(Amy, please excuse me, you are correct, but that’s not the complete picture.)

In Australia (and AFAIK, the UK):

1. You cannot have a gun FOR the purpose of defending yourself, only the police and security guards have that right. We are not third world countries, this is not the wild west, this is the 21st century. If someone attacks you, you are permitted to use “reasonable force” to defend yourself, which, as established in many court cases, means *somewhat* more force than the attacker. But not lethal force, unless the attacker was actually trying to kill you.

2. That means that if you have a gun *because* you think you are going to be robbed, since you had the intention, it is murder. Several people who have killed small black teenagers have rightly been done for murder, usually downgraded to manslaughter. It is like carrying a weapon in the passenger compartment of your car, expecting to be attacked.

3. But you can use the gun to prevent the attack or robbery, as in standing over an unarmed thief.

4. So if you kill, you have to succeed in proving that you were about to be killed.

5. The “dead men tell no tales” idea does not hold over here. Shooting a thief or home invader, to kill, which is using more than the “reasonable force” will get you in trouble.

6. If what you have is so freaking valuable, install an alarm on the safe, which is linked to the police station or a security company. Do not put your life between a serious home invader and the valuables, with or without a gun, that is plain stupid, hopefully your life is worth more than the valuables. They might have one as well, and they might shoot straighter.

7. But if they hurt anyone, defend yourself with whatever you have. There are many people who have killed the invader, gotten charged (well the police have to do their job), been able to prove that it was an accident, they only wanted to use reasonable force, did not intend it to be lethal, and gotten off. Or the thief was armed, and hurt people, and you had a better firearm and better aim.

8. A gun licence is denied to any person with a criminal record for (a) violence or (b) drugs, for ten years.

9. Since the country is not flooded with cheap guns, they are often the target of the robbery. Which is partly the reason for the strict gun storage laws. If you have guns, you have to do much more (than in the third world countries) to establish a need; to store them; to use them. The transport of guns is also legislated: must be unloaded; only between the safe, the place you hunt or the rifle range or the repair shop; none of this carrying loaded guns, convenient for some other purpose.

10. Using a firearm in the commission of a crime, is an additional charge.

What’s up this month, is it some vernal alignment of Orion’s three testicles with the spontaneous discharge of Gauya’s seculous vaginlinous?

Hm.

I think I shall call you “Ritalin Monkey”.