NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley’s written response to the largest petition ever presented to the state government is one of the most condescending pieces of gaslighting propaganda I’ve ever read. It is nothing short of bullshit.
She has not addressed the issues raised in the petition, has failed to explain how the legislation might be effective, and certainly hasn’t acknowledged that her government’s laws have caused incredible hardship and angst among tens of thousands of law-abiding people who had nothing to do with the terrorist attack in Bondi in December.
Her response begins: “The NSW Government acted swiftly to introduce strict firearms laws to reduce the number of firearms circulating within the community and remove high-capacity firearms from the community as soon as possible. This sent a clear message to would-be offenders and the community that public safety is a priority, and we are acting to reduce the risk of another mass shooting occurring.”
No, it doesn’t! That “clear message” is a lie. Even most of the non-shooting community can see it for what it is.
Let’s break it down, just those two sentences.
“The NSW Government acted swiftly”: yes, it did, in a knee-jerk fashion that never, ever produces good results. It was a stupid thing to do, and this supposed “emergency” legislation still cannot be properly implemented so what the point of rushing? Oh, and the NSW Court of Appeal threw out the raft of anti-protest laws that accompanied the gun laws because they were unconstitutional! Come on, Yasmin, surely you can’t be boasting about rushing into such a disastrous decision?
What about “strict firearms laws to reduce the number of firearms circulating within the community”? A four-gun limit for many of us, and a 10-gun limit for others? Strict, yes, but why? We all know why the four-gun limit went in — because Premier Minns turned it into a pissing contest against the WA Premier’s five-gun limit. What a crock, Yasmin.
And then there’s, “remove high-capacity firearms from the community as soon as possible”. No, Yasmin, you haven’t done that. You’ve moved slightly quicker firing firearms into more restrictive categories but they’re not high-capacity; this just demonstrates again your lack of understanding of what you’re dealing with. As for “as soon as possible”, I’ve still got my button-release shotgun and look like having it for months yet. Why didn’t you send your goons around to take it if it’s so dangerous?
What about this “clear message to would-be offenders”? I’m sorry, Yasmin, but maybe I’m too stupid to hear that message, so you might have to explain it to me. I genuinely cannot find a message aimed at terrorists, but perhaps that’s because I’m no would-be offender. I did, on the other hand, hear you loudly and clearly telling the general public that they can’t trust me not to kill them, a message that infuriates me and makes we want to kill your political future. You have made me a scapegoat for the failures of your own government, the police and the security services, the cabal directly responsible for that terrorist having a gun licence and legally held firearms that we all know he should not have.
“Public safety”? I am so sick of that cliched phrase being bandied about by you, other politicians and the police because when you say it, it’s hollow and meaningless. It is your way of shutting down proper conversation about a topic. It’s the public service version of invoking God’s will.
Finally, as for “acting to reduce the risk of another mass shooting”, no you bloody aren’t. You have not taken guns from anyone who might commit the next mass shooting, you’ve just made thousands of law-abiding people the target of your government’s need to be seen to be doing something, just like those Labor fools in WA. In WA, they had to invent a gun problem to justify themselves, while you’ve latched onto a dreadful, tragic act of terror to do it. The optics of a terrorism incident could have played out well for you, Yasmin, but you rushed it and did it so badly that you completely stuffed that up, didn’t you?
Catley’s statement goes on and I could rip every line to shreds, but what’s the point?
It will take a miracle of political contortion for the upcoming regulations to undo the damage the NSW Labor government has done, and I can’t see it going that way. After what happened in WA, after what has happened federally under Albanese’s Labor leadership, and after what the other state Labor governments looked like doing before the electoral backlash became so strong, I cannot vote Labor.
I will individually preference every single pro-gun party or politician I can find before I think about putting a number next to any Labor representative. Catley and her crowd can keep digging their hole deeper or try to fill it in, but it’s it’s too late for them either way. Such appalling, punitive political bastardly cannot be forgiven.
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