Kochie, mate,
You are really going out on a limb making bold statements like a politician about what Aussies like and don't like.
The pastor on your show this morning (10th June 2009) is using his rights as they stand in his country. You clearly know nothing about the US Second Amendment (you didn't even know which one it was - the right to bear arms), or how it came about obviously. Ignorance is never an excuse for making a misguided political stand on an issue.
I don't believe the national press has a right to express a personal opinion on what they believe is right or wrong, only to put forward what we, the people, think. John Howard made such assumptions and was ousted so fast his feet didn't touch the ground. Your proposal that 99% of Aussies want to get rid of all guns, just shows your lack of knowledge on the concept of gun ownership, and how it is an effective deterrent to attackers and home invaders. You also do not know your viewers too well it seems.
Our country, like the USA, was built on farming, mining and the rifle.
Back onto the point at hand:
Open carry is a great way to stop people from attacking you in the street. How many people are going to attack someone wearing a firearm?
You should know about attacks on innocent people, you guys report this stuff every day. Open carry is where a pistol (or knife - a recognised weapon) can be legally displayed in public, whilst on your person - usually worn on the hip. Concealed carry is much more difficult to get (usually called a CCW), meaning the wearer can have the weapon concealed on or about their person, such as a coat pocket, purse etc.
Rapes, bashings, murders, home invasions, kidnappings, car jacking etc - mostly city based crime BTW, is less likely if the people being assailed are, or might be, armed. The states in the USA where firearm ownership is more open (not the same as being encouraged), there is a known measureable DECREASE in crime of the sort mentioned previously. This is because the main advantage a criminal has is a weapon. If the potential victim also has a weapon, and is very likely able to use it in an appropriate manner, the potential outcome from this will be much different than it might have been.
Australia seems now to be a land of weaklings, most of these based in cities where many years of good times have softened them to the point where they think a rediculous idea like disarming the entire population is a good idea. This translates into the weak castrated governments we now have. The only people having guns (a word used by the press moreso than people that know better - they are firearms) would then be criminals and the government via the police and military. Criminals by their nature will always be able to obtain what they need in order to commit crime - that is what they do. Taking firearms from the general population is then creating the exact OPPOSITE effect wanted by the soft and complacent majority - that is to make them MORE vulnerable to attack, as the criminals don't hand in their illegal "guns". Policies like the Gun "Buy Back" is simply absurd, when the motive is to disarm criminals -has not worked, and will never work.
So, now, the poposal is to have the police do all our protection? This fails, and will never work. This is why criminals can do what they want, when they want, as the police are so busy with paperwork and worrying about their overtime, that catching real criminals seems a secondary mission (I am a keen supporter of local police, and will always help them when needed). Then there is the soft courts that let out offenders, so they can reform themselves while raping children, and killing off witnesses - another subject alltogether.
I propose you guys actually do a story about firearms ownership, this time with some hard data on what happens to a population when they have no protection from attack. There are a lot of good people using firearms in a safe, legitimate and responsible manner every day of the year. My family and I are involved in target shooting - a sport much older than cricket or football, and with a history intertwined with our diggers in all theaters of battle. We have teams that travel to international matches, and are regarded as some of the very best shooters in the world. We have the next World Championships being held in Brisbane in 2011. I have never seen a story about our amazing rifle teams on your program. We had rifle teams in the UK before the first cricket team arrived - maybe this might be a story for you.
Many diggers coming from small country towns learned to shoot on the local range. In our tiny town of 350 population, we have an old rifle range just out of town - most towns do. This is where our diggers were brought up, where they learn't to defend our country and freedom. Some that did not come home, have their names on the memorial across from our home - a reminder every time I go outside, where we come from. There are many names on the memorial. This was in times when "gun" ownership was not seen as evil, but simply part of life. You might say life is now different, I say there is more crime, due to soft thinking, and people having absolutely no idea pushing their idiotic agenda onto law abiding citizens.
Stop the personal opinions, I for one, don't care what you think. I just want to hear what's going on in our great country.
Regards,
Rod Shehan
This was also posted on the US long-range forums
Do you mean "I could care less about people's feelings,etc?" in other words, you do care but are willing to not care as much? or do you mean "I couldn't care less about people's feelings,etc?" meaning you don't give a rat's "a" about their feelings. It is so easy to be misunderstood with just a simple typing error 
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