Adlergate: Burn outs, Sell outs and the death of the Nationals

As the fallout from the Adler disaster continues, one thing Law Abiding Firearm Owners and the public can (hopefully) learn from the entire debacle is the true colours of the major political parties were shown. Yet again.

As the saying goes “Fool me once shame on you, fool me again shame on me.”

Perhaps Queensland Police Minister Mark Ryan can explain why the opinion of Queensland Police changed within the space of a year:

After essentially selling out his fellow shooters who also frequent Murrumba Pistol Club, it amazes me how his membership there has not been terminated.

Further, the Queensland Labor minority government launched this garbage in response to a perceived threat by the LNP to block the changes to the Adler reclassification:

As you can see, it’s Queensland. It’s Labor. It’s the usual fail. It’s also a brave move for a minority government where 15% of the electorate own firearms. Bye bye Anna.

Yes, the Queensland LNP has announced that it is considering blocking the reclassification of the Adler shotgun. Why? Because the Queensland state election is in 2017.

In my opinion, this is nothing but posturing and self preservation from the LNP. The reality is they know they are about to get spanked by Katter’s Australian Party and One Nation in Queensland, in response to this and many other issues the major parties have been selling Queensland and the rest of the country out on, and this is purely survival mode for votes.

As far as firearm owners are concerned, the LNP are the abusive boyfriend/girlfriend that continually treats you like shit but you keep going back to, because they say the right things at the right time. They will knife firearm owners the first chance they get in Queensland, as they have everywhere else. Their long and short term history speaks for itself. They reneged on a national deal and undercut the NSW Police Minister Troy Grant with no shame in the last six months – what makes you think this is any different? It’s the same twenty year old story.

To top it off, I would bet my last dollar that Malcolm Turnbull will most likely pull the same card John Howard did in 1996 and threaten to withhold federal funding, should the reclassification fail to pass in Queensland.

So how do we really change things and make the LNP pay? Wipe out the Nationals, just like in 1998 and in Orange. The Nationals have drifted so far from their roots in the last 25 years that they are essentially a parody of themselves, if you haven’t already considered Tim Fischer a parody of a human.

A brief look at the situation in NSW shows you just how much trouble they are in right now. Figures provided thanks to the AEC and David Shoebridge’s toomanyguns.org page. Who thought he’d ever be useful for something?

The lowdown:

Lismore margin is 192 votes with 6,760 licensed firearms owners in that electorate.
(Thomas George MP Member for Lismore)

Upper Hunter margin is 1,732 votes with 18,529 licensed firearms owners in that electorate
(Michael Johnsen – Hunter Nationals)

Goulburn margin is 5,890 votes with 12,829 licensed firearms owners in that electorate
(Pru Goward)

Monaro margin is 2,243 votes with 9,454 licensed firearms owners in that electorate
(John Barilaro)

Bathurst margin is 14,537 votes with 14,538 licensed firearms owners in that electorate
(Paul Toole)

As you can see, the Nationals have just essentially committed suicide.

The same can potentially play out across the country. It’s time for rural firearm owners to ditch the Nationals for good as they clearly do not support firearm owners, or rural Australia writ large – they haven’t for 20 years. And without the Nationals, the Liberal Party are impotent. Of course, Labor are terrible but as we’ve seen in the last 12 months the left are done worldwide and they know it too.

As for One Nation – their policy says one thing but their silence on the issue says another, especially compared with their views in 1996. Would the real One Nation please stand up and tell us exactly what their position is on firearms? 1 million plus votes are at stake.

The way this battle will be fought, as far as firearm owners are concerned, is in the rural seats and the Senate, onward. A huge opportunity exists for KAP (especially in Queensland) and SFFP (NSW, Vic and WA particularly) in rural Australia and for the LDP with the disillusioned urban Liberal Party vote.

It just depends on playing your (voting) cards right.