Nanny state is a term that conservative americans use to refer to laws that they do not like, for example laws that restrict guns, cars and sharp objects.
Thanks for explaining that term. I was wondering what it meant.
They can restrict guns all they like, in my view. Aussies don't really have the same passion for keeping guns that many Americans do. We bear arms when we have to - mostly to fight someone else's wars.
Whilst we have some of the most venomous and dangerous animals on the planet, carrying a side arm in the bush is not likely to protect us from any natural perils. We have no bears, tigers, lions, hippopotami, wild elephants etc. Just the world's most poisonous spiders, snakes and that sort of thing. A snake will only attack if surprised or trodden on and will usually slither away from a confrontation if it can. We do have lots of water hazards such as sharks and crocs in northern areas but you cannot swim well with a sidearm and in any case, crocs and snakes are protected species so you cannot kill them anyway.
As kids at school, we learn how to avoid angering snakes and how to handle other natural perils. none of which involves needing a gun.
Australia has a huge mix of nationalities now making up our demographic, many of whom are refugees from war-torn countries. Some of those people bring some bad habits into Australia such as knife carrying and in recent years when some of the young guys get full of beer and bad manners, knives have been produced with tragic consequences but that is a very un-Australian phenomenon.
One of the real shames of modern Aussie life is seeing our cops all wear weapons. That was not the case 20 years ago. Most danger to the cops' safety remains attending domestic disputes when emotions, grog, and maybe other substances take the rationality away from the situation that they are trying to defuse.
Because 90% of Australia's population lives on the coast and we love watersports, we do have a healthy respect for sharks ad they feature regularly in our news coverage, such as this article from today's newspapers ...