Australian comedian Jim Jefferies was a big deal in Australia when he released his stand-up set entitled BARE in 2014. One of the chunks of comedy in Jefferies’ BARE routine is about guns. Specifically, it’s about the differences between how Australia and America responded to massacre-level gun violence in their countries. In April 1996, 35 people were killed and 23 others seriously injured when a man opened fire with an AR-15 rifle in Port Arthur, Tasmania. Australia’s government, under threat of losing their political positions, passed sweeping gun reforms.
Australia doesn’t have the issues of gun violence we have today. Jefferies’ piece on gun control in the United States synthesizes the incomprehensible selfishness and the logical fallacies at play in our country, created as a narrative by the well-funded gun lobby in our country and adopted as an identity by conservatives everywhere. Jefferies’ take on gun control went viral years ago, and sadly goes viral perennially at this point in American history.
We have played this once, and we will play it again, and again, and again.
You can argue about the history of the Second Amendment. You can argue what a “well-regulated militia” means. You can argue about what kinds of firearms do what kinds of things. The fact remains the United States is an outlier in two things: the number of guns we have, and the number of people we put into prisons. That’s it. Conservative lip service to “mental health” issues in our country have long been proven empty, and “good guys with guns” have yet to affect the fact that our country has more mass murders and firearm issues than any “developed” nation.
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Here’s the start of Jeffries’ standup section on firearms where he makes the point that he pays taxes in the United States, which gives him the right to have an opinion on our country’s laws. He also gives out the important fact that while he has been accosted in parking lots after his shows by people yelling at him that “You can’t change the Second Amendment!” His response to that is pretty simple: “Yes you can. It’s called an ‘amendment.’”
I'm going to say some things that are just facts. In Australia, we had guns. Right up until 1996. In 1996, Australia had the biggest massacre on earth. Still hasn't been beaten. Now, after that they banned guns. In the 10 years before Port Arthur, there was 10 massacres. Since the gun ban in 1996, there hasn't been a single massacre since. I don't know how or why this happened … maybe it was a coincidence, right? Now, please understand, I understand that America and Australia are two vastly different cultures with different people, right? I get it. In Australia we had the biggest massacre on earth and the Australian government went, “That's it! No more guns!” And we all went, “Yeah, right then, that seems fair enough.” Now, in America you have the Sandy Hook massacre, which little, tiny children died and your government went, “Maybe we'll get rid of the big guns?” And 50% of you went, “Fuck you, don’t take my guns!”
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