Victorian Fudd Federation’s Leonard Vallance sells out shooters over suppressors

Jeff Bourman’s bill to have suppressors legalised in Victoria has been defeated after Labor, Liberal, the Greens and Nationals all teamed up to shoot it down. It gained support from Australian Conservatives’ Rachel Carling-Jenkins and James Purcell:

Kudos to Jeff Bourman for the time and effort he put into the bill. It was always going to be a tough ask but the SFFP put a lot on the line and it did end up being the largest government e-petition in history in Victoria.

The usual uniparty ticket of Labor, Liberal, Greens and Nationals all again joined forces to snuff out anything firearm related. If you’re a gun owner and still voting for one of these parties, then quite frankly, hand your guns in now.

That aside, remember those names in November at the Victorian state election.

While this was not unexpected, it was comments made by Victorian Farmers Federation’s Leonard Vallance in the Australian Bolshevik Commission that drew the ire of shooters:

“Sheep, cattle and grain farmer, Leonard Vallance, is the head of the Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) livestock group and is also a licensed firearm user. He said that while most shooters do the right thing, illegal shooting on rural properties was a problem and he did not want that group having access to silencers.

“They shoot stuff that they shouldn’t shoot, they leave gates open, they leave rubbish around the property, and they’re generally a nuisance,” Mr Vallance said. “They are a safety hazard to the farmer, livestock and the wider community.”

Mr Vallance said if more people could legally use silencers there would be other safety risks as well. “My concern would be that if the firearms were stolen with silencers fitted to them they could then enter into the illegal crime market and that would be a problem for everyone,” he said.

“In the last 12 months, two of my neighbours have had their gun safes broken into on their properties and they were locked away properly, bolted down and secured, and they still had their firearms stolen out of their gun safes.”

Talk about victim blaming.

What absolute unqualified drivel. Judging people by the lowest common denominator and then punishing everyone accordingly is the default setting for numpties like Vallance. People who aren’t following the law and have access to whatever they want anyway is a moot point: punish those people for misuse and leave the rest of us alone.

Vallance then comes up with this doozy:

“Mr Vallance said knowing where the shooting was coming from was very important.

“I’m aware that it’s very difficult to get a reading on where the firearm was coming from when they’re shooting because it [a silencer] changes the noise,” said Mr Valance.

“If you’re a landowner and you have an illegal shooter on your property it would be very difficult to work out where they actually were located.” Mr Vallance said there was some division among farmers on the issue, but he thought the majority supported the current regulations on silencers.”

Absolute rubbish. How many people did you actually consult, Leonard?

Further, poaching and suppressors are two completely separate issues that he has conflated. Absolutely terrible argument – I award you no points.

The reality of noise levels of suppressors are spelled out here:

They are freely available over the counter in New Zealand and the sky hasn’t fallen in. They are mandatory for private land hunting in the UK.

The rest of the ABC article is the usual unqualified sook from Lesley Podesta and Sam Lee that isn’t worth the time of day.

This is the same Leonard Vallance that whinged about Wedge Tailed Eagles and lamb losses a month ago:

“We need to either issue farmers with permits to control them, or the community compensates farmers for their (lamb) losses,” Mr Vallance said. “Farmers are keen to preserve wildlife, but when they come into excess it really does change things.”

We’ve since had plenty of farmers contact us disgusted with Vallance’s comments and he in no way represents the shooting community nor the farming community. This isn’t a surprise really, the VFF is mainly a hive for recycled Nationals’ hacks and does what they’re told.

Would Vallance feel the same way if hunters and pest controllers suddenly turned around and told them they weren’t going to help out farmers with pest control anymore?

Furthermore, just because you’re a farmer doesn’t mean you are an expert about firearms. Sure, there are many farmers out there that know a lot about guns and more to power to them, however many farmers know just enough to get the job done as they simply don’t have time to concentrate on firearms matters.

Leonard Vallance might want to think about sticking a suppressor in his mouth because I surely don’t want to hear any more of the bullshit that comes out of it.