Here's me, in a post-apocalyptic down under, with my machine gun. I need it to fight the zombie alien drug dealing water lords, the desert militia and the nuclear waste giant spiders. I mean, it's what every girl needs when mace and Maybelline eyelashes won't do.
This week's #freedomfriday, brought to you courtesy of the gorgeous winged @eaglespirit and supported by the wunderteam at @freedomtribe (who last week were kind enough to reward ALL those who wrote about 'What does freedom mean to you' for #freedomfriday) topic is:
This of course was met with the necessary irreverance when one first contemplates touching such a subject - something along the lines of 'All bears need their arms to catch fish' and 'Why would you question a bear's right to arms?'. This tailed off eventually as we started to consider what this might actually mean, because how much can a koala bear, right?
My problem with this question is that Australians will always, always say that 'We don't need guns in Australia because John Howard banned them after the Port Arthur Massacre in 1996, and we haven't had a mass shooting since (well, depends how you define this). And that's kinda annoying, because it doesn't help when the gun debate is such a big topic in America, especially in the wake of school shootings. Most Australians will say there's a simple answer - ban guns. And we all think you Americans are nuts for that second amendment thing, because we don't have such a revered constitution that is the reference point for culture and civil freedoms and nor do we have a history founded on revolution. Genocide, yes, but not civil war.
But I know it's more complex than that, and I know that many Americans feel threatened by their government who can buy and use as many weapons as they goddamn like, leaving the people defenceless, so if they're going to fight for THEIR freedom they sure as hell need the guns to do it. It's the individual versus state control and given a history of revolution dependent on guns, sure, I can get that.
We find it difficult here to wrap our head around the sheer statistics of gun deaths in the US. They've got 6 times the amount of gun crime than us. I don't want to get into messy figures - they're google-able and I don't want to get stuck in a quagmire of comparisions. After the gun ban though, the likelihood of being killed by a gun fell 76 percent, even with increasing population and increasing problems. And for me, that's the kicker - I have the freedom to walk around and drive around my country without fear of being shot. Guns just do not enter into discussions about quality of life or public safety here and that's a pretty good damn freedom to me.
In fact, murder rate have declined since the 1990's - although less of a decline for men than for woman. Is this due to lack of guns? Who knows. I think it's naive to think so. If you want to kill someone, you don't need a gun to to it - and in some cultures, it's not even the weopon of choice. I think it makes it easier to do so, and it worries me that gun regulation here varies state to state despite national legislation, because access to firearms is surely just going to make things far easier. Australia has a terrible problem with domestic violence - don't tell me that lax gun laws won't make it easier to shoot your wife. In fact despite warning flags against the guy, one man did just that - having access to a gun club, he managed to get a gun and kill his wife and kids. So you can see I might get a bit worried about lobbying for gun ownership here (especially in Queensland) because it takes away people's right to be safe, and being safe in Australia means something different to being safe in Australia.
It's one thing to cry for absolute individual freedoms, and quite another to be a victim of something that takes away your own freedom - your life, your mobility, your ability to feel safe.
And this must be so complicated in countries where drug lords own AK-47's and Kalashnikovs and civilians worry they'll be gunned down in the street. And it's complicated in countries where guns are normalised and are part of their culture and history. And complicated when you start talking about absolute individual freedoms.
But I don't need to fight zombie alien drug dealing water lords, the desert militia and the nuclear waste giant spiders. I don't believe we have anything real to fear in Australia except fear itself, and we should continue to resist the media and government's mind games that make us believe we do have things to fear. Maybe I'm an naive idealistic, but fuck guns - we don't need them.
It's this idealism that leads me to the same conclusion I'm always let to - that it doesn't have to be this way. We need to be better than this - every single one of us. Most of the world's social problems could be solved by governments that put people first. Rather than saying 'that's never going to happen, because it's always been this way' we need to educate, mobilise, work towards better systems of government. We need to work toward better social and health reforms so that we're not in situations where people are forced to resort to violence to establish some kind of authority and control over their lives in whatever fucked up crazy way they do, like walk into a school and gun down kids. We need to raise people to be in compassionate, empathetic, reasonable people. And maybe then, the right to bear arms wouldn't even be a problem - they'd just be for target shooting and collecting.
What do you think? Should we have the right to bear arms?
What freedoms suffer when we do? What freedoms are supported?
Is absolute freedom dependent on gun ownership?
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This is a really interesting topic. Something that sparks very diverse conversations in our house. My partner is from the US and believes that owning a gun should be personal choice and not the decision of governments.
I'm of the opinion that worldwide disarmament would be beneficial. Not just personally owning guns but all the money and taxes that go into military development could be used to improve the welfare of the people that live there instead of making them believe that they need to protect and defend land that should be free to those who chose to live on it.
I understand that I'm being idealistic but I firmly believe that we have evolved enough to see that our history has been peppered with atrocities. A theory that I'm very interested in, is the idea that if every single human on this planet had their basic needs met such as food, clothing and a roof over their head coupled with a treaty between all countries to consider any act of violence to be a violation of human rights.
It would be lovely if instead of spending money building weapons we could use that budget to educate future generations on empathy, respect and love. To be kind to each other and respect and honor our cultural differences instead of seeing them as a threat.
On a smaller scale, if everyone's needs were met then would we feel the need to 'protect' our homes from threats of burglary and murder? Maybe I'm naive but when we have everything we need and there is an abundance, we are more likely to share. If a stranger came to my house I would love to welcome them to join us for dinner, a coffee and even offer them a place to stay.
I know it is possible. Look at Rainbow Gatherings, offgrid communities and tribes.
yes this would have made a great blog post for sure, maybe copy and paste. LOL!
love your words and i agree .. but it comes to IF onlys and what is happening right now. also this may come the difference between "good and evil" and "satan and the angels" etc. what IF there really is a deep state and maybe the fallen as i call them. the angels that were cast down influencing mankind. this then brings up the issue that when man is no longer "influenced" by those forces will we then have that idealistic world you are thinking about? i wonder this myself ... it is my hope we as a human race will get there ... the starseeds are hard at work (myself included) trying to make this happen. hold on to your tights sister!
You should write this as your own post!!! I totally agree with you!!! There's got to be enough of us idealists, right?
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Hey, thanks for cluing us in for what is going on in Australia, a place where guns are banned. I'm glad it is working for you and gives you a feeling of safety. I live in Canada where we do not have in our constitution the right to bear arms but wee are free to own guns if we have a gun acquisition license. acquired after taking a gun safety course. Which is a good thing. They tried to have gun registration and it was so costly and a real pain for everyone (except the criminals who don't bother with such things) to have to register each and every gun. Living in a low population area where you are kind of left on your own to defend yourself - the RCMP (no police force here)are mostly busy on the reserves, I am fine with the option of having a firearm. I doubt that I could ever pull the trigger on a person and it is mostly my husband who handles the guns and only for self protection. That being said we also have a lot of people who use guns for subsistence living, to feed their families. Ideally I would love to live in a world where all being could live in peace and harmony but realistically that is not the reality of our area of the country. Guns really are not an issue for me for I do live peacefully in the forest and I would prefer to be loving and kind to our fellow human beings but there is the fact that there is a lot of violence out there and we do have guns in the house which I hope we never have to use!
Exactly. So it is really hard to say either or. Because there are situations where guns are absolutely fine ANZ not a problem at all. And of course you have the right to protect yourself. Haha we have a police station in town and I have called them over the years for little things and no one has ever answered or called me back. I seriously doubt they would come to our rescue if anyone attacked our house. We don't have a gun to protect ourselves but then we don't feel the need as I said full stop the situation in Australia is completely different to America. I was trying to be careful because I didn't want to be judgemental because the situation is far too complex. Your life sounds so beautiful and idyllic. I can just imagine your beautiful Forest dwelling. Just for the record they arent completely banned here. You can have one under licence if you are part of a gun club I think and particular guns and rules appky in each state.
Isn't that what your taxes are suppose to be going towards - services like police services and they won't even respond! Yikes! Yes, I'm losing faith in more and more of our institutions every day. I'm so glad to have my home in the forest to retreat to!
I totally agree - institutions just seem to take more and more money off you but don't give much back in return...
nicely said, i wish you had written this in a post! love it!
/ES
your answer helps me see just how nuanced this question is. as an american, i honestly don't believe the civilians of this country will ever go down without a fight if you try to take their guns away. as you say, the history is far too steeped in the revolution and sheer right to bear arms. that said, it's been interesting being married to ini and hearing his and his family's take (canada's) on gun ownership/deaths/etc as it's really hard to get a gun there and no one really has them-- even getting a hunting rifle is hard ... i think when you look at the school shootings and other gun related murders, it really comes down to the core problems of toxic masculinity mental health related stuff. i live in maybe one of the most gun-rich counties in america (no joke) -- a lot of people carry (even some friends) as they are ranchers/cowboys/hunters and just want to have self protection for whatever reason and there aren't any gun-related deaths. that's the nuance of this issue. but obviously the lax gun laws that allow people with domestic violence histories or unstable mental health and history of aggressions get guns FAR too easily.. we need to regulate THAT. but i can tell you in my county alone, these people WILL NEVER give up their guns... and most of them are pretty peaceable... just don't go on their land if they don't know you and do any funny business ;)
That's the weird thing isn't it. If everyone carries a gun no one will shoot each other question mark strikes me that nobody trusts each other which is kind of sad. Speaking of sad things I'll never forget teaching a girl who grew up in America and when we were debating gun control in class her big question was how on earth can you protect yourself and keep yourself safe if you don't have a gun which struck me as very culturally different to how we feel here. It was sad because about a month after that conversation her mother was shot in Florida . Domestic violence
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yes ma'am, you got that right MJ! I'm one of them and I was raised in San Francisco and then moved to NYC where I would have never dreamed of ownership. you nailed all of this and it would have been nice to seee this in a blog for freedom friday. i need some backup mama ... bring your piece bwahahahha
My feeling is that disarmament should happen on both sides. If citizens can't have guns than niether should police like in the good old days in Great Britain.
So long as it is just the average citizen being disarmed then this should raise alarm bells as to the true motive.
Oh god yes just Disarm everybody. Now there is an idea worth looking at. Put the money they spend on the military into some good health and social support and then watch the world change.
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You'd get my vote. 😎
The words of James Brown echo as I read this.
Yep. You Americans and your love of the firearm. Honestly, I don’t get it. And I think the rest of the world mostly scratch their heads at this too. But maybe I’m projecting...
I probably take more of a libertarian view, mostly influenced by Robert Heinlein’s work - with freedom comes great responsibility.
You want the freedom to bear arms? Great - so how about you make the fucking effort to stop nutjobs from having them and using them? And yes, that includes your nutjob politicians and military forces.
I’m sounding harsh, yep. Hopefully you’ll realise I still live y’all even if I disagree with y’all.
But seriously though - if you want to bear arms....
BRING BACK THE BROADSWORD, THE CLAYMORE, AND THE MORNINGSTAR!!!!
Let’s see how willing people are to go to go into battle when they have to look their opponents square in the eyes with nothing but 3feet of sharpened bit of metal to work with.
Let’s see how brave they are to go to war with nothing but face-2-face combat.
Guns are the weapons of cowards.
That’s my 2.2* cents (*GST incl.)
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Brilliant Metamoomoo! YA CALL THAT A WEOPON, he says in his Melbourne drawl. THIS IS A WEOPON. And breaks into James Brown.
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this would have been an interesting blog post, wish you had taken the time to voice this ... it is a perspective for sure .. and being an american i will happily answer some of your heated questions above in my blog for freedom friday. Glory be to FReeeeedommmmmm!!!
In the idealistic world, we would not need guns. But we are not even close to the ideal. You said: "Most of the world's social problems could be solved by governments that put people first.". Do we really want to still depend on government? This is never going to happen. There needs to be change in the leadership structure or distribution of capital, the fairness of a trade. I am very skeptical. If we do not live in peace humanity is not going to be on planet Earth so long. maybe even with the peace, we could soon all going to die in the cause of some giant volcanic eruption, but I believe we should try to make the way always better without thinking how long it is going to be. Guns will not make it better.
I absolutely agree about idealism which is why I stated I was idealistic, fully aware that the ideal will never happen which is why this gun debate is so redundant. And I absolutely agree that a change in government and including it's structure is necessary to even read any of the ideals I vaguely reference. It's certainly not working in its current form. And I also agree the guns and other weapons of Destruction don't make things better.
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I was actually not arguing with you. Just more describing my point of view. I guess we agree with each other on most of this topic. Btw very nice pictures.
Oh I know!!! 💚💚💚💚🙏
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Are people going to fight corrupted governments with guns?
Is it even going to work? If you are going to fight a government you need something like an army.
Even if people managed to forcefully remove the government, and with the diversity of ideologies in every country, those who have access to more weapons, and more experienced with war will rule over others.
Initiating a civil war is not the same as fighting for ones freedom. And this exactly what happened in the middle east. Ordinary people get to the streets to cry for justice and freedom. Once the political regime started to shake, different entities who have access to weaponry initiated war not only with the government but with each other.
And so it goes on ad infinitum.
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STOPveryyyy nicely written and i respect your opinion totally. we all have freedom to choose and since you are writing this, the freedom to write as you feel. how glorious is that? i love the images you used and just love the way in which you write. thank you for sharing this part of yourself with us and glory be. blesssings always sister. xo, eagle spirit
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It’s the classic situation where if one man has it all men want it, in order to compete. I think it’s worked ok here in oz but all it takes is a publicised misuse and the subject becomes relevant. Such a debatable subject. I think ownership is a completely different story and to own one here takes a lot of effort, due diligence and money. They’ve made it as hard as possible, that’s what it seems like on the surface anyway.
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Aw you are the best. Love you times a zillion. X
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Oh so well described, I tried to wrap my head around what I would answer - you nailed it the freedom to be Safe so true!
And no we have nothing to fear but fear itself!!