From: SSAA, [EMAIL PROTECTED] We have a call in for QLD Police Minister Adviser Bill Ferguson to clarify the comment below concerning semiautomatic handguns being on "the list". ----- Police Ambush hardens Beattie resolve on gun laws. The Australian - May 2 2000 Guns laws in Queensland would not be watered down or changed, Premier Peter Beattie pledged yesterday after three police officers were ambushed and shot while answering a call-out to a neighbourhood dispute in Brisbane. Mr Beattie said yesterday he was reluctant to wade into the gun debate, but did move to reassure Queenslanders that the existing gun laws would remain unchanged. He agreed the shooting added weight to his committment to retain those controls. "I feel, like all Queenslanders, quite upset by what's happened to the officers," Mr Beattie said. "But if Queenslanders are concerned about the gun laws, they need to understand they will remain exactly as they are. We are not going to move away or water them down.". It was revealed two weeks ago that the Queensland National Party wanted to scrap barriers to multiple firearm ownership and relax storage and licencing controls. But the plan is doomed to failure because the National's coalition partner, the Liberal Party, has refused to support any watering down of the current gun laws. The National Coalition for Gun Control also yesterday called on the Prime Minister to ban semi-automatic handguns, in the same way that semiautomatic rifles and shotguns had been banned. "Australia has been warned and should act by doing evrything it can to avoid another massacre," group spokeswoman Helen Gadsen said. "One necessary step is to ban all high-powered weapons, including semi-automatic handguns." Ms Gadsen called on Queensland Police Minister Tom Barton to place the banning of semi-automatic handguns on the agenda for the June meeting of the Australian Police Ministers Council But a spokesman for Mr Barton said all semi-automatic weapons were already on the restricted firearms list. He said Mr Barton would consider any written requests to raise issues at the meeting. -- How precisely a ban on handguns would interfere with a man armed with a sawn-off rifle... oops, sorry logic again. Steve. -------[Cybershooters contacts]-------- Editor: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Website & subscription info: www.cybershooters.org
