this post was submitted on 14 Dec 2025
243 points (98.4% liked)

World News

51300 readers
2646 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Weirdmusic@lemmy.world 28 points 2 days ago (11 children)

What no one seems to be asking is the obvious question: how the fuck did these attackers get hold of guns? This is Australia folks not fucking America. We have laws to stop exactly this. How, where and by whom were they circumvented? More importantly: how can we prevent this from happening again?

[–] Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works 15 points 1 day ago (7 children)

You can get semi automatic hunting weapons relatively easily, same as in New Zealand.

The problem is, there's enough people with a legitimate use case of firearms that banning them completely isn't possible.

[–] Dimand@aussie.zone 12 points 1 day ago (6 children)

A cat C license (self loading) is a lot more difficult to get than a cat A,B licence. So far this has worked, no semi auto terrorist attacks since Port Arthur. Thank fuck these guys did not have semi auto weapons.

I honestly wouldn't have much issue with them removing the cat C licence, effectively banning semi auto outside of military use. But it certainly has some legitimate use cases in feral animal control.

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world -2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

A pump shotgun is far more reliable than a semi-auto. Want to kill a bunch of people? I'd never trust a semi. Bring the pump.

Hell, for that matter I might pick one of my single shots. Takes less practice than a pump, cannot fail to send lead down range. I know that's all counterintuitive. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast, as they say. :)

SOURCE: Own 12 shotguns of all ages and sorts.

[–] Dimand@aussie.zone 11 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Yeah no shit mate. That's why pump shotguns are also under a cat C licence here. The legislators weren't stupid, they basically categorised things on fire rate and public danger.

The Adler lever actions are very questionable in my opinion. They are almost as fast. Though the one I tried would jam all the time. Lever actions like that weren't a common thing in the 90's so it slipped by for a while.

And saying that a bolt action is potentially worse than a semi auto is some full on American bulshit. Sure things can jam and go wrong, but in the worst case situation with aresholes like this firing into a dense crowd where aim doesn't really matter, faster shooting is more casualties.

[–] MonkeMischief@lemmy.today 10 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

The legislators weren't stupid

Sorry maybe I'm giving away my country of origin but this part here is really hard for me to wrap my head around. I have no prior experience with this concept to relate to. Please be patient with me. 🤔

[–] Dimand@aussie.zone 7 points 1 day ago

Haha. We have plenty of moron politicians. But typically all our legislation is usually written by public servants with expert advice and lawyers, and even they get it wrong sometimes. The politicians direct what they want, but most of them have never written a law. I assumed it worked this way in most places.

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Got two vintage bolt-action shotguns. Both suck, but they weren't that great to begin with. Been wanting a lever action! Seems that would be about as fast as a pump? Never touched one. LOL, never seen one IRL.

I didn't say a bolt-action was potentially worse? I did say that a pump is mostly better than a semi. I did say a single-shot is potentially worse than all of the above.

I know that doesn't make sense, very counter intuitive. But I have never, not once, had a single-shot fail unless the load itself failed, and I have some truly shitty single-shots. I should add the caveat that the single-shot needs to eject the spent shell, or you're really going to be slow.

Hard to explain unless one has the experience. With a single-shot you get into a rhythm; aim, fire, break, reload, fire, aim, fire, break, reload, fire. It's easy to spaz out with a semi and loose all your ammo. When your shots are limited, you take the extra split second to aim, make it count.

Or, consider this, if we're talking about mass causalities; what about reloading? There are techniques like "violin reloading", or "combat loading" singles, that go fast, but take serious and continuous practice. If we were both challenged to send 10 shots downrange, on target, bet I could do better with a single shot. First 5? Ya got me, assuming you didn't spaz out and spray lead all around. 10? I never stopped or hesitated, and I had the extra second to consider the situation and aim.

Anyway, if you ever make it to Florida, hunt me down and we'll go to my little camp in the swamp. Have a friendly shoot!

[–] Dimand@aussie.zone 2 points 1 day ago

All good mate, I mostly just try and stop the spread of misinformation on Aus gun laws. Most people don't know much about them.

The leaver actions are fast. The main difference is that you can leave your finger on the trigger for a pump and are meant to take it off for the leaver action, though you could do it with your non trigger hand. People are also buying left handed bolt action shotguns to get around this, though it's more awkward. All our shotguns have a capacity limit, usually 5 or less. It looks like these guys modified their barrel mags to hold more.

You're not wrong about wasted ammo, reliability and reload speed, but you have to think about the worst case scenarios. Situation: close range, large dense crowd, shooter with an unreasonable amount of ammunition, and best luck in the world with no jams or reliability issues. That's the formula for mass casualties. This is what our laws are effective at protecting against, primarily by limiting the rate of fire.

load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments (7 replies)