An Australian's open letter to Obama

Dear Mr. President,

You recently hailed "Australian gun laws."

In doing so:

You praised a government for forcefully removing all semi-automatic firearms from its populace.
You admired the banning and confiscation of guns.

We expect to hear that from a European leader – but not you.

You're the leader of America:

the world's first free country,
the nation that has inspired many to be free,
that nation has protected the freedom of others,
the nation that has spread more freedom than any other.

I am an Australian, and I must set the record straight.

The "success" of the 1996 Australian gun reform is a myth.

The only thing achieved was to take away the guns of the law-abiding citizenry, leaving only the criminals armed. Is this what you wish for America?

In Australia, if a citizen has firearms, the police have a right to search their property without a warrant at any time. Does that sound like America?

The laws you praise outlawed the Daisy Red Ryder BB Gun that my father played with as a child. Now you need a special permit, gun safe and serial number.

For what?

Is America still the world's most celebrated and beloved superpower? In "The American Boomerang," possibly one of the most important books of our time, Nick Adams explores America through sympathetic Australian eyes.

There are just as many guns on the street today. Gun crime is no lower. In Australia, mass shootings have been a rare event. If strict gun laws mean no massacres, explain Britain's Cumbria shootings, Monkseaton and Dunblane – or Anders Breivik of Norway.

Gun laws achieve very little.

Mass shootings are about illness, not guns. Any other so-called "gun issue," if there are any, is related to the breakdown of the family, cultural decline and the age of entitlement.

The Second Amendment defines American exceptionalism. It speaks to the character of America, and reflects why America is America.

Civilian disarmament is based on the assumption that people are irresponsible (unless they work for the government). America was founded on the opposite premise.

Don't make America a namby-pamby society.

The right to bear arms is neither wrong nor unnecessary. It is:

the greatest test of genuine freedom,
the best protection of you, your family and your property,
and the ultimate deterrent against government overreach.

The constitutional right to bear arms is pivotal. The American idea is a value system. If you take away the guns of America, you take away America.

Mr. President, your country is the one the world relies on. Right now it is at a tipping point.

Forget guns.

Focus on ending the waste, paying back the debt, limiting the government and axing political correctness. That's how you'll get America to boomerang.

Your country is the greatest in the world, and respectfully, Sir, you should stop apologizing for it. Keep it up, and America will be just another European state. And that's not good for anyone.

Yours sincerely,

Nick Adams