The real question Nautilus, is why do we let these fools get away with

this shite???

You let them get away with it because you are too gutless to do anything about it.

People have lost the capacity and the confidence to think for themselves.



Now I really have to go and check my concealable (tack) hammer.

Everything is way out of control--same as Guns--but the criminals have them--anything can be used as a weapon--I have a tire lever in my car--I wonder if I should lock that up

Politicians BS the population on a lot of things and a common strategy is the law and order campaign where they dupe people into believing that everything is turning into the proverbial around them and they have the solution with more laws and more penalties.



Similarly a trusting but gullible electorate can be convinced that Australia is racist, as is going on in some sections of the media at present, to sell papers of course.



The gun laws impacted on law abiding gun owners who don't commit the crimes and don't sell or give their bangensticken to criminals or have them stolen by criminals. -THOSE are the facts, well proved by police statistics. Also from police statistics, gun crime is not increasing in Australia, it is quite the reverse and that was so before Howard's redundant, money wasting 'initiative' that diverted the police weapons branches and a lot of cops away from collaring criminals to watch farmers and granddad the clay pigeon scattergunner instead. Well it did help Howard get elected.



Almost all violent crime is shyte on shyte and involves drug payments or territory, as the police say. Other than that it is booze driven.



In the example given, it is the usual violence expected in some 'burbs and by the usual suspects one would surmise. Police say that their patrols visit the same locales and even the same houses. No amount of coaxing, sweet words or guvvy money will change that. Judge Judy doubtless has similar offenders - perpetrators in her jurisdiction - to deal with and as everyone knows, it is never their fault. Blaming the tool (a hammer) for a crime is ridiculous, these violent mongrels do crime as a pastime. They only fear the police.



However it just so happens that Premier Anna Bligh has better things to spend money on than more trained police, or nurses, or teachers, but she does have large bureaucracies in tall buildings in Brisbane's cbd for 'administration', coordination, 'policy' and 'advertising'. Canberra is the same, all clerical managers and no -one at the sharp end producing the practical outcomes.



Should I lock up my saws as well? Who would have known that Tim the Tool Man was encouraging a dangerous handyman culture to develop? No wonder his wife thinks he is a dangerous idiot, a tool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snpdj8ninME&feature=relmfu

Yes it is the same thing world over--Problem--Action--Solution



They SAY there is a Problem--then take Action--and the Solution is never in OUR favour

it seems news.com.au is short of real news.

Why would anyone not looking for a fight, walk around carrying a hammer?



Anything in the hands of a protagonist is a weapon.



Furthermore, anybody cruising the streets carrying a hammer is looking to murder, not manslaughter and the same can be said for carrying a knife, gun or screwdriver.



Tools belong in a toolbox, so if it is not being used as a tool and is in the hands of somebody looking for a fight, then it is a weapon.

A judge somewhere comments on an assault with a hammer.

news.com.au is short of a story so they twist it a little and tell the world about it.

Anti government forces suddenly start sprouting that the government is to introduce policy to ban hammers.



Give me a break.

I saw a police car in my street , immediately went and

buried all my hammers and retrieved my knuckle dusters.

Why would anyone not looking for a fight, walk around carrying a hammer?



Anything in the hands of a protagonist is a weapon.



Furthermore, anybody cruising the streets carrying a hammer is looking to murder, not manslaughter and the same can be said for carrying a knife, gun or screwdriver.



Tools belong in a toolbox, so if it is not being used as a tool and is in the hands of somebody looking for a fight, then it is a weapon.



Correct and police can already take action where there is reason to believe the fellow is up to something.



To take an example, break and enter tools can be tyre leavers, hub-cap removers (the old Holden ones were favourites), screwdrivers or what have you.



The judge in this case avoided the obvious contributors to the violence and death, why? It is personal choice, exercised deliberately and with malice aforethought that results in assault, not an inanimate object and there is no excusing offenders.



The problem where there are not enough police to patrol and maintain order and political scapegoats are convenient, is that bans are applied, which are indiscriminate and affect honest, law-abiding people going about their normal business. For example, in Qld you can now be arrested for carrying a Swiss army knife because it is a knife. The new indiscriminate law is a result of hooligans using knives illegally. The automatic assumption is that all are up to no good if they carry a knife, however small and innocuous, with the onus being on the person to prove otherwise, that s/he was carrying it as part of his/her 'business'. That is reversing the onus of proof and it is unhealthy for our freedom. Then a cop takes out his frustrations by arresting some naive emo-dressed student in the street for carrying a 'dangerous' orange peeler. Thousands of non-recoverable defence dollars later another judge asks who came up with that dumb law in the first place. A poor student just cops the inconvenience, harsh treatment in the watch house, the fine and criminal record.



Again, police have always had the power to confiscate a hammer or knife where there is reason to suspect it could be used to commit a crime, just as they can and do confiscate other objects carried by the great unwashed.