SADLY, it seems to take some kind of madness to truly unite Australians from all points on the political spectrum.
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We saw the worst of that madness during the shocking Lindt Cafe siege in Sydney on Monday; and now a more benign madness in its aftermath.
A suggestion from federal crossbench senator David Leyonhjelm that the siege should prompt a review of Australia’s gun laws was as insensitive as it was stupid.
Mr Leyonhjelm should first be condemned for seeking to gain political mileage at a time when the nation was still grieving for the victims of the siege.
And he should also be condemned for seeking to bring the very worst of America’s social problems to our shores.
Thankfully, that is exactly what has happened.
Mr Leyonhjelm has been ridiculed by both sides of politics who share as one of their few points of agreement that the strict gun laws introduced by the Howard Government in response to the Port Arthur massacre have been one of the great victories of federal politics in recent decades.
Any comparison of the rate of gun crime in the US and Australia clearly shows that restricting the number of firearms in the community can only be a good thing.
How Mr Leyonhjelm cannot see that is a mystery. It beggars belief that Mr Leyonhjelm could genuinely believe that Monday’s siege – as terrible as it was – should take us down another path on gun control.
Much more believeable is the thought that Mr Leyonhjelm is a man desperate to make his mark on politics – at any reckless cost.
David Leyonhjelm’s election to parliament was a case of mistaken identity as it seems many voters confused his Liberal Democrats party with the more mainstream Liberals.
But if this is the way he intends to give himself an identity, the rest of Australia could well do without him.
If he truly believes America’s right to bear arms makes it a safer place to live, then he is welcome to leave any day he likes.