Thoughts For The Week.
I began writing articles focussing on the civilians right to own and
use firearms in 1981. Many millions of my words have been published in many
formats from the local Gympie Times newspaper, Lock Stock and Barrel
magazine and even the New York Times has published two of my letters. Our
opponents, which we have no shortage of, accuse me of being a single- topic
writer, a single- topic thinker, and a single- topic constituent, but it isn’t
true.
This ‘Right’ ‘for ‘subjects’ may have arms for their defence suitable
to their conditions allowed by law’ (Bill of Rights 1689) which is similar to
the USA Bill of Rights, but is our Bill of Rights which the Monarch swears to
uphold at their Coronation and it is also established in Queensland Law in
‘Imperial Acts Application Act 1984' Schedule 1 (Imperial enactments continued
in force). For this is the corner stone, the key principle for all of our other
rights and our constitutional system of government. Without the right of the
citizens to own firearms, total power is in the hands of government. Force is
the ultimate source of all authority, and as night follows day, not long after
the citizens are deprived of their force, tyrannical governments can easily
remove all other rights. All those old enough can remember the freedoms we have
already lost, which have followed the gradual disarmament policies of our media
driven duopoly. We only have to look at the Hong Kong hero’s, to appreciate the
disdain that tyrannical governments view the rights of disarmed people. Those
heroic protesters with the umbrellas will be all listed and taken away in the
night one at a time like the young students of Tiananmen Square, well the ones
that survived the flame thrower, machine guns and tanks that cleared the Square
on that infamous night. Once the people are defenceless gradualism takes them
into slavery, the weight of the chains only increase in time.
The rights to own and use firearms protects the right to travel
throughout your own country without having to show your papers, the right to
petition your Monarch, or the government and to do that you have to have the
right to freedom of speech and the freedom to communicate the issues that you
wish to petition on. The right to own firearms protects the right to own
property and to acquire and dispose of it to your benefit. The right to own
firearms guarantees that we have a fair electoral system and ‘Habeas corpus’ a
justice system where we cannot be locked away without trial. Firearms in the
hands of the public guarantee our rights under the Magna Carta, the
rights to have a trial by jury of your peers, the right to defend your
property, your family and your life.
Internal and External Security, The Main Reasons to Live in a
Community
In the 1970’s how many of those rights listed above have been blemished or
removed because we gave the lunatics the keys to the asylum and called it
Parliament. Our present set of lunatics proclaim the righteousness of
democracy and chant “power to the people” in one voice while simultaneously
demanding the loss of the common citizenry’s access to the means of force which
is the highest tier of hypocracy.
Like Pavlov’s dogs the bell rings and as a pack they bark “who
needs to die in your life before you will support disarmament” which is the
consolidation of power in the hands of a small elite, namely those who bark for
it. The only suitable reply is “how many defenceless law abiding
Australians need to be robbed, raped and murdered in their own homes before you
support their right to own property and defend their own lives”.
The Gun Control politicians hate this principle and will do belly
swamis over broken glass rather than answer that point in public. They hate
everyone who brings it to their attention, they hate it because it exposes
them, when they believe that they can get away with it they will feign to
support us, when they believe they are going to be quoted, and dismissed from
the party they will vote at their parties call and suffer any indignities and
electoral losses.
This point is an x-ray machine into the mind of any politician. It’s
the ultimate test to which any politician, or political philosophy, can be
put. If a politician isn’t perfectly comfortable with the idea of
his average constituent, any man or woman, walking into a Gun Shop and paying
cash for any rifle, shotgun or handgun and leaving with it, he isn’t your
friend no matter what he tells you.
If your politician isn’t genuinely enthusiastic about his average
constituent walking out of the shop without asking anybody’s permission, he is
one of the problems, no matter what else he claims. His attitude toward your
ownership and use of firearms conveys his real attitude about you. If he
doesn’t trust you, then why should you trust him? If he doesn’t want you to
have the means of defending your life, do you want him in a position to control
it?
In 98% of the world as soon as the public are disarmed, the criminal
element, knowing that the police can never supervise the whole community, begin
to target the defenceless.
If your politician makes excuses about obeying a law he’s sworn to
uphold and defend the Commonwealth Constitution remind him that his oath covers
an older and higher law of the our land, the Bill of Rights of 1689, if he
cannot support this with deeds you can never trust him to walk down to the
corner shop and bring back your change.
If he ignores you, sneers at you, complains about you, or defames
you, if he calls you names only he thinks are evil like “Populist”
“Constitutionalist”, hasn’t he betrayed his oath, isn’t he unfit to hold
office, and doesn’t he really belong in jail?
These are all important principles. These are the principles that
inspired me to research and investigate firearm legislation as the clearest and
most unmistakable demonstration of what any given politician, or political
philosophy is really made of.
They all will lecture you about the dangerous weirdos out there who
shouldn’t have a gun — but what does that have to do with you? Your taxes pay
for the Police, Trial, Jury and Jail. Why should you be made to suffer for the
misdeeds of others? Didn’t you lay aside the tyrannical notion of group
punishment when you studied communism and socialism. If there are dangerous
weirdos out there, does it make sense to deprive you of the means of
protecting yourself from them? This is about you, and your family, that is the
point of being in a community, safety from harm.
It makes voting simpler, doesn’t it? You don’t have to study every
issue – health care, international trade, all you have to do is use this x-ray
machine, ask them how hard will they work to return your firearm ownership
rights back to you? This has the clarity and truth of a steel bell ringing to
expose their empty words and find out how politicians really feel about you.
That, of course, is why they hate being asked and that is why I am accused of
being a single topic writer, thinker, and voter, but it isn’t true, is it?
Defenceless
Since the early 1990s I have also been decried for ‘worrying and crying wolf’
for warning about the deplorable state of our external Defence and Defence Industries.
We naturally first think of Internal Defence and firearm ownership but even
though the media and politicians ‘poo hoo’ the concept, firearm ownership in
the hands of civilians is crucial to our defence, besides training our young
people to hunt and shoot, it creates a civil industry that can support a
defence industry when needed and ultimately makes genocide impossible for a
conquering power. Defence against external threat is also more relevant now
than at any time since 1942 and that time we had 20 times the defence industry
that we have in 2019.
Japan’s Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto is quoted
“To invade the United States would prove most difficult because
behind every blade of grass is an American with a rifle.”
The referenced “letter” to Ryoichi Saskakawa is claimed to be in the
extensive personal files of Gordon W. Prange, the personal historian for Gen.
Douglas MacArthur.
In Christian News published on 4 February 2002 the following:-
“In 1960, Robert Menard was a commander aboard the USS Constellation when he
was part of a meeting between United States Navy personnel and their
counterparts in the Japanese Defence Forces. Fifteen years had passed
since VJ Day, most of those at the meeting were WWII veterans, and men who had
fought each other to the death at sea were now comrades in battle who could
confide in each other. Someone at the table asked a Japanese admiral why,
with the Pacific Fleet devastated at Pearl Harbor and the mainland U.S. forces
in what Japan had to know was a pathetic state of unreadiness, Japan had not
simply invaded the West Coast. Commander Menard would never forget the
crafty look on the Japanese commander’s face as he frankly answered the
question. ‘You are right,‘ he told the Americans. ‘We did indeed know much
about your preparedness. We knew that probably every second home in your
country contained firearms. We knew that your country actually had state
championships for private citizens shooting military rifles. We were not fools
to set foot in such quicksand.”
It is simple reality, if this was not the case any invading force
would not firstly disarm the local civilian population, yet even the Romans
took care of that point.
Why is it more relevant now to Australia?
Our present day lunatics within the hot air of Canberra’s house of ill repute
refuse to acknowledge the threats from our northern neighbours. For many years
Australia’s political harum-scarum have actively sought to engage China in the
belief that Chinese economic integration with the world would eventually lead
to the liberalisation of China’s political system. But as Xi Jinping’s first
five years in office have made clear, that optimism was misplaced. A more
affluent China has become more authoritarian, more nationalistic, and
increasingly intent on changing the international environment to one it
perceives better reflects its own interests. The USA has sought to soft peddle,
encouraging China to pacify North Korea, meanwhile Beijing’s has made a chess move
with a massive military expansion in the Indo-Pacific region.
Demand Defence
If China gets away with moving ballistic long range missile’s a 1000 miles
nearer to resource rich defenceless Australia, we won’t have to wait long for
its next move. Oil in Brunei, Sarawak, Borneo, or another hop further south
into another inhabited island.
Islands are cheaper then aircraft carriers and have the additional
benefit of being harder to sink
Since the early 1990s when writing in Lock, Stock and Barrel (see, 
http://www.owenguns.com/lock-stock-and-barrel-magazine/
I have been a lone voice, so regular that friends told me ‘the record has
stuck’, but it is a subject I have been very passionate about and at last even
one Liberal politician Andrew Hastie MP has awoken from Liberal Rip van winkle
sleep and alerted us to the northern threats. Of course he has suffered a small
dose of the ‘slings and arrow of outrage’ for his trouble but he will get used
to that.
The USA Has To Accept It Cannot Be A Force In Asia
It would be great if it was, but the one thing that is certain, is that
everything is in a state of change. Asia has changed and the USA has changed.
Then we have Emeritus Professor of Strategic Studies at the
Australian National University, Hugh White (a former senior official in the
Department of Defence) who has written a book “How to Defend Australia”, which
sets out the tough choices facing Australia. He astutely warns, that America
may not chose to defend Australia against China or Indonesia.
It urges Australians to consider the risks emerging in the region and
how to prepare for a very different future. “There is still a deep
reluctance among political leaders of both sides of politics to really
acknowledge the seriousness of the situation,” Prof White said
He hopes to spark a rethink of Australia’s defence policy,
recognising that things have changed and that America’s dominance in East Asia
will likely diminish in the future and leave Australia to defend itself. “A
lot argue that we would be mad to abandon the US alliance and I agree but what
if they abandon us?” his book says.
‘How To Defend Australia’. states. AMERICA WILL LIKELY DESERT US!
“Neither side of politics is taking China’s challenge seriously and even if
they do, they are saying we should cling more tightly to the US.”My argument is
I don’t think US support is a durable solution,” he said. “I think it’s likely
the US will eventually withdraw from Asia, which is why I’m sceptical of (US
Secretary of State) Mike Pompeo saying the US will push back”. Despite the
strong words, Prof White said “the US was not doing anything to push back”. “We
need to think about how Australia can stand up for itself in an Asia that is
not dominated by America.”
China has put a massive amount of money into its air and naval forces and now
has nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine-launched
ballistic missiles. Soon nuclear powered aircraft carriers. China has many more
long range nuclear weapons that threaten American cities than North Korea.
Professor White says,“In a new Cold War, Americans would have to ask whether
saving Taiwan from China — and preserving US leadership in Asia — would be
worth losing Los Angeles and Seattle,”
To save Australia from China would the US President sacrifice Los
Angeles and Seattle, or Hawaii or San Francisco?” America’s own security does
not depend on preventing China from dominating East Asia. Why then would
America accept the costs and risks of trying to do that?” Never think that
Australia is not a nuclear target, or that placing ballistic missiles in
Australia will increase our importance as a target as one of the USA’s major
all-important listening communication centre’s is at Pine Gap. We have been a
target for 50 years.
THE THREATS ARE REAL?
If there’s one easy way to understand Australia’s vulnerability, you only have
to look at its neighbours the threat is not just about China. Australia
has gotten used to being one of the biggest economies in the region. In the
1980s Australia had the second-biggest economy in Asia, after Japan. Our Gross
Domestic Product (GDP) was bigger than China’s. The story is different today
with GDP now being only 5 per cent of China’s and less than 50% of Indonesia’s.
(Yet we still give them Australian Aid??) By 2050, it has been estimated
Australia’s economy will rank well behind those of all major Southeast Asian
nations. India is expected to become the world’s second-biggest economy, while
Indonesia will probably become the fourth-biggest economy and will have the
weight to become one of Asia’s great powers. Indonesia has always been seen as
a potential strategic risk for Australia because of its size and proximity, and
this will only increase as it becomes more powerful. “Australia has never had
to deal with a neighbour more powerful than itself, and it will take some
getting used to,” says Prof White.
Prof White correctly believes Australia’s first two objectives are to
deny our immediate maritime and air approaches to potential enemies. Indonesia
is the only country in Australia’s immediate neighbourhood capable of being a
valuable ally but also a serious adversary.
South Pacific Island Hop Skip and Jump
Even if Indonesia was an ally, China more than likely hop around it and park
one of its aircraft carriers next to Long Island 19°53’S 158°19’E, 10 nm NW of
Loop Islet, it is the largest of the Chesterfield Islands, in the Coral Sea and
is 1400m to 1800 m, ideal for a military air strip.
Some might have read about the Battle of the Coral Sea in World War
Two, a Japanese Aircraft Carrier fleet on its way to invade Port Moresby and
Australia lost one of its carriers and most of its aircraft to a US and
Australian fleet so Japan withdrew. The area is strategically very important as
it dominates the Torres Straights and the eastern sea board of Australia.
As the Chesterfield Islands belong to France and France does not have
the will or the resources to declare war on China and fight it in the South
Pacific, nor for that matter is Australia. So with the 792 fighter aircraft
available to the China Navy at present, and building more at an ever increasing
rate and having the Shenyang J-31 range of 1200 klm China would dominate the
Coral Sea.
The next stop for a Chinese Aircraft carrier, (by next year China
will have three of them, there is five in the current program, the last one
keeping up with the Americans will be nuclear powered) will be Lord Howe island
31° 33' 15? S, 159° 5' 6? E , in the Tasman Sea 320 miles from mainland
Australia. There is an air strip in situ, so China would control the whole
eastern seaboard of Australia. Lord Howe island is technically a part of NSW,
outside Australia’s territorial waters.
If we could get 3 of our 6 Australian made Collins Submarines to work, they
would take a few weeks and a re fuel before they arrived on the scene. The
30 or so other ships of the Australian Navy, (if they can find the crews) some
not much larger then “Daddy’s Yacht” would not be a deterrent and it is
doubtful that the Australian Navy would try a suicidal attack, with the Chinese
Navy having 2000 ships including 70 nuclear submarines.
About that time, Australian politicians will be trying to organise refineries
for Oil and Shale Oil and put its mind to converting coal into petroleum, but
it will be too late, from the very first day oil tankers coming to
mainland Australia would be stopped, and re routed so in 28 day time this would
cause Australia to put up the white flag and surrender and China would win
Australia without firing a shot in anger. Of course all air flights into
Australia would be suspended after the Chinese shot the first one down. No one
could afford the insurance premiums.
Australia has to use its Natural Resources or Lose Them
China has the capability to take Australia, to utilise its natural resources,
Australia will not utilise them, as its government is anti nuclear and anti
coal, anti mining and anti industry so there would be a moral argument by the
Chinese that Australian do not deserve to have the resources at their disposal.
World Sleepwalking to WAR
Former Australian Defence Force chief Admiral Chris Barrie warns the world is
sleepwalking towards war. Admiral Barrie’s concerns were echoed by strategic
analyst Greg Copley, the president of the Washington based International
Strategic Studies Association. Mr Copley said not enough attention- had been
paid to developing a strategic industrial base in this country and Australians
should feel “outraged to the point of revolution” that it cost three times more
to build a submarine in Adelaide than in Japan or Europe. Australia has long
relied on America to protect it, including through its policy of extended
nuclear deterrence (NED), which says the US will retaliate against another
country that attacked one of its allies.
This policy was a good deterrent when America had superior firepower but in
recent years China has put a massive amount of money into its air and naval
forces and now has nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles and
submarine-launched ballistic missiles. This means the US no longer has a
military advantage, and any war would also be fought in the Western Pacific,
close to China’s shores and giving it a strategic advantage.
What Does Australia Need To Defend ITSELF?
First it needs a free country that is worth fighting and sacrificing for, that
is culturally cohesive. It needs to train everyone to appreciate that the
nation comes first, not what’s in it for me, money or promotion. We need to
rapidly begin manufacturing firearms and weapons of war here, we need to
produce the infrastructure in materials and skills to manufacture every part
here in Australia as parts will never be available in an emergency either the
supply lines will be breached, or the country we intend to procure them will be
busy with its war. An example of this is with the 84mm Carl Gustaff
recoil less rifle, Sweden did not agree with Australia’s involvement in the
Vietnam War so would not supply parts or ammunition. When you want it most, you
need to have it on hand.
It will be many years before Australia can compete with large ships,
or state of the art fighter planes or nuclear submarines. We had that
manufacturing ability before with Mirage Jets and Jindivik missiles, but our
lunatic politicians sold us out, our national interest in recreation has
given us special abilities which can be turned into a national deterrent.
Iran is leading the way, on May 16, 2019, U.S. officials cited reports that
Iran had installed missiles on civilian motorboats IRAN IRGCN asymmetric
military fast attach power-missile boats and both civil and military shipping
within inshore waters and the great Barrier Reef is exceptionally vulnerable to
mines, cruise missiles and fast boat attacks because its shallow straits force
large ships to squeeze through predictable lines of transit. Australia has many
thousands of boating enthusiasts who are experienced in navigation and local
conditions they have to be mobilised into a ready reserve. The Iranians bought
a British Bladerunner 51 speed boat from South Africa. Photos reveal these have
been armed with a multiple-rocket-launcher system and a heavy anti-aircraft
machinegun on the prow. The Seraj can reportedly attain speeds of 55 to 72
knots. The sleek, domestically-designed Zolfaghar has a maximum speed of
70 knots and mounts an integrated radar and two launch canisters for Nasr-1
cruise missiles on its stern. Based on the Chinese C704 missile, the Nasr-1 has
a range of 22 miles, and can use infrared, radar or television guidance. The
small and affordable boats have low radar signatures, which combined with
speed, would significantly reduce their target’s reaction time. Australia could
produce these and importantly, their sheer numbers could overwhelm the
expensive defensive systems on board Chinese warships.
We cannot afford to wait till 2040 for 12 over priced conventional submarines
we need hundreds of them now. Iran has 32 midget submarines and media reported
that the Nasr-1 missile was launched by a Ghadir-class mini-submarine Iranian
media said the missile was an upgraded version of the Nasr-1 missile the
country had showcased in 2008. It was then described as an anti-vessel missile
with a range of 35 kilometers (or 22 miles).
Real Australian Made Submarines
An Australian inventor Ron Allum completely rethought the design of submersible
vehicles, from how they launch and travel through water to what they’re made
of. He designed a new material called “Isofloat” capable of withstanding the
16,500psi pressure at the depths of the Mariana Trench. And in addition to
rigging lights and high-definition cameras to the vehicle for James Cameron,
Ron equipped the sub with scientific research equipment to take valuable
samples from the sea. Then on 26th March 2012, James Cameron reached the
bottom of the Challenger Deep, the deepest part of the Mariana Trench. The
maximum depth recorded during this record-setting dive was 10,908 metres
(35,787 ft). So here in Australia we do have the technology to make small
highly technical submarines better than Iran. We just have to get into
manufacturing them until we have 500 or so.
Japan was making Midget submarines to defend the homeland right to
the end of WW2 1945 when this photo was taken.
To defend Australia firstly we need to deny our enemies the use of
our territorial waters by sinking lots of their ships. We desperately need anti
ballistic missiles for air defence, but even if China or North Korea wipes out
our population centres they cannot control us unless they put men on the ground
and to do that they need ships to off load men and materials. Secondly, we need
drones thousands of them flown by our very competitive X box flying simulators,
who spend their recreational hours glued to the screens. They could be trained
to fly drones and even if they are unarmed, if we have enough of them they
can fly into jet engine air intakes, taking a jet fighter out of the fight.
Large ships like HMAS Canberra are useless for defence, just another
thing that needs defending.
If all the above fails we need a land based deterrent, the same one
that deterred the Japanese from ever contemplating invading the USA in 1941. We
need a return to the 1903 Defence Act, the section that made every branch of
the National Rifle Association a contingent of the militia, with the Club
Captain the CO with the power to call out and direct. Every man or women on
joining had to take the Oath of Allegiance and was a member of the Defence
Force until 1997 when John Howard introduced his un informed Gun laws. For many
years the Defence Department had reduced the resources and budget to these
clubs so there was hardly a whimper when it was changed, but the Commonwealth
Rifle Ranges had supplied thousands of shooters to the services in Two World
Wars and Korea and Vietnam. Their range facilities were used as training and
base areas for troops and they could have done much more if called to do so.
Already we have 2 million licenced shooters and 6 million registered firearms,
already that is the largest threat to any invader, we have to reinforce what we
are good at. If a practical rifle competition is created with some small
resources such as uniform ammunition, range facilities, and a little prize
incentive, millions of law abiding shooter would become involved. If the Defence
department then supplied a machine gun, anti tank rocket launcher, and a mortar
to each club and began interclub competitions, like the Queens Prize then the
competitive energy of these people would be directed towards defence and
supplying them would create a defence industry. Many thousands of these young
people who purchase their own firearms, their own two way radio’s their own
four wheel drives, their own quads who go out every weekend to reduce our
nations feral pig population know the ground and are already experienced in
many of the skills of ground warfare can be motivated to form an essential part
of our nations defence. They just need encouragement instead of the government
derision they have experienced since 1996.
There is no Spring without Winter, without Mistakes there is no
Learning. There is no Life without Death, without Doubts there is no Faith.
There is no Peace without War, without Fear there is no Courage. For without
Mistakes, Doubts and Fears there are no pathways to Wisdom.
Ron Owen.
