National Coaltion for Gun Control calls for ban on The Junior Shooter magazine

ABC Wide Bay (Bundaberg), Mornings, 11/06/2008 9:14am

David Dowsett: Well, Roland Brown is Chair of the National Coalition for Gun Control, so what does he make of the magazine? Roland, good morning.

Roland Brown: Good morning, David, how are you?

David Dowsett: Good thanks, Roland, what are your thoughts on this magazine for junior shooters, is it a bit of a concern for you?

Roland Brown: It’s a concern for me for a couple of reasons. I want to talk about some of the hunting magazines or shooting magazines generally. I was looking at one recently that had a special edition on babes and pigs and it had a series of images of young women, a lot of them in bikinis, some of them teenagers, with dead animals draped across them. Some of the poses were sexualised and it’s absolutely appalling. Any decent-thinking person would look at that and wonder why the shooting magazines are trying to market their magazines in this way? You’re talking specifically about children and that’s something that I’ve been worried about for a long period of time. What we’ve seen in Australia over the last 10 years is the gun lobby and the Sporting Shooters’ Association in particular try to pitch its membership to younger people because shooting has been declining in Australia over the last decade, since the Port Arthur Massacre. The shooting groups are now trying to promote the use of firearms by children, to keep the sport alive and also to maintain the sales of firearms and ammunition and it is no different to what the tobacco industry has been doing in western countries and in America and Australia in particular.

David Dowsett: So you see it really as a sign that the shooting association is getting desperate, maybe looking to attract younger members, as their own numbers are dwindling?

Roland Brown: Absolutely, that’s absolutely what they’re doing, they’re trying to push it on to young people and we’re seeing this move around Australia, to encourage children as young as 11 and 12 and even younger, if they can, to get them out shooting.

David Dowsett: Of course, it’s very disturbing, those images you mentioned before, but normally, I mean youngsters involved with it, they would just be shooting at a target, not necessarily hunting wild life, there’d be no killing taking place, would there?

Roland Brown: That’s not right at all. Moves are afoot. We’re seeing the talk of a bill being introduced into the New South Wales Parliament, there’s a move in Tasmania, to encourage shooters to take their kids out shooting in the fields and to have them shooting at animals. Now we’ve had psychologists in Tasmania especially, talk about how damaging it is for young kids, some who aren’t even teenagers, to experience something like that and I think your previous caller, Ben, has put it quite properly, that they’re not trying to appease any group, except their association. All they’re trying to do is list the profile of their association, sell more magazines and encourage those with a vested interest in firearm sales, to make more money out of this industry, at the cost of young people and of course, there’s a significant other public health cost, which is the misuse of firearms as well.

David Dowsett: So it’s really an alarming step in the wrong direction and will you see if you can get the magazine banned?

Roland Brown: It’s an alarming step in the wrong direction and in fact, we’re in the middle of a campaign to bring back the minimum age for use of a firearm in Australia to 18, as was set down by the National Firearms Agreement in 1996, after the Port Arthur Massacre. That’s what we’d like to see in Australia, you can’t shoot a gun in the army until you’re 18, it should be the same in civilian life.

David Dowsett: Are you pushing for more gun control as well, apart from that?

Roland Brown: Absolutely, we want to see a tightening of the loopholes that have been developed through the National Firearms Agreement, and we also want to see a ban on all semi-automatic handguns. We’re happy with single-shot handguns being used in competitive sport, but we want high-powered semi-automatic handguns to be banned in Australia, because if they’re not, we’re going to see a massacre of the same type as we saw in Port Arthur, because those guns have no other use than for killing people at short range and as I said, we want to see them banned.

David Dowsett: And what about this junior magazine, you’re obviously disturbed by that, with the pictures and so forth you’ve seen. Are you going to push for a ban on that?

Roland Brown: I’d like to see a ban on that magazine as well. I don’t think there should be any pressure on young kids or anybody under the age of 18 to take up shooting, in any of its guises, especially shooting of animals and killing of animals, so yes, I’d like to see that banned and I’d also like to see some of the trash taken out of the hunting magazines, where they’re showing graphic images of animals and kids and women in semi-sexualised poses as well. I’d like that all to go.

David Dowsett: Roland Brown, thanks very much.

Roland Brown: Ok, thank you, David.

David Dowsett: Thanks, Roland Brown, Chair of the National Coalition of Gun Control. Well, some strong words there from Roland, what about you, how do you feel about this? Your chance to have your say, on the airwaves of Wide Bay, on ABC Wide Bay, 1300 221 001 is our talkback number, the lines are open now, 1300 221 001. Do you have a problem with a shooting magazine aimed at youngsters? If so, give me a call and tell me about it, or is shooting nothing more than a healthy, exciting and safe discipline for children? How do you see it? 1300 221 001 is our talkback number. Or is teaching a child to shoot, really teaching a child to kill? 1300 221 001, have your say, on ABC Wide Bay.