Australian Firearms Owners Are Sticking To Their Guns

Despite last month’s massacre of 35 people at a tourist location on the island of Tasmania, some Australian gun owners say they would rather shed blood than surrender their assault weapons.

Shocked by the slaughter, Prime Minister John Howard has announced that gun owners will be ordered to relinquish semiautomatic and automatic weapons for a yetto-be-determined payment per firearm.

But pro-gun activists are holding rallies across the country, vowing they won’t part with their arsenals.

Ian McNiven of the Firearm Owners Association of Australia told about 200 gun owners at one rally that the ban is “a brutal totalitarian attack” on the freedom of gun owners.

“Once given up, freedom can only be bought back with blood,” McNiven said in a speech, excerpts of which were broadcast on national radio Thursday.

Australia’s federal and state governments agreed to a sweeping ban against many weapons after a lone gunman killed 35 people and wounded more than 20 others at the tourist location on Tasmania on April 28 and 29.

Gun organizations plan to challenge the ban in court.

“We’ll be lodging every sort of protest and court application we can,” said Ted Drane, national president of the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia.

“Thankfully, we still have the law and a legal system which can protect the interests of people.”

The man accused of the bloody spree, 28-year-old Martin Bryant, faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment if convicted. Australia does not have the death penalty.

Opinion polls show that more than 80 percent of Australians want tighter gun controls.