Australian PM: Sydney Hostage Taker Was Licensed Firearm Owner

Australian PM Tony Abbott says the December 15 Sydney hostage taker Man Haron Monis was a licensed firearm owner “and wasn’t on a security watch list.”

The PM’s announcement was questioned by New South Wales’ authorities, prompting Abbott’s office to release a statement indicating “security officials” discovered Monis was a “firearms license holder” via a national database search.

According to CNN, Abbott said the great tragedy of the situation “is that two delightful Australians, two very decent people, are dead. Others are injured. Others are traumatized because of a madman who was roaming our streets.”

The hostage taker’s possession of a firearms license points to the one of the great failures of gun control–namely, that the myriad rules instituted to limit privately owned firearms empower those with criminal intent while making law-abiding citizens more vulnerable. And this is true not simply in Australia, but all around the world.

For example, Breitbart News previously reported that many high-profile shooters in the United States over the course of the last three years went through background checks to acquire their firearms. These include Jerad and Amanda Miller (Las Vegas gun couple), Elliot Rodger (Santa Barbara gunman), Ivan Lopez (2014 Fort Hood gunman), Darion Marcus Aguilar (Maryland Mall gunman), Aaron Alexis (D.C. Navy Yard gunman), Jared Loughner (Tucson Safeway gunman), and Nidal Hasan (2009 Fort Hood gunman). 

Gun control promises safety but delivers increased vulnerability.

Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter @AWRHawkins  Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.