For Australian journalists, any kind of firearm related event in the United States is like cake to a fat kid. They can’t resist a chance to sink their teeth into the addictive sugary temptation of a virtue signal flan, but the dirty calories gained from the sugar hit reflects their complete lack of intellectual nutrition.
With the facts of the event still not clear in Florida, the Australian media was drawn to it like Barnaby to a staffer with a slew of the same cookie cutter, anti-gun garbage we’ve been acclimatised to over the past 21 years.
The most notable came from the LNP apologist channel aka Sky News’ ultracrepidarian, millennial conservative Daisy Cousens.
Drivel.
Daisy hypocritically bangs on about freedom of speech on a medium not conceived by the founding fathers in regards to the first amendment, while spurning the second as outdated. “Semi-lawless society.” Been to Chicago, Detroit or Baltimore or Mexico recently? Hell, been to Melbourne recently? And this from a channel that has been, quite rightfully, whacking Daniel Andrews non-stop over the Melbourne crime wave.
Australia’s “excellent” gun laws? At the same time this was all transpiring, Mick Awi was gunned down in Rockdale with a firearm that somehow didn’t make it’s way to Michael Keenan’s amnesty. And just yesterday, Armaguard were ambushed by someone with an illegal firearm, a week after thieves held up O’Reilly’s in Thornbury with an illegal firearm.
Excellent indeed.
And on that, soft hypocrisy from Andrew Bolt, who just a few months ago was praising the use of a firearm by an undercover police officer to thwart would-be car jackers in the midst of Melbourne’s crime wave.
Both “sides” of the Australian media are anti-gun. Unfortunately, a lot of older guard firearm owners in Australia still cling to this notion that Murdoch somehow represents them. He doesn’t (in Australia anyway), so get over it.
We made our thoughts known about this on Twitter:
It’s “not about legal vs illegal guns but it’s about ease of access on the black market.” Oh dear.
As we’ve discussed before comparing Australia to the United States on this topic is a false binary argument. Cousens’ rant is just run of the mill, Australian journalist anti-firearm schtick: high on emotion, buzzwords, no understanding of the laws or deeper exploration of crime statistics let alone that of basic ballistics or marksmanship.
Must have had a copy of Joe Hockey’s interview from earlier in the week.
Daisy, less time taking selfies and more time actually furthering your knowledge on the topic, or you’re no better than your left wing millennial offsiders over at Buzzfeed and the ABC which you decry on a daily basis.
Get yourself down to a range or get yourself out of the debate.
Much like in Australia, the debate is more about diverting from the failure of Police and Govt to deliver the protection they purport to supply – the loon who did this was reported to the FBI for stating, in writing, on youtube that he intended to be a ‘professional school shooter’ (using his own name), the FBI investigated and were unable to identify him.
His teachers and fellow students were all aware that he had significant problems and he was banned from bringing a backpack onto school grounds because of the danger he faced – yet nobody stepped up and suggested a psych evaluation that might have prevented a tragedy.
Thee are lessons from this and they are – the Govt isn’t competent enough for you to entrust your life to them and gun free zones don’t work.
Just to follow up as further info comes to hand, there are 9 main reasons why you can be denied the right to purchase a firearm in Florida, he ticked the box for 4 of them, but because nobody made official reports to authorities that would have generated a legal respone, he skated through (another failure of the system to protect).
Reasons –
Felony Conviction. (threats, assault, domestic abuse – he did them all).
Active Warrant.
User or addict of controlled substance.
judged to be mentally defective. (he was reported to be under treatment).
Illegal alien.
Dishonorable discharge.
Active prorection order aka restraining order (his ex could have got one, the school which expelled him for threats could have got one).
convicted of domestic violence (he was reported to be abusive to his ex girlfriend).
or having been convicted of a crime with a sentence of over 1 year.
and another level of Govt failure to add to the list (local police here) –
The school resource deputy who was on patrol at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on Feb. 14 resigned Thursday after video surveillance showed he never entered the school, even though he “clearly” knew there was a shooting taking place, officials said.
Deputy Scot Peterson, of the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, was stationed on the school’s campus when Nikolas Cruz opened fire with an AR-15 rifle, leaving 17 people dead and others wounded.
Sheriff Scott Israel during a press conference Thursday said video showed Peterson arriving at the west side of the building where the shooting took place. Peterson, Israel said, took up a position but “never went in.”
Peterson, according to the sheriff, “was absolutely on campus through this entire event.” The deputy was armed and in uniform during the shooting, but never entered the building despite “clearly” knowing a shooting was happening, Israel said.
The sheriff said he believes Peterson remained outside of the building for roughly four minutes, while the shooting in total lasted around six minutes. Israel said the officer never fired his weapon.
“What matters is that when we, in law enforcement, arrive at an active shooter, we go in and address the target,” the sheriff said. “And that’s what should’ve been done.”
Peterson, according to Israel, should’ve “went in. Address the killer. Kill the killer.”
Next update. apparently there were 3 other deputies who also waited outside, guns drawn, behind their police cars while the shooting went on inside.
This looks more like departmental policy rather than one cowardly officer.
edit – “danger he posed” rather than faced.