Crossbench Senator David Leyonhjelm has called for a “wild west, Texas style” approach to gun ownership, not unlike the way Lone Star Steakhouse approaches its steaks and cheese fries.
Calling for greater access to guns, Leyonhjelm believes an armed citizenry would end the recent spate of siege situations in Sydney. “What happened in that café would have been most unlikely to have occurred in Florida, Texas, or Vermont, or Alaska in America,” the outspoken Senator told the ABC’s AM Program.
The (un)Australian has fact-checked Mr Leyonhjelm’s remarks and it’s true. This July 2014 Texas mass shooting was not a siege in Texas, nor this mas shooting in Florida last September. And while details will remain uncertain until the completion of a full police investigation, this shooting in Alaska in December was almost certainly not a siege.
Mr Leyonhjelm, a self-described “desperado, rough-rider, no you don’t want nada”, resigned his membership of the Liberal Party as a protest over then-Prime Minister John Howard’s controversial and universally popular stricter gun laws. He believes more guns are what Australians want.
“I was in Sydney yesterday and people are sick of the constant sieges plaguing Sydney’s CBD. People are tired of always being held hostage in cafes and they want the means to protect themselves.”
Mr Leyonhjelm stressed he had great respect and sympathy for the victims of the hostage situation, but described Australia as a nation of “impotent, flaccid victims. Like fish flopping on dry land, they haven’t seen action in years.”
Greens MP Adam Bandt, who has referred to the siege as Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s “Port Arthur moment”, disagreed with the senator pointing out that the gun homicides in the US are “more than 300 times what they are in Australia”.
The Senator, however, believes that Mr Bandt’s words prove gun restrictions are failing Australians.
“With all due respect Mr Bandt, the fact that he’s comparing the events in Sydney to the Port Arthur massacre is why we need gun reform. We introduced these restrictions after the massacre and in a mere 18 years we’ve experienced a comparable event. The laws simply aren’t working.”
Matthew Farthing is the Canberra Correspondent for The (un)Australian. He has been missing his backpack since he visited Department of Foreign Affairs and Trading on Tuesday. Follow him on Twitter.
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