He walked into the Museum one Saturday recently and spent a lot of time talking with me about life, "down-under." Food, housing, land-mas, ages, families, the 'other inhabitants and such, what it was like to live on a land-mass as big as America.
Imagine his country, the exact same size as America, BUT, 80% of the 17 million population - yeah, that's it - live within 25 miles of the coast along the northeast and eastern boarder. He told me, that's like having everyone you know living from Boston to Atlanta crammed from the beach in as far as you can drive for an hour.
And, that's it.... after that, you're on your own.
Australia and America are about the same size, he told me, so, if you live on the beach in Jersey and you start to drive west bound towards Chicago at 8 in the morning, by lunch, you see nobody. Zip, no cars, zero.
All of this in a land where carrying a gun is illegal. My Aussie friend, "Joe" says that pistols are a big NO-NO down under. Carry one it's jail. Rifles, you'd better belong to a shooting club and prove it. One can always get a license for a shotgun to go hunting. But, that's it.
Joe says, drive an hour west into the center of Australia, and no one is there. The entire center of the country is devoid of population. " A large city to us is one with 2,000 people in it." What a place this country must be, I think to myself!!. I ask him, what happens if you are deep within the interior and you get into trouble? What form of back up do you have? He avoids the questions about fire-arms until I press the point.
He answers, " Many Aussies hide pistols, even though it is illegal."
Crime rates are going up in Australia, yes, the lax, liberal government is noting with the usual degree of frustration that the gun laws don't seem to work for the people who violate them, since criminal elements go ahead and
violate both civil, criminal laws and the public at large anyway.
Here in Arizona, open gun laws - the freedom to carry concealed and/or open guns has been the order of the day for nearly two years. NRA and other enthusiasts have been taking informal polls of various police officers since the law was enacted, and, trends have been noted that gun crimes are down, and as one officer noted, " it's been quieter in Tucson since everyone can safely assume everyone else MAY be carrying a weapon.
Joe, the Australian seems amazed at the local civility.
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