Trenorden breaks ranks on handguns
West Australian, Page: 16. Thursday, 16 April, 2009
Veteran Nationals MP Max Trenorden has backed remote pastoralists’ right to keep their handguns, claiming it is often their only protection from dangerous animals.
The State Government plans to end an exemption that says that destroying stock or vermin is a suitable occupational reason for owning a handgun.
Mr Trenorden said the law required exceptions.
“There is a problem with handguns and there’s no question at all that the ownership of them should be tightly held but there is an argument for handguns in the station country, and very much the larger properties not my part of the world,” he said.
“I think there’s a bit of lack of realism every now and then. It just worries me in general, sheep stations, cattle stations, just a handful of people living a long way away from a lot of people, I think they’ve got a right to have a little bit of security” Nationals MP Wendy Duncan said the issue required further investigation from the State Government because she did not believe it was always practical for a farmer to carry a rifle, rather than a shotgun.
“I think it’s actually a reasonable use. Pastoralists are often on a motorbike or a horse which makes the use of long-barrelled firearm quite awkward and sometimes dangerous,” she said.
Nationals president Cohn Holt, who will take up a seat in the Upper House next month, said he could sympathise with the need for some pastorahists to use handguns but warned public safety must take priority “I can feel for them but I think the law and order issue is the bigger issue today,” he said. “Sure it’s a dangerous job that they’re in and they need that protection but I’m just wondering if there are ways around it for them.” Nationals leader Brendon Grylls said he would discuss the matter with Police Minister Rob Johnson to ensure that safety issues and the needs of farmers were considered.
Outback pastoralists have urged the State Government to reconsider the changes that will strip them of their handguns after the Pastoralists and Graziers Association warned some station owners had already been asked to hand in their pistols.
Farmers are also bracing for more licences to be revoked in the wake of the review of the 1973 Firearms Act which recommended that destroying stock or vermin was no longer a suitable reason for owning a handgun.
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