Bob Katter (Kennedy, Katter's Australian Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Mareeba pistol and rifle club raised the issue that it has taken 40 weeks to get a gun licence. Clearly the state government wants to eliminate guns altogether in the state of Queensland. These intellectual giants pit themselves against Archbishop Stephen Langton who wrote the Magna Carta and who put the right to bear arms in the Magna Carta. These intellectual giants that run Queensland pit themselves against Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the American constitution and the Declaration of Independence. And it may be more than passing strange that we have had a 1,000 per cent increase in crime in the state of Queensland. It is hopeless. The police are not turning up—not because the police are not good guys but because there are just not enough of them to handle the crime problem that is skyrocketing out of control. At least give the person the right to protect and defend his own home and his own family. That right is sacred, and it has been recognised by every single group of intelligent people who have ever sat down to write a document. So the right to bear arms—and I don't hesitate to say 'the right' to bear arms—is a fundamental right. The people opposed to that are people who will never be happy until the only people with guns are the people in uniform. (Time expired)