On 26 April in the German city of Erfurt expelled teenage student Robert Steinhaeuser shot dead 16 people at the Johann Gutenberg High School. Steinhaeuser had a pump-action shotgun and a pistol, but appears to have used the pistol for his rampage. Steinhaeuser was a member of two gun clubs and legally owned his weapons. In an editorial on 29 April The Age newspaper noted that, “The world is awash with handguns, and too many of them are held by people with dangerous grudges.”

What Australians must remember is that the local gun lobby wants more ready access to handguns – therefore are they not most dangerous?

In the US on 18 April the president of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, Michael Barnes, gave testimony to the special subcommittee examining Bill H.R. 2037 which is designed to give the US gun industry extraordinary legal protection.

Barnes said “This Bill is a misguided, unjust attempt to provide special legal protection for the gun industry at the expense of innocent Americans who have been harmed by the dangerous and irresponsible actions of firearms manufacturers and sellers.”

Barnes continued “it is special interest legislation at its worst, a bill that would sacrifice fundamental rights of ordinary citizens to satisfy the demands of a powerful, well-funded lobby. At the behest of the National Rifle Association and the gun industry, this bill would carve out special exemptions and protections for companies that make and sell deadly firearms in an irresponsible manner. This bill would enable gun companies that continue to engage in dangerous business practices that result in unnecessary, preventable deaths and injuries to children and other innocent victims, without cost to the wrongdoers and without compensation for the victims. It would immunize an irresponsible industry that is already grossly under-regulated. In short, this bill would be a perversion of the basic principles that underlie our justice system.”

Barnes also spoke for the “Million Mom March” organisation. He explained how unwilling the gun industry generally is to implement the obvious safety measures such as trigger locks and “childproof” guns. The result has been, Barnes argues, that in the last 15 years in the US, guns have been responsible for over 7000 unintentional deaths to children and teenagers.

If you have any doubt that the Australian gun lobby is not very interested in safety devices on guns you should read the article on “Electric’ rifles in the Jan-Feb 2002 issue of the Sporting Shooters Association magazine “Australian Shooter”. The author concludes his article with these words:

” Of course, it is possible to take advantage of the electrical system to introduce a lot of extra ‘goodies’ such as safety codes, figner print recognition, etc, but while these may add to the mystique (and the price) of the new system, they are merely adjuncts to its real advantage – that of minimal lock-time.”

This implies that speed of operation is what really matters, improved safety seems to mean nothing at all to the gun lobby.