safe straight in cities generally safe very safe. but still there are. there are guns but particularly following there was one very infamous massacre at port arthur in tasmania that really had a shocking effect on the country and it was a conservative government how it got to actually reinforce the gun laws following that massacre. we've just had the the killing of seven people in western australia apparently suicide. a really cold blooded killing that to me seemed. almost out of place here but it's not because there are guns in the country those guns that the

alleged murderer used were licensed so the licensing laws here vic there's nothing like the kind of open market and. the. the culture of the gun is sacred in the united states it's certainly built into the fabric of the myth ology in the united states that there's no parallel here this is this is generally a gun control society given the similar histories between the united states and australia why do you think that like guns and that kind of you know idea of romanticizing guns and violence and all that why did that take such a hold in the united states but not here in australia it is interesting your question about well what's the difference you know the united states has this has these great outback and a straight a has this great outback and the gun has played a major role isn't the gun didn't play

a major role here. and has and as i say until recently. but. perhaps because gun laws were strict where most of the population was they were strict. in the cities and i imagine. a straight in gun law followed to some degree british law. by a very strict. tyrrell talk to john pilger i met with two experts on opposite sides of the gun control debate here in australia the founding director of gun policy dot org associate professor philip alpers of the university of sydney australia and diana mellon executive director sporting shooters new south wales in an effort to get the facts figures and debate on a strategy and gun control all the colonies hundred fifty colonies of all the big european him pas did much the same in the lights early nine hundred or so and decided that

there would be three pillars of gun control one would be that the gun owner is licensed to on a farm just like with a cop that the object itself the gun is registered just as you do with a cop but most importantly that having a firearm license permission to use a firearm is a conditional privilege i'm not a right and that's exactly the same with cars you do something silly with a car you can get your license taken away the same thing applies to guns in one hundred fifty former european colonies the standout nation of course the one nation that decided not to go that way and to go exactly the opposite direction with the second amendment and no registration and licensing is the united states so in order to get you farms license you have to do a farm safety test and there's theory and practical components to that and we have to slightly different licensing approaches depending on if it's for a long arms license or that's a rifle or shotgun or if it's for handgun a pistol so with a long license you have to do

a safety test you don't have to have a what we call a genuine raise and and there are a number of different genuine rays. for recreational shooting is the three most popular target shooting and if you do you have to support that we may be shipped to a club she thought there's recreational hunting investment control and you can support that genuine raise and in a number of different ways membership of a club having access to a property and then there are some other license which is license that's issued here in new south wales that gives hunters access to our state forests. to us in public health the gun is to gun violence as the mosquito is to malaria it's the agent of calm and so we treat it just as we do the car in the road toll we treat it as though it is a problem that can be solved and they are really is that america lead the world in developing all these techniques of public health interventions with the road toll

with the with the h.i.v. toll which also was ideologically very disadvantaged and of course the reduction in tobacco related diseases so america led the world in all three of those huge public health initiatives but doesn't seem prepared to do the same with firearms because of that confusion between freedom and liberty and and public health and saving lives the premise behind our firearms laws is public safety there are a lot of what we term bureaucratic red tape associated with firearms ownership so we agree with licensing background checks but our approach epithet approach is that you license the person so the person is david feet and proper to you know and use firearms and then we don't need to further register the firearms when john howard did what he did he outflanked he outpaced he outwitted the gun lobby in twelve days he just what the floor with them and they've been trying to do a comeback ever since they've been trying desperately to whittle these wars back

down and they've succeeded in every state and territory in some way they have weakened australia. as gun laws over the past twenty years and it's that we still got the three pillars of gun control licensing registration and treating gun ownership as a conditional privilege those three pillars are still intact however. what's the gun lobby is trying to do is to constantly reduce the age at which children can be allowed to fire guns reduce the what they call the the red tape and the inconvenience to gun owners of all these gun a talk about inconvenience talk to the victim of a gun crime i think in australia being a firearms i know that there is a lot of responsibility and require as obligations to adhere to a number of laws so you've got the licensing laws you've got the safe storage laws the background checks that happen when you first get your license firearms owners are constantly monitored so if anything happens usually the first action of the

place is to go and suspend the firearms license seize the firearms until the charge or whatever it is has been has been investigated and there's an outcome so firearms owners in australia do you take take we take our responsibility very seriously we have. a component of our society that is extremely opposed to firearms and they tend to use scare mongering and thea and misinformation to try and i guess pursue their agenda here at the university of sydney we've built the world's largest database the world's largest knowledge base on everything to do with firearm death and injury and suicide and also the laws of three hundred fifty jurisdictions around the world and that is a tremendously important resource for people who actually want to know the facts the issue is criminals and the illegal firearms that they use to commit

a gun crime by their very nature they're not going to buy by the laws are further restricting. this is not going to solve that issue and we've got that statistic that shows ninety seven percent of gun crime is committed with the legal firearms and the other issue we have ease we've got very porous borders he you know strata so less than one percent of our containers that come into the country are inspected so there's a big issue with the ability for a legal firearms and i guess other contraband like drugs to get to find their way into into our country concentrating on mental health to solve this problem is largely a red herring the great majority of people who kill with firearms are not mentally ill before the event they're perfectly normal average people everybody says oh i'm terribly surprised but this happened and. the far more important indicators of things like previous violence family violence especially alcohol

involvement drug involvement in australia seventy percent of gun deaths have nothing to do with crime they are suicides and unintentional shootings even in the united states it's about sixty percent. nothing to do with crime and so you have this huge elephant in the room the adolescent. well basically children shooting themselves in a moment of of love disappointment or a bad exam committing suicide with firearms which it certainly it just would not have happened if the gun had not been available as law abiding firearms owners here in australia we operate under some of the strictest firearms laws in the world sporting sheet is as the largest group representing law abiding firearms owners he in new south wales and two abstract we advocate for evidence based farms laws not laws that are based on emotion and hype we often hear. the the statement that

our laws have had an impact on reducing gun deaths there's no. evidence based research to shari that the introduction of f. farms laws in one thousand nine hundred six has had any effect on the number of gun deaths in the years prior to nine hundred ninety six the right of death by firearm was falling and then after nine hundred ninety six it continued to fall by almost the same right. so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy from day shouldn't let it be an arms race is often spearing dramatic development only personally i'm going to resist i don't see how that strategy will be successful very critical time to sit down and talk.

with no make this manufactured consensus and stick to public wealth. when the ruling classes and protect themselves. with the crime larry go around. making all middle of the room sick. is really. what politicians do something. to put themselves on the line they get accepted or rejected. so when you want to be president. or some want to. have to go right to be close that's what the forty three of the more people.

interested in the waters of. first of all. the greek riots occupy wall street arab spring these are the beginnings of. all of the protests across europe today it was all connected it's all based on the exact same concept of bankers printing too much money creating this wealth and income gap and it's a delayed or deferred riot you know it's true that the violence was baked into the cake and now leaders like black hole are getting their just deserts.

is that country cool russia no one has ever known one has ever heard of and never even heard about most school.

i did even deeper i went to australia's world famous bondi beach to talk with the visiting tourists and locals to discover just what people think of the differences in gun laws culture between australia and the united states it's stronger definitely in the states like growing up in mexico so close to the states. it's just very normal lives but you coud own x. amount of gone's of whatever caliber. definitely a struggle has more gradations about what i say a lot of us united states and guns and gun culture what's the first thing that comes to mind fear fear yes definitely now when i say australian gun culture what do you feel about like australia and gun culture i feel like that's true is a really safe place also when i walk in the street i feel really save we should be living in peace in general like you don't need a gun in your house to feel safe because they'll tell you i want to gun in my house

it was just a guess sometimes and if no one else has a gun to be cool like just ban them all like to live in peace well we had a kneejerk reaction from the prime minister to the poor off message the edge of tasmania many years ago and you know there's a lot of things that could be said about what made that happen and why and it was we had a very sharp reaction and not many opposing militia groups saw anything you know right wing or you know those who were concerned with arming citizens and citizens arming themselves and at the time we had you know every family had a gun and still many families have guns but it's changed a lot of cultures change enormously since i was little kid and i also think this entire conversation is framed in such a way that you are pro or against as opposed to looking at the bridge between bias and saying like personal responsibility and liberties play a fundamental role within this conversation so it's not just like no guns no liberties here i mean come on and there's also something that probably should be said about being a collective us versus an individual us because not every human being alliance in

one particular way in that way and whom i as a collective has decided to be individuals as a bad person or vice versa you know that's. collapse again it's a you know it's you already and while the opinions on us and australia's issues with guns are both similar and diverse documentarian unpeeled surprise winning journalist john pilger brought up a very startling truth about the victims of gun violence here in australia it's very different from the united states. except for indigenous people. interestingly when people talk about guns and gun control they seldom include. the victims of gun and usually police guns or the gun of authority and that is indigenous outback people. so yes there was a wild west but that wild west as i say affected indigenous people that's where the bloodshed happened and that's where it happened. in plain sight but out of sight

and massacres took place right of course the straight up to recently. and the shooting about aboriginal people still goes on black lives not mattering is very much an issue here and it's not as bad perhaps as it was certainly not in the front days when people killed aboriginal people like like prey they were prey they were described in the encyclopedia brittanica wrist prey. so. black. violence. existed here. to dig deeper into the violence pilchard discussed i traveled to the redfern

district in sydney to meet with lolo forester an aboriginal rights activist and presenter on corrie radio sydney's only all aboriginal radio station well it's more so the aboriginal culture and the police force culture here we have had. so many of our people are the die in custody or die at the hands of police and where the police is when you look at it i have been at fault and no one's been charged i'll give you an example we had mr ward from western australia and he was picked up on a drink driving card so they bought him from a community into perth into the mine city and that was a private a private prison sekhar and what had happened there was no way conditioning in the the truck that they were bringing but the time i got to perth it was fifty degrees in the back of the truck and hugh melted into the back of the vane. so you can imagine what that would have been like we had another woman in western australia back in two thousand and six jane she would have to go into prison for unpaid fines

aboriginal people you know usually go in there for minor offenses and she kept on saying she was in pain she'd been involved in domestic violence before she actually went in there and they took to the hospital they said there's nothing wrong with that they took a back to the hospital again there's nothing wrong with that then they dragged her added the cell along the hallway took a bet she died she had pneumonia she had all these other conditions that were wrong with her but no one checked around we had in panama and in two thousand and four we had a young man which is an island community made up of aboriginal people it used to be a kind of like a painter colony for bad blacks so what had happened he was that one day he was a little bit intoxicated the police picked him up and never had a charge in his life took him to the police station within an hour he was dead the police officer wasn't charged and what had happened he had a busted splaying and broken ribs and that and the police officer said that he fell

on top of him. so when they got the doctor's report back to the coroner's report back there was a shoot a protest they bought the swat squad on to the yard and kicked in doors not dive of people and everything like this and i'm like burnt down the play station as well the local community burnt down the play station one guy was charged with creating the riot so he got four years. and other men got moved around quite inside another other prisons that they wouldn't connect with each other then when lex wotton the guy that they said was they regulate or when he came at they put a gag order on him not to be obvious bait for a period of time just raced at my own last year he put a case up against a place he won the case for two hundred twenty thousand dollars and then they get a class action case for the whole lot for four hundred forty seven people are not that's not the whole population of four hundred forty seven people they were awarded sturdy million dollars but that has to be recognized by the federal government i have to approve that so you've got why destroying people going why

you're giving black people thirty million dollars. the pain and suffering that i had you know young people were kicked to the floor when mothers were knocked over when you're on a and m. and a mission i was we call them hey you call them resave say that they have. why would you bring in the swat squad in our military with the rifles that we see i.v. they're into a community questions that has always had that problem with the police and there's not one place officer has actually been charged by killing a you know first national reparation a person. learning at the start of the violence being perpetrated on the aboriginal and first nations peoples of australia by the guns of authority exposed some striking similarities between australia and the united states in topics the mainstream media is too afraid to touch in the debate over gun control this is of course leaves one last topic in the gun debate to explore the ultimate culture of gun violence roam the

globe the military industrial complex it's interesting because you're part of the gun control debate the doesn't get talked about a lot is about you know how it ties in to the military industrial complex in your group you know real problems makers and all the lobbyists and the influence over government. is australia dealing with that so. i think they influenced by the military industrial complex the way the united states is when you arrive in sydney and certainly in canberra when you walk past in canberra as you walk away from the plane there. is abba ties in for the great arms country companies british aerospace reiki and at lockheed martin it's just taken over a great chunk of the university of melbourne. the national university in canberra has arms company all over it. the

u.s. influence in the strait is massive it's very important to the u.s. especially now in its confrontation with china it's its perception of china as threatening installment it's all about the necessary it's none of it should involve us trade but this trade has allowed it and the history of us in clones and us bases in this trade. is a deeply sinister one us right really from the end of the the second world war nineteen forty five. the u.s. mapped straight for its minerals for its potential as a bases. and since that there has been a very powerful u.s. presence in this country and usually the ambassador has been an extremely

outspoken. not a diplomat but an outspoken protagonist of u.s. war policies the u.s. treats a straight does treated as a fifty five state. i'm quite serious a fifty five state there's no question he's straight a military straight in politics is trade the media is completely integrated into the united states. the straightest possibly the only country where generals and admirals can come and give all sorts of scare warnings and they'll be given front page treatment we've had here recently hillary clinton warning us about the perils of china china is going to take a side of absolute nonsense. nonsense but it gets

media attention and because america's agenda or in the pacific is to confront china hillary clinton started that with her pivot to asia or in two thousand and eleven in fact barack obama came and announced it before the australian parliament in two thousand and eleven and that was hillary clinton's policy and you now have bases that go all the way from one of the most important u.s. spy bases set up designed and set up by the cia at pine gap right next in iraq springs all the way now darwin there's a marine base in darwin there are other u.s. bases around the country astray there has no quarrel with china and in fact this trader has no enemies no one once we invade a straight a stranger is probably one of the most secure places in the

world and yet. the present government of malcolm turnbull is building one of the biggest war machines and creating weapons and history. spending billions on it all of it on necessary. and that is our show for you today remember everyone in this world we are not told that we are loved enough so i tell you all i love you. and that's out of the lawless keep on watching hawks and have a great day and night everybody. i had a great education a good job and a family that loved me. i never had to worry about how i would eat somewhere i would sleep. but i'm facing christmas alone out on the streets of london. well you

look to. the glory like. you know the slogan still give out food for the homeless. that you don't really feel like me being in it. and then. the guy just came over to me saw me and gave me change at his book. welcome to max keiser financial survival guide. looking forward to your pension account. yanks this is what happens to pensions in britain. watched kaiser report.

seemed wrong. but old rules just don't. mean you get to shape out just because educated and in. equals betrayal. when so many find themselves worlds apart. just to look for common ground. my son doing drugs my nephew was still in drugs my sister just with doing drugs it was like an epidemic of drug abuse america's public enemy number one in the united states is drug abuse we started going after the users in the prison population. we

started treating sick people people who are addicted to these drugs like criminals while i was on the hill. since the war on drugs. there are countless numbers of people who are in prison for. sins for. minor offenders in the drug trade it's a lot watching your children grow up and miss you in waves and say bye daddy as you're walking out of a business it's just it doesn't get easier. more

than one and a half million people have signed an online petition. against the french state of. climate change. journalists right screams react with indifference to the naming and shaming of russian media what has by. in connection with allegations of spreading and disintegration. and a scandal of russian talent all to the children of. the only.