Imagine you’ve had your gun licence for years without any issues – and then you go to renew it, and receive a “Show Cause” notice.

You haven’t done anything wrong and are an upstanding, productive member of society. Why are the police threatening to take your licence away?

Because someone else who lives at your address is not considered a “Fit & Proper Person” to have a gun licence, and therefore the police don’t think you should be able to keep your guns there anymore.

Which other person? They won’t tell you. What is this other person alleged to have done? They won’t tell you, citing “Privacy Reasons”.

• Is your flatmate a drug dealer?
• Does your spouse have a criminal conviction you don’t know about?
• Is one of your family at the same address in trouble with the police?

The police won’t say.

What they will say is that unless you explain in detail how someone – and they won’t say who –can’t access your guns at all (even though they’re already in a gun safe which only you have the keys for, as per the legislation), you’re not getting your licence renewed.

It sounds like a Kafka-esque nightmare but it is a reality for an increasing number of our members – and the scenario we outlined has actually happened to more than one person.

Historically the authorities have only used this power in serious cases, such as someone living with a convicted armed robber etc – however, now we are seeing it suddenly occur for the most minor issues, which we do not believe are even faintly relevant or fair.

This is clearly yet another example of police forces finding new ways to make life difficult for law-abiding firearms owners and we need to push back on it now.

If this happens to you, we need you to do three things.

1. Tell us right away so we can help you – please e-mail legal@shootersunion.com.au
2. Write to your local MP about this infringement on the civil liberties of your household
3. Contact the Police Minister in your state and ask him to tell the police to stop clutching at straws and harassing law-abiding firearms users. We’ve even created a tool to help you do it! Check it out here: https://shootersunion.com.au/ministerial-email-generator/

We’ll have more on this issue soon – but in the meantime, be aware it is happening and be
prepared to start getting active in fighting against it!

One Nation has announced their intentions to push for a NSW style (R-Licence) for QLD. The proposed arrangements would allow shooters in Queensland the ability to hunt game and feral animals on public lands. This news is welcomed by the Shooters Union and by all firearms and hunting enthusiasts alike.

The policy has been developed and promoted by Jim Savage, a One Nation candidate standing in the Lockyer electorate. The changes would greatly assist those with limited options or who need to travel long distances in order to enjoy their hobby.

This option has been available in NSW for many years. The implementation of such a licencing arrangement would mean that accreditation could be sought through the DPI and would facilitate access to public land. It has had great success in NSW by giving shooters the opportunity to assist in feral animal eradication, which in turn maintains the natural ecosystem of these environments.

Shooters Union applauds the initiative shown in the promotion of this policy and urge those of like mind to support the proposed changes.

See full policy announcement below.

R LICENCE –  PUBLIC LAND HUNTING              4/11/17

ONE NATION WILL ALLOW LAW ABIDING HUNTERS TO HUNT FERAL PESTS ON PUBLIC LAND

We will legislate to allow public land hunting with a licencing system to ensure safe public access and use of state forests.

One Nation supports a Queensland version of the successful NSW “R” licence, which regulates hunting in state forests. We recognise as a matter of principal that Queensland public land is a shared resource, for all Queenslanders. NSW, Victoria, Northern Territory and Tasmania allow the hunting of feral pests in state forests, as in most other countries. This saves the taxpayer an enormous amount of money which otherwise the government would have to spend controlling feral pests, as is their legal obligation as a “landowner”.

A cost benefit analysis conducted by the NSW government in 2017 showed a net benefit to NSW of $119 million a year and 860 jobs supported from public land hunting. In Victoria the figure is $439 million and 2,380 jobs supported. A significant proportion of this money comes from Queensland hunters who at present cannot hunt in Queensland. The NSW government makes money and at the same time saves taxpayers money by having someone else do their work for them. Win win!

One Nation believes that the NSW R Licence system is the best system to ensure safe hunting, with no safety incidents reported in over 16 years of operation. Hunters are required to undertake training in ethics, education and animal welfare, and hunter numbers are limited to one per 400 hectares (1000 acres) with hunting at night and from vehicles banned.

One Nation does not believe Qld. should miss out by not having legalised public land hunting.

Hunters from Qld regularly travel interstate to hunt deer and other pest animals in state forests, while taxpayers in Qld pay the government to shoot feral pests in our state forests. This is just plain silly.

One Nation supports introducing R Licences in Qld and finally join the rest of the country. It is time we managed our resources properly and controlled feral pests which results in better outcomes for native Australian animals. Money raised from R Licences can be funnelled back into environmental projects. Currently an R Licence in NSW costs $75.

One Nation suggests that hunters could voluntarily provide those in genuine need and financial hardship with free meat (ie. venison) if possible and practical to do so. Food banks could be established, as has been done in the United States and Canada, with hunters sharing game meat as a community service. Of course this would be purely voluntary and self administered. This would reduce the complete waste of meat which currently occurs as a result of aerial culling operations on Qld public land by state government agencies. Currently hundreds of animals such as deer being wastefully left to rot. Rather than hunters in Brisbane heading south to hunt in NSW and Victoria (and paying for the privilege) wouldn’t it be better if they headed north and spent their money in Qld? Hunters who currently do not have access to hunting on private property would have access to hunting land (state forests) and provide cash to regional areas.

R Licences will provide an economic and environmental benefit to regional Qld and give recreational hunters an opportunity to hunt in their own state.

While Shooters Union of Australia president, Graham Park, agrees with NSW Liberal Democratic Senator David Leyonhjelm’s skeptical view on the lack of effectiveness of the first national gun amnesty to be undertaken since the one instigated by John Howard in the wake of the Port Arthur massacre, he supports the concept behind amnesties overall.

Justice Minister Michael Keenan announced last week that a national firearms amnesty would commence on July 1, aiming to reduce the number of illegal and unregistered firearms in Australia.

It’s reported that 260,000 illegal weapons are circulating in the country, and more than 200 guns are seized each month in Queensland.

On Twitter, Senator Leyonhjelm said the amnesty period would give Australians an opportunity to hand in unregistered and unwanted firearms and improve community safety.

But he also said, tongue in cheek, “No doubt terrorists and criminals will do exactly that”.

He told Fairfax Agricultural Media the amnesty would have no impact on law-abiding firearm owners.

“Our only concern is that it creates the impression there is some kind of problem with guns generally and there should be fewer of them – the evidence does not support that, either in Australia or elsewhere,” he said.

Mr Park agreed, saying criminals were paying thousands of dollars to access smuggled or illegally manufactured firearms.

“David Leyonhjelm is right on the money – most Australians agree Ben the bank robber won’t hand in his gun,” he said. “Justice Minister Keenan is grossly overstating the effect of the amnesty.”

He was critical of the timing of the federal government’s announcement, in the wake of terror-related events, saying the general timing of an amnesty had been set last year.

“In fact, I was sitting in meetings, representing the NFF, with the federal Attorney-General three-and-a-half years ago, talking about how to do this.”

He also said it needed to be understood that the states were undertaking the three-month amnesty and would be footing the bill, not the federal government.

Mr Park said all groups represented on the Police Minister’s Weapons Forum had been campaigning for a permanent amnesty and he was disappointed that wasn’t taking place.

The last time a Queensland amnesty was held, in 2013, more than 19,000 weapons of all description were handed in and it served the purpose of allowing people to get rid of old or unwanted guns without fear of prosecution.

That model is being used across the nation for the federal amnesty beginning next month.

For three months, until September 30, anyone with unwanted and unregistered firearms or firearm-related items can legally dispose of or register them at approved drop-off points in each state and territory.

Mr Park said the best way to take advantage of the amnesty was to take the weapon in question to a licenced firearm dealer.

“If you take it to a gun shop they can easily make it legal again,” he said.

“The last time this happened, 80 per cent of the response was from people re-registering firearms.

“It wasn’t about getting guns off streets.”

He echoed comments by Senator Leyonhjelm that the action was as much about giving a family a chance to get rid of an old heirloom as it was about getting rid of guns off the streets.

There is no cost involved with handing in firearms or related items for destruction and no personal details are required.

Outside of the amnesty period, anyone caught with an unregistered firearm could face a fine of up to $280,000, up to 14 years in jail, and a criminal record.

Information about the amnesty can be found here or by calling 1800 909 826

There are nearly 200,000 registered gun owners in Queensland sharing 800,000 weapons, figures obtained by Fairfax Media reveal.

But one UQ academic said it is not the number of guns registered that is concerning, but the number of guns police do not know about.

Professor Ross Grantham from UQ law school, who is a registered gun owner himself, said the number of registered weapons was not surprising.

“If you think of golfers for example,” he said.

“When they go out on the course they will take however many clubs in a bag they need to perform different things.

“It’s the same for shooters, you might have a .22 rifle for one thing then a pistol for Olympic style pistol matches and you might have a different weapon for practical shooting matches.

“It’s not unreasonable to think that a person might have four per licence.”

Outside sporting shooters, there are also people who keep weapons for other reasons.

“There’s a lot of heirloom firearms out there, and people tend not to sell firearms,” he said.

“Selling them isn’t entirely straightforward because of the way the deals have to be brokered through police.”

Professor Grantham said firearm licence holders have to be among the most law-abiding citizens in the country, so concerns held about the number of weapons held by registered licence holders were unfounded.

“A licensed firearm owner is one of the safest people in the community,” he said.

“They are subject to rigorous background checks and any infringement can result in their license being revoked.

“A couple of high-range speeding offences or a drink-driving offence and their license will be gone.”

And despite having some of the strictest gun laws in the world, it remains a mystery exactly how many unlicensed firearms are in the community.

“So much of the regulatory impost is on this very safe group (of licensed owners),” Professor Grantham said.

“But there’s so many in the criminal world that nobody knows anything about.

“Police don’t know how many (guns) there are or who has them or how they are getting into the country.”

Even the buy back in 1996 failed to ensure the country was clear of unlicensed weapons.

“There are rumours that circulate that after the 1996 buy back only a fraction of the guns out there were ever identified,” Professor Grantham said.

“There are a lot of guns in the wrong hands but there are also a lot of unregistered firearms out there in backyards and cupboards that nobody knows about.”

Of the 184,000 licencees in Queensland police only found 143 of them to be non-compliant with the requirements to hold a licence in the 2014/15 financial year.

Just 22 charges were laid in the same period.

First they came for the military type semi-autos but that didn’t affect me because I didn’t need them…

Then they came for all semi-auto centrefire and rimfire rifles and even shotguns in 1996, but that didn’t affect me either as I was happy to hunt with my old Winchester 30-30, so I remained silent…

Then they came for the handguns in 2002 and banned magazines over 10 rounds, barrels shorter than 127mm and restricted calibres over .38, but that didn’t bother me either as I wasn’t into pistol shooting…

Then they came for rifles that cosmetically looked like anything that was a semi-auto, even if it was a manually operated straight-pull, so they took all rifles with pistol grips, adjustable stocks and anything else that was black in appearance, but I still felt safe because I knew they couldn’t possibly take my old Winchester 30-30, so I said nothing…

Then they came for bolt-action, pump-action and lever-action rifles that had magazines over 10 or 15 rounds, but I knew I was still alright with my guns…

Then they came for rifles with calibres over 308 because they were regarded as powerful sniper rifles and no-one needed them, but still that didn’t affect me either, so I remained silent…

Then they came for lever-action shotguns and took them away under the catch phrase of “rapid fire weapons” but thankfully I still got to keep my 30-30…

Then they came for all lever and pump-action rifles because they fell into the emotional definition of “rapid fire weapons” so I finally had to say goodbye to my beloved rifle that represented the only last memories I had of my dad when he was alive as we used to go on hunting trips with this rifle. I asked other shooters for help but everyone was running scared, hanging on to their bolt-action rifles, so nothing was said…

Then they came for the remaining pistols, starting with disarming the farmers and occupational shooters, then removing them from sports shooters. I didn’t worry too much because I still had my bolt-action 22 that no-one could ever take from me…

Then they came for the double-barrel and single-barrel shotguns because they were too powerful in the hands of civilians but that didn’t affect me and my bolt-action 22, so I remained silent…

Then they came for the last of them, the bolt-action rimfire and centrefire rifles, saying we have to do this to ensure public safety, there is no other way and justifying their actions because of a criminal who held up a service station using an unregistered, cut down bolt-action rifle.

I tried to speak out but it was too late, we had all been taken apart little by little and our numbers were no more for our voice to be heard. Instead of standing together, when the pistols were being confiscated, the rifle and shotgun shooters all ran into hiding laughing with each other, just happy that it wasn’t them that were being targeted. But then came their turn and the pistol shooters weren’t going to help the shotgun and rifle shooters, so we all eventually lost all firearms little by little, piece by piece as the years went on…

I wish I could share with you my boy, the days that your granddad and I used to go hunting and bring home a freshly butchered deer. The whole family would sit round the dinner table enjoying beautiful cuts of venison back straps with fresh vegetables from the garden. I wish I could share with you the experience of going out with your first 22 and taking a rabbit for the evening meal, but I can’t as we were all disarmed many years ago now…

Don’t make this the story that you’re telling your children in the future, don’t be the last Australian shooter. You can do something to stop this from happening, speak up, get involved and for the sake of your children’s future and all law-abiding gun owners, make your vote count this coming election!!!

Source: Ozzie Reviews

After recent comments in state Parliament painting primary produces as rednecks – “the lone cowboy with the pistol strapped to the hip” – Police Minister Bill Byrne has gone very quiet.

As reported in a story broken by Queensland Country Life here, Mr Byrne told Parliament the “idea of the lone cowboy, with the pistol strapped to the hip as an effective weapon in an agricultural application, simply doesn’t cut it with me”.

It was a remark that has sparked outrage amongst the state’s grazing and farming fraternities, as documented in our article on the subject last week.

Mr Byrne further claimed he had had “genuine conversations with leaders of the agricultural community” on the issue, but this has been refuted by AgForce and raised a storm of questions from the general public.

Despite repeated requests by Queensland Country Life to speak with Mr Byrne to clarify his comments, he has declined to speak with us.

Chief amongst questions raised is that Mr Byrne has misled Parliament by giving the impression he had the ear of AgForce on such a sensitive issue.

Commentators on the Queensland Country Life Facebook page ask if this is an act of contempt.

AgForce president Grant Maudsley has denied having any prior meaningful conversation with the Minister, telling Queensland Country Life here that “Mr Byrne should come out and consult with the ‘cowboys’ he talks about,” stating that the “humane death of an animal is just as valid a purpose as recreational use, if not more so.”

The anomaly of pistol ownership being sanctioned for sport and forbidden for practical use was one of the inconsistencies that left Mr Maudsley speechless.

Mount Isa MP Rob Katter, whose questioning in Parliament resulted in Mr Byrne’s inflammatory comments, has said they’ve resulted in a perception that primary producers claims won’t be given a fair hearing at any future forum discussion.

Mr Byrne said at the time that “the Queensland Police Service and I have serious reservations about the voracity of the claim and the argument presented,”, which Mr Katter said undermined any sense of impartiality for the new weapons forum, before it had even started.

“The minister clearly does not appreciate the reasons for pistol use or have any concern for landowners on isolated rural properties,” Mr Katter said. “To simply deny licenses because of personal beliefs is shocking, and highly irresponsible.”

Mr Byrne told Parliament that further representations on the subject would be taken when the new weapons forum was convened, and these would be tested “in a credible fashion”, but how these would be tested hasn’t been able to be established.

On the subject of the new weapons consultation forum announced by Mr Byrne, he has only stated that it will be in place by the end of June, not how its representatives will be chosen nor what its terms of reference will be.

Forget a “Fair Go” –  in a seeming total lack of good economic sense the current Queensland Government seems hell bent on attacking and damaging anything agricultural and regional in our state. Despite the fact that regional Queensland generates considerable income and is the primary caretaker of our natural environment.

First our state government introduces a new vegetation management act which will effectively make all Queensland landowners guilty until proven innocent in areas of tree management.  Key agricultural group Agforce estimates the new legislation could potentially cost our state hundreds of millions of dollars over time.

Closer to home for Shooters Union Queensland is the fact that over the past 18 months we have seen a marked rise in rural member complaints relating to firearms licencing issues.

There is a clear pattern of discrimination against primary producers. Our primary producers make up the largest occupational user group of firearms and have been discriminated against in a number of ways including:

• It has become routine for applicants for any sort (even just for Cat A&B) of primary producer licence to be denied based on them having other income streams.
• Applications and renewals of Cat H (handgun) licenses for primary producers are being denied almost every time. The reasoning behind the refusal is referring to outdated and ambiguous codes of conduct regarding the destruction of feral animals despite Cat H firearms’ consistent practical application in agriculture over a long period with very few issues.
• Applications and renewals for Cat C & Cat D (semi-automatic rimfire and shotgun and centrefire semi-automatic) being denied/rejected based on almost any reason available.
• Primary producers being encouraged over the phone to “voluntarily” surrender licenses and firearms to avoid a “black mark” against them. Some of these calls would seem to be in direct contravention of police rules against offering either inducements or threats and could possibly result in complaints against officers/employees to the ethical standards department of Queensland Police Service.

The current legislation allows for the occupational use of firearms by primary producers. The increase in feral animal populations and damage being done to our environment by feral pests makes it impossible for primary producers to protect their livelihood without the sensible use of a firearm.

It is estimated feral animals cause over $720 million per year in damages Australia wide and yet the very people working to minimize this damage are being harassed and discouraged by the very governments which should be encouraging and supporting them.

Shooters Union supports our friends in agriculture who use firearms every day. We encourage our members to show their support whenever possible as well.

We would like to sincerely thank Rob Katter and the entire Katter Australia Party for their support of agriculture and firearm owners.

CLICK HERE to listen to what our current Police Minister (and former Primary Production Minister) Bill Byrne really thinks about farmers and firearms.

The Australian Labor Party have an Anti-Gun / Anti-Farmer Agenda…
Have a listen to this…

In response to a question from Robbie Katter (Katter’s Australian Party) in Queensland Parliament yesterday, Police Minister Bill Byrne made it very clear that he mistrusts Queensland Primary Producers and Landholders in relation to handgun ownership.

Click HERE to listen.

Send Labor Police Minister Bill Byrne an email to let him know what you think of his comments.
You can contact him at these addresses:

Email: police@ministerial.qld.gov.au
Postal: PO Box 729
ROCKHAMPTON QLD 4700
Telephone: (07) 4994 2100

And also copy in Premier Palaszczuk at these addresses:

Email: thepremier@premiers.qld.gov.au
Postal: PO Box 75
INALA QLD 4077
Telephone: (07) 3737 2100

Let them know what you think of Minister Byrne’s views!

REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF ROBERT NOIA – www.nioa.net.au/

Finally some common sense is being talked on one of the most popular radio programs in Australia. Listen to this 9 minute interview on Radio 2GB with NSW Federal Senator David Leyonhjelm about our gun laws, and why they are not as effective as claimed.
David is the strongest, most rational voice that firearm owners have ever had in the Federal Senate, in fact take a listen to this interview and seriously look at (if you live in NSW) voting for LDP senator Leyonhjelm in the upcoming federal election. This is a guy who richly deserves any and all support all gun owners can give him.
Take a listen and decide for yourself, so refreshing to hear some reality after the delusions and distortions of most of the mainstream media. Thank you Alan Jones for this interview.
Link to interview:
https://www.2gb.com/audioplayer/172961

This is a great story! A growing number of women who love adventure and the outdoors are embracing a traditionally male-dominated pastime — hunting. Their passion for the skills they learn and the challenges they work through is evident, as is the amount of criticism they attract.

The picture above shows nurse Emma Sears on a hunting expedition in New Zealand

To read the full story, follow this link to the ABC: