
Not 100% correct there...
"In ten years leading up to the Port Arthur massacre, insane males were regularly, like once a year on average, grabbing their military weapons and slaughtering strangers. Since the bans, no insane male rampages have occurred."
Ah, this is true; however, is it really because of the ban?
Think about it. New Zealand, much like Australia, had many gun massacres perpetrated by insane individuals in the late 80s and early 90s. However, like Australia, they have not had a single high-profile massacre since 1996. The thing is, they never banned semi-automatic shotguns and rifles like Australia.
Why, then, were there no more massacres there, despite the fact that they have gun laws similar to some states of the United States?
I'm an Australian, and a shooting enthusiast. I enjoy target shooting, and have membership in a gun club. I am a perfectly sane individual who would never dare turn his firearm on an innocent human being. However, while I do agree with certain aspects of Australian gun law, such as the idea of mandatory licensing, prerequisite safety courses and comprehensive background checks, I do believe the laws here may have gone a bit too far in other areas.
Consider semi-automatic rifles and shotguns. While a number of these types of firearms which were prohibited in 1996 were military-style weapons such as the AR-15 and AK-47, many were sporting-style firearms with perfectly legitimate uses for licensed sporting and target shooters, like the Ruger Mini-14.
These are ordinary-looking firearms with no fancy folding stocks or anything and only low-capacity magazines - it's kind of hard to go on a rampage with 5 rounds, eh? Though I'm not so certain about relegalising military-style firearms any time soon, I honestly would not mind it if sporting-style, low-capacity firearms were relegalised for ordinary target shooters.
As for this story... Eh. It's a pretty good marketing tactic, I'll give them that. While I'd be cautious dispensing guns willy-nilly, I don't have any problems if it is conducted through the proper channels (for example - the advertisement states that a background check will be necessary for the free firearm, so hopefully not too many of these firearms will fall into the hands of vicious criminals).