James Doogue

I decided to join my shooting club's shotgun competition today. It was my first attempt and my score reflected that. But I had a great time and was able to not give much thought to all the ills in the world for almost 4 hours.

I was talking to one of the regulars, a 19 year old female who's been shooting since she was 12 years old. One of the reasons she gave for spending her Saturday shooting is that she is treated better by the club's members than anywhere else in her life. She said everyone is so nice, and she never feels like she is being judged or condescended.

What she says is true. A nicer bunch of people you'd never meet. And it's a family pastime with a lot of parents and children participating.

In fact the reality of licenced gun owners that I meet is the polar opposite to the impression the state governments are giving in their push to make owning guns more difficult.

State Premiers, Ministers of Police and Police Commissioners commenced a concerted propaganda program recently to soften the community up for harsher gun laws. They know it makes them seem tough on crime, and they also know they will get little pushback from voters as less than 3.5% of the Australian population are licenced gun owners. In Western Australia there are just 89,000 licenced gun owners so the Government thinks they will have no discernable voter pushback.

None of the government propaganda I've seen establishes a link between legally licenced gun owners and gun crimes. So any crackdown on legal gun owners will have no impact on gun crimes.

In the press releases in Western Australia our politicians and Police Commissioner have been deliberately misinforming the public to soften them up for whatever new restrictions they plan. Let's have a look at some of their outrageous comments.

Premier Mark McGowan says the laws need to be overhauled to protect the safety of the community.

"We’ll consult broadly across the community,” he told reporters on Tuesday.

"We want to make sure that very responsible and safe gun ownership is not affected but we enhance community safety across the State, prevent guns from getting into the wrong hands and make sure that they are stored in a safe, secure way.”

McGowan presented zero evidence that legally owned firearms are "getting into the wrong hands". He also implies that guns are not currently stored in a safe and secure way. I guess he figures the majority of the public won't know that all gun owners are required to store weapons and ammunition in gun safes which have at least four bolts attaching it to the wall or floor on two sides. Gun owners are required to provide police with pictures of their gun safe installation before a firearms licence will be issued, and police may inspect the safe and firearms at any time.

Police Commissioner Chris Dawson said it was currently easier to get a firearm licence than it was for boat owners to get a skipper’s ticket.

"Many people, I know, have been able to lawfully license a weapon and never had a day or an hour’s training. That I think needs to change,” he said.

I don't know what type of people the commissioner hangs out with, but the licenced firearms owners I know had to pass a multi choice test with 100% accuracy relating to gun laws and safety before they could apply for a firearms licence. Firearms owners in the country usually receive training from parents. In the city it is more typical to be a member of a sports shooting club where all new members are trained and supervised

In the same article we are told, 'Among the guns registered in WA are about a dozen military-grade sniper rifles, with Mr Dawson saying police had been unable to have the licences revoked.'

"I don’t consider that that type of weapon should be available for civilian and community use,” he said.

This is just pure scare mongering. I know an owner of a military grade sniper rifle. It's from World War One, and is simply a 'collectors' item but must still be licenced. My 0.223 calibre centre-fire rifle can shoot further and straighter than that rifle ever could.

But regardless, the fact that these licenced rifles exist and have never been used in a crime in WA should demonstrate that the licencing of these rifles is not a problem.

Meanwhile if Commissioner Dawson wants to ban items which are regularly used in the commission of crime, and have been involved in killing and harming people, then he should be campaigning to take cars, motor bikes, knives, baseball bats, and military grade balaclavas out of the public's possession.

Meanwhile, WA Police Minister Paul Papalia said "the focus will be on enhancing community safety."

"The laws associated with guns should elevate community safety to the first and primary consideration," he said.

Does the same apply to cars, motorbikes, trucks, aircraft? I know people who are driving on the road today who haven't had a driving test for 50 or 60 years. We have a high rate of vehicle accidents and injuries, why isn't he making it harder to own vehicles?

Many vehicles are stolen and used in the commission of crimes. Perhaps he should be proposing vehicles have the same safety storage requirements that firearms have?

Minister Paul Papalia went on, "You've got to think, that with (almost) 350,000 firearms in the community, some of them, many of them probably are lying around just waiting to be stolen by criminals."

This is just a really stupid comment. He can't honestly believe this, and he doesn't provide any data on the incidence of gun theft. It's blatantly untrue. Firearms are required to be stored in specially installed gun safes. If many guns were just lying around waiting to be stolen, then there would also be a high incidence of gun accidents by untrained people getting their hands in these guns left lying around.

McGowan and his minister and commissioner have all claimed that it's the first time gun laws have been rewritten since the 1970's. Again, this is a demonstrably false statement. Australian gun laws have been ammended and rewritten continuosly since the 1970's. When I got my first firearms licence it was a matter of going to your local police station and paying a fee. It wasn't a requirement to licence individual firearms.

Today, it is a very long drawn out process to get a firearms licence, and each firearm must be licenced. But who can forget the 1996 Port Arthur shooting massacre following which automatic rifles were made illegal in Australia, and magazine capacities were reduced?

The Police minister also expressed concern that licenced gun owners have more guns. He stated that WA residents currently own more than 349,000 guns, an increase of 60 per cent since 2009. But the number of gun licenses has remained the same at just over 89,000, meaning licence-holders are owning more guns.

So what? He's making it seem menacing that people who legally own guns, have increased the number of guns they own by an average of 1.5 guns in the last 13 years. He knows that to a none gun owner, that might seem an unnecessary increase. I've heard some none gun owners say why does anyone need a gun let alone more than one gun?

People with that mindset assume people want guns for protection, or they want guns to control feral animals in their country property.

Nobody I know has bought a firearm in Australia for personal protection. It's just not a thing because firearm ownership is very low, and so too is violent crime. Though the latter is sadly rising.

If feral animals are being controlled, most animal loving farmers want them killed in the most humane way. Traps and poisoning are cruel and inhumane. The fastest, most efficient way to kill a feral animal is by shooting. A kill shot means instantaneous death. Which is why many farmers call on gun clubs to provide sharp shooters through the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia 'Farm Assist' program, to help with feral animal problems.

The feral animal to be controlled, will determine the type of firearm needed. Small animals such as rabbits, foxes and cats, can usually be handled with small calibre rifles. Larger animals such as goats, kangaroos, and dogs would usually require medium calibre rifles. Larger feral animals such as pigs, buffalo, camels and horses would require larger calibre rifles.

The distance at which you shoot the animal will also determine the type of firearm. High calibre for long range accuracy, maybe shotguns for short range.

A farmer may also require a hand gun to be used to humanely euthanize suffering animals at close distance. We've seen the need to do this during droughts.

The police minister would know that farmers might easily have the need for 4 or 5 different firearms on their property, but that wouldn't occur to the average none gun owner.

Sporting shooters also use multiple firearms. They may compete in air rifles, hand guns, shotguns, short range, long range, bench rest, practical hunting, or metallic silhouette, and often in different catagories. All requiring different types of firearms.

Shooting is also like any other sport. Golfers, tennis players, cricketers, and hockey players will often collect additional clubs, racquets, bats and sticks during their sporting career. Sometimes they are spares, sometimes they use different ones depending on conditions, and sometimes they just have favourites.

As with farmers, there's nothing unusual or sinister about sporting shooters and hunters owning multiple firearms. The Police Minister would know that, but he doesn't let the truth spoil a good story.

Another quote claimed there were 260,000 illegal firearms in Australia. How do they know that? If they know that why don't the police go and get them? It has nothing to do with legal, licenced firearms owners, so don't claim the licencing rules need to be changed because of it. No change in licencing regulations will reduce illegal firearms.

There's also nothing sinister about wanting to do a sport which requires practice, agility, accuracy, sometimes strength and persistence.

There are plenty of human sports endeavours which involve hitting targets. Darts, archery, javelin, lawn bowls, indoor bowling, hammer throwing, golf, curling, the list goes on. Shooting is no different.

Yes the firearm can be used as a weapon to commit a crime. But so can motor vehicles, or unlicensed items such as knives or baseball bats. Yet the Premier, Police Minister and Police Commissioner are not beating their chest about making it more difficult to own those items.

They figure they can use the relatively small number of licenced firearm owners, to have an appearance of being tough on crime. This needs to be recognised for the political strategy it is, and the general voting public need to give this political stunt short shrift.

Help protect the rights of your very nice neighbours who own firearms.

Tim adds:

James you say

"She said everyone is so nice, and she never feels like she is being judged or condescended. ".

Well, that makes sense; I sure don't want to anger a possibly pms'ing lady with a firearm!

Seriously though, the possession of firearms actually makes people more civil to one another. There is a sense of boundary, that you don't cross a line. As my father used to argue, the very lethality of guns made for a more peaceful society because people realized there were terrible consequences if you escalated a disagreement.

Now, with guns largely banned in much of the world, people actually fight more, and kill more, than they did.

Look at the U.S.; gun crime IS rampant here, but where? In places with the strictest gun control laws. Chicago. New York, Washington, etc. The places where you have an absolute right to carry see fewer crimes, and there is a reason for that.

Also, a gun crime is less atavistic. Killing with, say, a sword gives an electric thrill (I'm guessing, never having killed with a sword) that is missing with the clinical killing of a gun. A gun is too surgical. If you are a thug you would probably prefer to kill with a knife or sword, but use a gun only because it's more convenient.

In the end it's a tool, and one that helped advance civilization. Is there a link between the development of firearms and the rise of the West? Absolutely. But the West is the place where ideas like civil rights developed. Coincidence? I think not.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 07:34 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 2119 words, total size 13 kb.