Monday 19 April 2021

Gun ownership: battle for the hearts and minds of the English-speaking world

 This documentary is two years old (al-Jazeera should really be more open on the face of its films as to when they were originally released) but it seems that the issue is still live. It shows how the bigoted, racist One Nation party in Australia wants to reverse that country's strict gun control laws instituted in the wake of the mass shooting at Port Arthur, and is happy to solicit covert help from the USA's powerful gun lobbyists, the NRA. Complementarily, it also shows how concerned the NRA is that the successful action taken by Australia and New Zealand, who used the Australian law as a templete, could resonate with the voters in America. There is hidden-camera footage of NRA activists demonstrating how to discredit the gun control movement and its adherents using social media, shamelessly lying in the process.

Two thoughts occur: though One Nation's Pauline Hansen is an extremely effective politician, One Nation is still in a minority in the Senate. The PR electoral system allows such minority views to gain public expression while showing how small a minority they represent.

Secondly, if Australia and New Zealand can hold the ring, then the pressure for a more civilised gun regime in the US will increase. On the other hand, if there is a retreat down under, our home nations could be next in the line of NRA's fire.


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