One thing I have said for a number of years now is that the disconnect between city and country has grown so wide that you could almost describe it as chalk and cheese. Those in our rural and farming areas know that not much has changed apart from the advancement of technology to make their jobs less laborious. Meanwhile, in the cities, it seems to be a case of me, me, me.
Many people have been drawn to the cities over time due to work, school, etc and therefore only know the city and suburbs. In the cities it seems to be a case of ‘how can I advance myself and get a better outcome for me/ my family?’ as compared to the country, where the general idea is ‘a mate needs a hand, I’m off to help, they’d do the same for me.’
Not that long ago, a great many people that lived in the city still had connections to rural land. “Pack your bags kids, we’re going to the farm this weekend.” Today, it’s the reverse, or at best, “Let’s go glamping!” What the bloody hell is that? You want a five star hotel in the bush?
The gap has grown so wide that city people have no idea where their food actually comes from or what kind of troubles a farmer faces when it comes to stock or crops.
For some of us that live in the city or suburbs, we love getting out and going bush. It’s cathartic to us and we love it. Not all of us that enjoy this are shooters, but the shooters sure do help. We take out feral species that threaten our native fauna and we’re proud to do our bit for the country’s ecology and remove anything from rabbits up to camels. We save farmers and the Government hundreds of thousands of dollars per annum and usually at our own expense.
That’s what I call ‘giving back’!
Meanwhile, back in the cities, where the ‘sanitised’ youth have been raised – they have no idea. The ongoing insanity over the Adler 110 being a prime example. Recently in The Daily Telegraph, they did their ‘Street Talk’ section where they asked random (yeah, right) people their thoughts on the Adler:
Do you notice the average age of these ‘random’ people? Looks to me like 19-24, would that sound right? How much rural contact have they had do you think? How much do you think they know about the plight of landholders? City-centric people have no idea about the issues surrounding farmers. It is no concern for them. Coles & Woolworths stock everything they need!
Let’s have a look at Louise’s comment. “unnecessary trouble” you say? Can you be more specific? Are you aware that the 5 shot version is legal and can also be legally modified? Who will cause this “trouble?” Law Abiding Firearms Owners? I don’t think so. A fact 100% backed up by the Senate Inquiry last year, of which Paul Murray was the only Australian journalist to bother to go and check these facts.
Max says “we haven’t had a massacre in 16 years!” I hope Max isn’t at university, he can’t even count!
Alexis: “This specific gun”? Oh, you mean the Adler? Is it because it’s black? The IAC, Pardus, Uzkon and Chiappas don’t count though, do they?
Dennis was almost close. He said “Why don’t you just leave it as it is?” All shooters would be happy with that, but then, like the ‘sanitised’ people I mentioned earlier, has no bloody idea and states “I just don’t think we need guns.”
All of these people are uneducated in firearms and this is unfortunately often what sways public opinion. People who know nothing, but feel compelled to have a very loud opinion. When was the last time they ‘went bush’?
We have all heard recently that ‘only farmers need these guns’ or ‘farmers & professional shooters have a legitimate reason.’ Sorry, that doesn’t fly with me. As I mentioned earlier, it’s the recreational hunter, who at their expense, assists landholders without reward. Sure, the SSAA run culls occasionally, but that alone won’t do much. The Government reducing the amount of funding to combat pests does less and less each year.
I say to you: who is the most beneficial group of people when it comes to assisting our farmers and country? Who gives the most in return? It is the recreational hunter, who does it for free. To continue to do our job (at no cost) we need the Adler and others of its’ ilk in our arsenal. In fact, we could even go further and demand that Category C firearms be returned to us. The first to whinge in the next rabbit plague will be the Government. “The farmers didn’t do enough!” they’ll cry as the environmentally deleterious 1080 poison is rolled out across affected areas. This in turn will take out many non-target species and our precious fauna will be again at risk.
The above is one possible scenario. Should any firearms owner let the Government get their way because of mass media hysteria?
You know the answer.
Written by a bloke who lives in the suburbs, but loves going bush.
This is so right in many ways. Gun owners do a lot of hunting and pest control and all we need is to have access to the proper tools. Iv said all the time if you are trusted with a single shot 22lr than there is no reson why you can’t have a semi auto rifle or shot gun as thay are the most effective tool to do the job. If the government is worried about them getting in the wrong hands than thay should stop letting dangerous people walk the streets
I have to agree ! It Pisses me off when I see uneducated anti,s having a go at our sport!!! It’s like everyone thinks they have to have a say whether they know what they are talking about or not!!! The ignorance is astounding!!
I 100% agree people who live in the cities have NFI I shot my first rifle over 55 years ago and never had any problems with land owners or boys in blue
So if you don’t know what you are talking about then shut the fuck up
Why blame the city folk?
The whole affair is just an Liberal stunt to look better in the polls to the city folk.
City folk just aren’t educated on firearms and gun legislation. They just know that guns = bad. The Liberals are using that fear to try and up their popularity. It’s just another political game to them. The Nationals should be doing what they say they do – stand up for the country’s rights. There’s no point in having deals with the Liberals if they’re just going to bend over to the Libs every time. Bloody useless the lot of them.
Now if only we could get this message run by every mainstream media group across the country
The law was modified to protect people from being murdered or massacred. Your whole article about killing animals is beside the point, as it has nothing to do with why the laws were changed. If the 5 shot version is legal just use that and quit your bitching, or else city folk will find out and that will be banned too.
Do you even own a firearm?
The problem Chad, is that the law hasn’t made any difference to the firearms homicide rate (it has declined by 50% since the 1996 laws were introduced, which sounds great, until you learn that, in the 16 years prior to 1996. the firearms homicide rate declined by 50% – ie the trend didn’t change a bit), if you are going to remove a freedom from law abiding Australians, you need to demonstrate a real benefit.
However, on the bright side, the 1996 gun laws did directly transfer 700 – 1600 pistols from law abiding Australians to criminals – http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/the-big-sting/2007/02/09/1170524303995.html so one would imagine those laws have probably, directly resulted in quite a few deaths by now.
“Curr, a thin, moustached man with short salt-and-pepper hair, is standing in the dock of the Sydney District Court. It is November 7, 2006, and a jury has found him guilty of the illegal supply of more than 700 hand guns in NSW, mostly semi-automatic pistols. Those weapons, most of which have never been recovered, are those police know of through records seized from Curr. Recorded as “rendered inoperable”, they never were.
NSW Firearms Squad police believe Curr masterminded the sale and distribution of more than 1600 hand guns in NSW that are still in circulation. He falsified his books, claiming to have sold at least 300 pistols to fictitious gun dealers in Victoria and South Australia.”
Yeah you are spot on
Ha u r doing the same by assuming that these people have no country experience find out first boy . and its called freedom of speech.and to say that in the Country we help out a mate ha ha yes I’m laughing at u help never heard of it in the country if u country people want to keep interbreeding and pushing non locals out how r people from the city going to know what its like in the out back so its because of country hicks why educated city people have not moved and I don’t blame them and what about the Leeton guy that shot his gun in to the ground because he couldn’t use his words in an augment he shouldn’t have a gun lol and then about people in country areas that famers are say recreational shooters are just coming on there land and shooting and framers are the ones getting upset so farmers and professional shooters should be the only ones to hold a gun if u agree or not I don’t care and as for bates they work fine I use them .and the mess u recreational shooters leave that’s other story . and what’s that about city people saying me me me all I fucken hear is mememememememe in the country all about them self think that one through boy . hope they take all guns away from people like u have a good day .
Try not to be such a cuckold in the future.
Well said!
I suspect you will find very good people in both the city and in the country! While your argument has some merit it is overly simplistic. I agree there is a gap, but virtue doesn’t reside with any one side. I wish all shooters were as responsible as you suggest… would save me a lot of time and money!!
Your argument is rubbish mostly, as are most of the comments above. Unlike pretty much any of the commentators above I actually grew up on a farm and as a kid I was obsessed with guns. Had airguns and used a .22 under a farm licence and junior licence and then did trap shooting as well as lots of hunting with my mates. So, I know what I’m talking about … so, there has never been a need for a rapid fire shotgun, certainly not in hunting. No farmer has ever welcomed idiots from the city to come and blaze away on their property. What we found was quite the opposite – that because myself and my mates were farm kids we had properties opened up to us that were closed to city people like yourselves because, bluntly, city shooters usually act like idiots. Like 4WDers, a lot of city shooters like to think of themselves as true-blue, dinky-di, salt of the earth Aussies. But you’re not. What you are trying to do is wrap American-inspired gun culture in a veneer of respectability by claiming to be on the side of country people – but that’s simply not the case.
It’s an opinion piece. You know, differences of opinion?
The only argument that’s rubbish is yours. The fact that you have to pre-qualify it with “I grew up around guns” means you’re argument is weak, and it is. I and many others grew up on a farm and have owned firearms my whole life too – so the fuck what?
No farmer has ever invited people to their property to shoot? What garbage, they do all the time. It matters not where they are from it’s how well they can handle their firearms. Baseless assertion.
The “need” is argument is just an inane authoritarian argument that has no real basis other than “because I said so”. It doesn’t work anymore. What someone else “needs” is none of your business. If you want a double barrel, go nuts as it’s none of my business. I’d prefer a Benellli M4 when I come across mobs of pigs 30+ so I don’t have to come back the next night and get the job done quickly and efficiently. I’d also like to participate in 3-gun matches and I’d like to be able to defend my home so I don’t end up like the next David Dunstan.
What is rapid fire? What action? What mag capacity? What gauge? Yawn, you’re just repeating what you’ve been programmed to repeat and guess what, no one cares.
“American style firearm culture” seriously, define that term? Another bullshit buzzword that gets thrown around by the simple minded types in place of an actual argument. What is “american style firearm culture”? You do realise that there are federal laws, state laws, county laws AND the constitution is interpreted differently within those states and counties? If you’re referring to thug culture with African Americans shooting themselves at astronomical levels then that is called thug culture and we have that in Australia too. If by “American gun culture” you mean the 2nd amendment and freedom well then I value a country that was founded on distrust of government and respects the right of self-defence, why don’t you? You prefer being a victim?
You claim they’re generalising about the country and then you counter with a generalisation about the city? Seriously?
It’s your kind of mindless authoritarianism in the shooting community, which has been deliberately programmed into many shooters the last 20 years, that is being broken every day by groups like FOU and SUA and to that I say, viva progress! It’s exactly what we’ve needed when the rest lost their balls and sold us out.
If you’re going to be a Fudd, then go for it, but you’re on the wrong page. You’re being replaced by a younger generation of LAFO’s that will stand their ground and fight for their freedoms, rather than being some Stockholm Syndrome “Muh Port Arthur” Fudd who thinks the best way to grow firearm culture is to constantly appease others and sell everyone else out to protect himself. Take that shit to your grave at you’re own peril.
Get on board and support your fellow LAFO’s or get out of the way and stay at the SSAA retirement club. The choice is yours.