfolded. The training was carried out under the eye of regular army Warrant Officers, until we could train junior cadets ourselves. I had the honour of being trained by Warrant officer Jimmy Gordon, VC.
This Cadet training was stopped by Labor in 1972. "What? Teach kids to shoot guns and kill?" Oh horror. And everything went dowhill from there.
So Australia DID have a pool of citizens who could shoot and fly aircraft....most country kids could drive the truck or old Series 1 Landrover by the age of 12 or 13. An invading force, unused to our harsh conditions would have got a shock trying to occupy us.

Hey, guess what? With all those guns around, there were virtually no shootings? Disputes were solved with fists.
Cops were unarmed and did indeed go up to and disarm the odd person running amok with a firearm without shooting them. "C'mon, Frank, you're not gonna shoot anyone, and its bloody hot out here. Give us the rifle & lets go and have a beer." Life was good. And you could go out and leave the front door open, leave your keys in the ignition, leave your rifle in its clip on the dash uptown, and no one touched anything.
So what changed? Seriously? Guns were lethal then, and still are. So its got to be the people that changed. Apart from the odd 2-pot screamer, there were no Yobboes. What created them?
So yeah, guns dont kill people, it is indeed people who kill people.....
My case rests.

GZ