You gotta be kidding me!

[John -Melb]

I read a story in last Fridays paper here in Melbourne, the lunatic capital of the world and thought I'd pass it on.

Let's set the scene, this is Australia under Prime Minister John Winston Howard,
the possession of firearms for self defence is illegal;
possession of semi-auto longarms or pump action shotguns for sporting purposes is illegal;
to own a pistol for target shooting you must be a member of a club and compete in pistol competitions at least 12 times a year;
possession of a pistol with a barrel length less than 120mm or a revolver with a barrel length of 100mm - that's illegal too.

Melbourne is been having a bit of a drug war over the past few years with big-time drug dealers bumping each other off in turf wars, they seem to have no trouble getting the guns they need to do their dirty work.

Police stopped a car being driven by a known associate of these scumbags and conducted a search of the vehicle, recovering a pistol. When it went to court, the Magistrate dismissed the charge, as the serial number on the gun had been defaced or obscured, therefore, police could not prove the gun was unregistered!

Beam me up Scotty - this place sucks!