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Comment by refurb | Hacker News Reader

Last I saw Australia still has millions of guns.

Even if we had 10 million guns, they'd all be hunting guns and you still couldn't start a militia with them. We're not even a pointy stick in comparison to America's civilian gun ownership. The reason I point a comparison to America, is because the comment about "disarming" the public clearly starts from a previously armed public, and of those there are actually pretty few, and only one which I know to keep gun ownership as such a strong part of it's identity.

It's no doubt something you would need to do to have a totalitarian government take over the US, but it's not really a step required for most other countries. There' aren't many countries that could raise a militia capable of overthrowing a military backed government just from it's citizens.

Yeah but that's for hunting mostly, right? You can never take that away. Is it possible to legally carry a sidearm (concealed or not) in Australia?

The firearms licensing laws vary from state to state, but as a general rule you need a 'legitimate' reason to own a firearm, and self-defence is generally not one of them.

For instance in NSW (the state that Sydney is in) - the NSW Police have a list of Genuine Reasons to own a firearm[1].

There's also other criteria you need to meet.

It means that day to day, as a general rule the only people you might encounter with a firearm are police officers. That is, unless you work in a rural area or in one of those related industries.

[1] https://portal.police.nsw.gov.au/s/article/Firearms-Licensin...

It's impossible to get a handgun licence for self-defence unless you work for a security company like Armaguard, who are only allowed to use guns for defence of property rather than bodyguard-style services.

and sport shooting yes

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