February 2012 President message
Media discredits anti-gun ‘facts’
The ‘dodgy logic’ of anti-gun crusader Samantha Lee has been picked apart in one of Australia’s major newspapers, backing some of the many arguments repeatedly made by SSAA National in support of legal firearm ownership in the media.
The Herald Sun editorial, which was published in mid-January, was written by associate editor Andrew Rule. Titled ‘Anti-gun lobby shot down by dodgy logic’, Mr Rule was prompted to speak out following Ms Lee’s comments in the media in the days prior. She drew links between licensed firearm owners in rural Victoria owning more than one firearm and firearm crime in Melbourne.
“Owning one firearm is meant to be a privilege,” she said at one point, but Mr Rule quickly labelled this logic as “absurd” and pointed out the following:
“A golfer has a bag full of different clubs for different strokes. A gardener calls on everything from a spade to secateurs. Shooters are much the same. They use different firearms for different purposes.”
He goes further and highlights that landholders in rural areas have obligations to control pest animals such as rabbits, pigs and wild dogs and hunting is a common method used.
In the same media coverage about firearm numbers, Ms Lee states that all illegal firearms were, at some point, legal firearms held by licensed owners. This is in direct conflict with information SSAA National has received from a researcher with Australia’s national research and knowledge centre on crime, the Australian Institute of Criminology. Samantha Bricknell, senior research analyst and author of several ‘Firearm Theft in Australia’ reports, has said previously that there are several sources of illegal guns including illegal imports, illicit manufacturing and reactivation.
It is this obvious disregard for logic that Mr Rule is bringing to the attention of his readers, as he attempts to turn the attention away from law-abiding firearm owners and onto the criminals using illegal firearms. And while the wording in the article does suggest Mr Rule himself may sit on the fence when it comes to gun control efforts, it is pleasing that the untruths and biased comments from the anti-gun lobby are being laid bare in such a public forum.
Bob Green
SSAA National President
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