Ken McCalip either lied or failed to check his facts when he stated that since 1996, when Australia banned and confiscated certain types of weapons, they’ve “had ‘zero’ mass shootings” (“Australia got tough,” March 1).
Had Mr. McCalip taken the time to perform a quick Google search, “mass murders in Australia,” he would have found a link to Wikipedia that lists all reported mass murders, both before and after 1996. In that list he would have discovered that guns were indeed used in killings after 1996. In total, since 1996, there were 13 mass killing events, 79 people were killed with weapons including guns, vehicles, arson, blunt instruments, and knives.
Here are some facts to keep in mind when comparing Australia to the U.S. Australia has a population of around 24 million. Our population is more than 13 times larger. If one does the math (extrapolation) for a fair comparison, we should use 169 as the number of killing events (13 events multiplied by 13) and 1,027 deaths (79 deaths multiplied by 13) for comparison. Also, Australians do not have a “right” to own guns, so they have no constitutional argument to oppose gun control laws, while we enjoy constitutional protection of that right.
If Mr. McCalip wants to argue to confiscate and ban the sale of certain types of guns, I’m all for hearing his and other opinions. But for his argument to have any validity it needs to be based on real, not fake, facts and he just didn’t live up to that standard in his commentary.
Gary Wechter
Arroyo Grande
This article appears in Spring Arts Annual 2018.
The fact that we still call this a “Free Country” is fake news. Little by little the politicians and lawyers take away our freedoms, using every possible justification they can create, with the ultimate objective of people control. Ultimately, most of the laws do nothing to actually change anything except punish the innocent and law-abiding citizen.
Weird Gary you want to conflate gun killings with ALL types of killing?? lol
GUN DEATHS IN AUSTRALIA SINCE 1996 HELLS ANGLES FEUD 3 DEAD – 1999
MASS SHOOTING 2 DEAD – 2002
A “SIEGE” THAT LEFT 3 DEAD – 2011
A”FAMILICIDE” THAT KILLED 5 – 2014
A “SIEGE” THAT LEFT 3 DEAD – 2014
(HINT MORE DIED IN THE RECENT FLORIDA SCHOOL ATTACK THAN HAVE DIED BY GUNS IN AUSTRALIA SINCE 1996!!!)
Gary Wechter takes his own liberties with Wikipedia data. He cleverly lumps all mass killings together, failing to mention that of the total 13, only 4 involved guns. And of those 4, they involved respectively 3,2,5, & 3 victims. This is not mass murder in the form seen in the USA, where 10 60 have been recently slaughtered in each event. They are local disputes, usually between people who know each other, and are not the same as mass slaughter of school children or random murder from a Las Vegas skyscraper.
Gary Wechter also takes great liberties in his character assassination of Ken McCalip, the author of the original letter;
“Ken McCalip either lied or failed to check his facts when he stated that since 1996, when Australia banned and confiscated certain types of weapons, they’ve “had ‘zero’ mass shootings” (“Australia got tough,” March 1). “
Since all the mass shootings involved only the above 3,2,5, &3 victims, which do NOT represent mass shootings by our recent standards, Mr Wechter could easily be accused of the same lies and failures that he accuses Mr. McCalip of.
His final attack on Mr McCalip,
” If Mr. McCalip wants to argue to confiscate and ban the sale of certain types of guns, I’m all for hearing his and other opinions. But for his argument to have any validity it needs to be based on real, not fake, facts and he just didn’t live up to that standard in his commentary.”
truly leaves one in bewilderment, wondering if Mr Wechter has read his own writings. Having based his entire attack on mis-direction and mis-representation, it is unclear what standard he is trying to uphold in his own letter.
Dan Cook