Proposed Australian Machete Ban Proves Some People Never Learn

No one is going to make an excuse for gang violence. There’s no feasible way to excuse such a thing. It not just results in death and injury, but it also terrorizes ordinary citizens in ways that should never happen.

Unfortunately, it’s a worldwide phenomenon. 

In Australia, they recently had an incident where two gangs battled with machetes in a shopping mall. First, I was surprised to see there were enough people at a mall to have a gang battle, but then there was the nature of the fighting. 

I mean, machetes are great weapons for the psycho killer in a horror movie, but you don’t see many battles with them in the Western world.

And, of course, because this happened, Australia is now considering machete control.

 An Australian state government is banning the sale of machetes after a violent gang fight in a suburban shopping mall injured a young man.

Victoria Premier Jacinta Allan announced Monday the ban on the sale of large knives would take effect Wednesday after machete-wielding gang members clashed at a Melbourne mall on Sunday afternoon.

A 20-year-old man was seriously injured in the fight that involved eight combatants armed with machetes, a police statement said. Four suspects had been arrested and charged by Monday.

“I will introduce as many laws (as needed) to get these dangerous knives off the streets,” Allan told reporters.

“We will be bringing in place a ban on the sale of machetes here in Victoria and this ban will be in place from midday on Wednesday. Under consumer powers, using these powers, Victoria will be banning machetes from being sold anywhere in the state,” she added.

They started restricting guns because of violence, rather than addressing the violence itself, and what happened? The violent individuals moved on to another weapon, and they’re still not learning from the mistake they made in the first place.

Like guns, machetes are tools. I’ve used them for camping and yard work. They’re useful tools for hacking at brush, regardless of where you find it. Yes, they’re also viable weapons, but so are axes, hammers, baseball bats, and a host of other things.

The weapon is really the person holding it. If they’re dangerous, it doesn’t matter what you do, they’ll turn something into a weapon.

You can’t ban enough tools that the villainous can’t kill.

“But at least without guns, no one else could be hurt,” someone might say. They’re wrong, though. Sure, there might not be stray bullets flying hither and yon, but innocent people can always be hurt when two factions engage in combat. If machetes prevented innocent victims, then just how did so many civilians die in warfare back in the days when similar weapons were the pinnacle of weapon design?

Sure, people might not have been shot, but that doesn’t mean people couldn’t have been seriously injured or killed.

Australian politicians haven’t learned from their past failures. I doubt they’ll learn when this fails, either.

Bad people do bad things because they want to. They’ll use whatever they can get to do those bad things. Unless you address the underlying desire to hurt others, you’re never going to get anywhere, despite whatever laws you care to pass.