Thursday, August 5, 2010

Upside Down Down Under?

The Big Guy sent me this link. I'm hoping one of my Australian readers (Julie?) will let me know that this is really an elaborate joke...

Toy guns will have to be licensed in Queensland under new firearms laws

ANY ITEM that looks like a gun will have to be licensed under several changes to the Weapons Act being considered by the Queensland State Government.

Even guns made out of materials as unlikely as soap or plastic may have to be kept under lock and key if they could "reasonably be taken to be a weapon".

TBG closes the e-mail to me with this wisecrack:
Seriously? Where do they think they are, Massachusetts?

Which, sadly, isn't all that far from the truth...

I do wonder how they intend to inforce this law, given that, to the best of my knowledge, it's rather difficult to put a serial number on a bar of soap... I'm guessing it's intended to be one of those "we'll tack charges on later" kind of things - like if they end up in your house and find a gun-shaped cigarette lighter, they can ransack your home looking for other similar items and prosecute you accordingly.

This is the gun control argument reductio ad absurdum, folks. Rather than actually, you know, go after the miscreants that are misusing what little firearms are left, they insist on pestering and annoying the law abiding. It's easier to get a conviction on someone for possessing a 1911-shaped dart gun than for cutting down a rifle and doing a drive-by, apparently; certainly for the police officers it's less dangerous to hassle Mary Q. Housewife for her lighter than to roust George D. Gangbanger for his stolen gat.

Ridiculous. Simply ridiculous. I expect it to show up in a bill introduced by Jarrett Barrios any day now.

That is all.

2 comments:

Borepatch said...

I posted a while back about the dude Down Under who got proned out by Constable Plod because he was carrying a steering wheel lock.

I never did find out if Constable Plod changed his trousers immediately, or if he had to wait until he was off duty.

Stretch said...

The hardest job in the world?
Writer for The Onion.