Media monitoring

Victorian SSAA reject crime link

Gippsland Times & Maffra Spectator, Page: 5 Friday, 13 January 2012

The Victorian Sporting Shooters Association has hit back at a report on firearm ownership in the Herald Sun, claiming the article was unbalanced.
VSSA chief executive officer Don Piccoli said the article was "distorted and fragmented." The inferences made about the character of law abiding firearm owners and the community of Swifts Creek in particular is most disturbing," Mr Piccoli said.
"The Herald Sun has selectively used statistics to misrepresent the real situation at Swifts Creek.
"To take a small hamlet in a country area, where there are at least two registered firearms collectors with very secure storage as an example of ownership concentration is farcical.
"Furthermore Swifts Creek is situated in a remote farming area where wild dogs, foxes, deer and other feral pests abound. To these folk, a firearm is just another tool of the trade." Mr Piccoli said the VSSA completely rejected the suggestions of Gun Control Australia’s Samantha Lee that there was any established connection between legal firearms ownership and community crime levels.
We support the view expressed by Superintendent Russell Barrett that licensed shooters are not the problem."

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