It seems that there is a growing sentiment amongst the public, the person in the street, the average punter – whatever – which has been brought about by the cynicism and laziness of governments and the mainstream media over the last few years.
This phenomenon is particularly evident in their comments on government gun control measures when isolated incidents or small waves of criminal activity are jumped upon as opportunities by empty vessels like the National Coalition for Gun Control, whose membership would be lucky to number much more than three men and a dog.
The mainstream media jumps aboard, always interested in a sensationalist beatup and law-abiding firearms owners are again on the back foot.
More recently, however, shooters have been fortunate to have some politicians, like The Shooters and Fishers Party (NSW) and the Katter Australian Party (QLD) to force some balance in reporting and a slowdown or reversal in ineffective legislation or just downright bastardry in governments’ approaches to licensed shooters.
Evidence has emerged that the Nationwide Gun Buybacks were a futile waste of taxpayer money in an effort to wind back violent crime and what is now evident is that there are increasing numbers of licensed shooters with more registered firearms. The majority of the urban-based Australian population out there do not see a problem with this – they just want to be safe from criminals using unregistered guns that come from sources other than individual licensed owners.
The more astute of the general population are now seeing cynical manipulation of statistics and biased reporting against shooters for what it is – they smell a rat – and they are backing us in correspondence to any media that will print their concerns.
One such is the web-based Brisbane Times, whose lead letters today concern common sense approaches to recent spikes in drive-by shootings and the like. I’d like to see it become much more widespread.
Marcus O’Dean
Editor
0 Comments