Licensed shooters are a quiet bunch

Many go out of their way not to tell anyone that they shoot.  They go to a range and shoot targets (quite safely) or go out in the scrub and shoot feral pests (again, quite safely).  Are they quiet because they’re worried about their firearms, stored in a steel safe bolted to the building, being stolen?  Maybe.  Or are they more worried about it for another reason?  Mostly, they’re worried that they’ll run into one of the small percentage of the Australian population who treats law-abiding firearms owners like bad people despite the fact that virtually all of those shooters have a perfectly normal, crime-free, life in the community.

Recent events, like farmer David Dunstan’s successful defence of his family against a violent criminal WITH a firearm but WITHOUT firing a shot help us understand exactly why shooters are so quiet:

Father-of-three David Dunstan, 52, was left reeling after police turned up at his property near the NSW-Victorian border to investigate the home invasion — and confiscated the farmer’s legal firearms while they were there […] after the cattle and crop farmer confronted a teen armed with a knife and a block of wood who knocked on his back door about 3am last Thursday.  “He had a seven foot log of red gum in his hand a knife concealed in the other,” Mr Dunstan said.  “I went into protection mode … I yelled out to Andrea (his wife) to get the key to the gun cupboard.”  Frightened for the safety of his three children aged 9 to 14, who were asleep inside the Bungowannah home, Mr Dunstan shut the door and returned a moment later with an unloaded firearm.

All the details of this story make for compelling reading.  The offender had already terrorised another house that night. The family there had defended themselves with a sporting bat.  But the bat didn’t fix the problem, because the offender turned up again at the Dunstan residence.  The Dunstan residence was a long way from any local police.  Mr Dunstan solved the whole problem without anyone getting hurt – including the offender.

Mr Dunstan’s case highlights everything that’s wrong…

Extensive media and television interviews have helped elevate Mr Dunstan to the ultimate symbol of everything that is stacked against licensed shooters.  Even if you do everything right, you’re assumed to be wrong.  Fortunately this case is attracting enormous public attention because most people can’t see what Dunstan did wrong.

As Senator David Leyonhjelm cogently explains:

This whole ordeal raises two very important important questions about self-defence in this country.

Firstly, it highlights the ongoing suspicion between authorities and law-abiding firearm owners. Rather than thank the farmer for having the maturity to deal with a difficult situation in a measured, restrained manner, the police saw this as an opportunity to harass someone who owns guns.

Secondly, it also raises the important subject of self-defence. In this case, the firearm alleviated the situation. It’s hard to think what would have happened if Mr Dunstan did not have a firearm by his side. Yet somehow the idea that someone might want to choose to defend themselves and their family is sufficient reason to take away the means of doing it again.

In other States, this is no different

In Queensland, a mad combination of Weapons Licensing Police and the State Labor government have been running around regional communities and taking firearms off licensed owners who’ve held them for decades.  The Queensland election is expected to be very soon.  If you’re a Queenslander, put help put an end to this mad culture of persecuting law-abiding shooters.

Number all the boxes.  Put Labor Last.  L-A-S-T.