Death of Chris Lane

I went to yesterday’s ceremony at Boeing Reserve Strathmore paying tribute to the life of Chris Lane. Chris’s Essendon Baseball Club and the local community were out in force, I think more than 1000 people were present in a great display of community support and solidarity, making a statement that Chris Lane and his life mattered.

In December last year after 20 small children were killed in a school in Connecticut, I wrote to every United States Member of the Congress, urging them to adopt Australia’s gun laws. I pointed out the dramatic decline in gun deaths in all categories – homicides, suicides, and accidental shootings – since Australia’s National Firearms Agreement came into effect.

I got some good replies from some US Congressmen and Congresswomen, but as is well known there was no change in the US.

It seems that there are too many people who think guns make the world safer, when they make the world more dangerous, and too many men in particular who think that owning a weapon makes them more manly. There is nothing manly about shooting a young man out jogging in the back – just a gutless and cowardly attack from young men with no courage and no decency.

Our thoughts and hearts go out to Chris Lane’s devastated family, and our thanks to the Essendon Baseball Club for its strong and warm response to this tragedy.