cross-posted from: https://quokk.au/post/6390494

The Victorian government will ban the sale of machetes from Wednesday after a gang brawl at a shopping centre.

Two males were arrested and another was taken to hospital in a serious but stable condition after the incident at Northlands shopping centre.

  • tau@aussie.zone
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    16 days ago

    Nothing like a good moral panic to make people throw reason out the window. Carrying a machete without a reasonable cause is already illegal and clearly didn’t stop these people, banning them altogether will just make things hard for those who would use them legally.

    It’s the same level of thinking as some pelican near me who was calling for a 40km/h zone due to a recent accident. The existing laws against taking illegal drugs, stealing cars, staying on the road, and not speeding over the current limit didn’t stop the guy who caused it, but he sure would have listened to a 40km/h sign…

    • lunarul@lemmy.world
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      16 days ago

      I kept waiting for the punchline, I thought this is sarcastically mimicking the American arguments against gun regulations.

  • naught101@lemmy.world
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    16 days ago

    You can make one with an angle grinder and about half an hour. This is dumb.

    Absolutely carrying them around town should be illegal, but they are super useful in rural settings.

    • N0t_5ure@lemmy.world
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      16 days ago

      If you ban the tool, people who legitimately use the tool are harmed, and the people who abuse the tool will just find something else.

      • InvisibleShoe@lemmy.world
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        16 days ago

        Rural NSW bushland - heaps of people around here have machetes and cane knives. Useful for cutting through vines, small saplings, lantana, etc. My cane knife is probably my 3rd most used tool when doing outdoor work on my property.

        • Fleur_@aussie.zone
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          16 days ago

          Yeah fair enough. You will still be able to use and keep the one you’ve got though. It’s a sales ban not an ownership ban