FOU

  • Home
  • Current Campaigns
    • Suppressor September 2023
      • Suppressor letter templates
    • Inquiry into Victoria’s Recreational Native Bird Hunting Arrangements – Submission
    • National Firearm Register consultation submission
    • Bowhunting South Australia – Our Statement
  • Membership
  • How to get your firearm license
  • Merch Shop
  • Database
  • About Us
    • Policy and Stance
    • Meet the team
    • Donate
    • Current Campaigns
    • Articles & Blogs
  • The Australian Firearms Industry
    • Our Partners, Sponsors and Corporate Members
    • Current competitions
Home  /  News • Queensland • Self Defence • Tasers  /  Want to defend yourself in Australia? You’re as bad as a paedophile

Want to defend yourself in Australia? You’re as bad as a paedophile

fouadmin December 06, 2017 News, Queensland, Self Defence, Tasers 10 Comments

Daily reminder how backward Australia is when it comes to self-defence:

A DOONAN man trying to protect his mother found himself in Gympie Magistrates Court this week, charged with one of the most serious classifications of smuggling offence known to Australian law.

Peter Andrew Gates, 50, pleaded guilty to intentionally importing a taser without approval, in breach of the Customs Act.

The electric shock weapon is part of the wide-ranging Tier 2 group of goods which under the Act also includes firearms, capsicum sprays, nerve gas, radioactive substances, human body tissue, child pornography and counterfeit credit cards.

But the court was told Gates had good intentions relating to the safety of his mother, who had recently been the victim of a break and enter in which a man she did not know had entered her bedroom and stood over her bed.

Gates had been concerned for his mother’s safety, as he was frequently out of the country in the course of his work in the gas drilling industry.

His legal representative told the court he had advised Gates of the danger of such devices being turned on the person trying to act in self-defence.

Magistrate Ross Woodford said it would have been better if the offence could have been dealt with alongside other matters in July. He said he would have imposed a fine with no conviction recorded, so as not to interfere with Gates’ need to travel overseas for work. But the court was told federal law did not allow this. Instead, Mr Woodford placed Gates on a $500 good behaviour bond for a year.

Another “win” for the #nationofvictims.

If you’re unfamiliar with The Customs Act:

233BAB Special offence relating to tier 2 goods:

The regulations may provide that:

(a) specified firearms, munitions and military warfare items of any kind including combat vests and body armour; and

(b) specified knives, daggers and other like goods; and

(c) specified chemical compounds; and

 (d) specified anti-personnel sprays and gases; and

 (e) specified fissionable or radioactive substances; and

 (f) specified human body tissue; and

 (g) specified human body fluids; and

 (h) items of child pornography or of child abuse material; and

 (i) counterfeit credit, debit and charge cards; and

 (j) other specified goods; constitute tier 2 goods.

So in other words, wanting to protect your family from being a victim of violent crime after a previous experience is akin to importing child pornography, wanting to possess purely defensive items like body armour or wanting to build a nuke.

Straya!

The legal representative’s advice: “His legal representative told the court he had advised Gates of the danger of such devices being turned on the person trying to act in self-defence.”

Now, he likely said that to get his client a lesser sentence for sure, but the client should not have been through this in the first place for purely taking reasonable precautions to protect his mother in his absence. Absurd state of affairs.

This also highlights an argument often trotted out by the authoritarian crowd as an emotive excuse against self-defence: i.e. “You shouldn’t have anything for self-defence because it may be used against you.”

So in other words, my alternative is to do nothing and be a victim against a violent criminal. Further, in this situation you would advocate this woman getting hands on with an offender much stronger or powerful than her? And if the person is already armed? What do I do then?

Those were this woman’s only two choices – pick one and bask in your moral superiority.

If tasers, pepper spray and firearms are “no good” for self-defence, then why do Police carry them? There are also examples of cops being disarmed and having their tools used against them – the argument goes both ways.

Sure, possessing a self-defence item is no guarantee by itself you will prevail and training and situational awareness is just as, if not more important. However, thinking no defence is a good defence is a recipe for disaster – instituting this mantra as a norm is a societal disaster.

See: Melbourne.

The CDC found in 2015:

“Studies that directly assessed the effect of actualBottom of Form defensive uses of guns (i.e., incidents in which a gun was “used” by the crime victim in the sense of attacking or threatening an offender) have found consistently lower injury rates among gun-using crime victims compared with victims who used other self-protective strategies (Kleck, 1988; Kleck and DeLone, 1993; Southwick, 2000; Tark and Kleck, 2004). Effectiveness of defensive tactics, however, is likely to vary across types of victims, types of offenders, and circumstances of the crime, so further research is needed both to explore these contingencies and to confirm or discount earlier findings.”

Australia has it completely arse backwards when it comes to self-defence. You have the legal right to self-defence but that right is virtually useless when you don’t have access to the legal means and you are expected to improvise against someone who has come prepared for an attack. The current situation is stacked way in favour of the bad guys.

The import and genuine reason laws need to be amended or scrapped altogether to allow good, law abiding citizens to protect themselves from the criminal element with non-lethal means and those who qualify should be permitted to conceal carry a firearm for the same purpose.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to import a nuke.

Tweet

Share this:

  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Click to print (Opens in new window) Print
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

Previous Article
Next Article

About Author

fouadmin

Related Posts

  • Queensland Police Email Fail

    13 January, 2021
  • WA Premier closes all Gunshops

    27 March, 2020
  • COVID-19 & Shooting Sports Information

    24 March, 2020

10 Comments

  1. the phantom Reply
    6 December, 2017 at 10:47 am

    another fool who’ll plead “guilty” instead of taking it all the way to the HCA where the gun laws might be challenged successfully…..of course: he’ll get zero help from that bunch of blonks, the SSAA

    • harry buttle Reply
      7 December, 2017 at 12:45 am

      Feel free to put your own financial future on the line – a HCA challenge against a Govt that not only has limitless pockets to fund the defence, but is literally using your own taxes against you, is hard to beat.

      • the phantom Reply
        9 December, 2017 at 2:13 am

        uh…that’s kinda, sorta why i nominated the SSAA……
        such a challenge would hafta be deadly serious….that means: BIG money, BIG organisation, BIG legal representation (a team of the very best/top-shelf QCs in the country)…..
        and…here’s the “sub-text”….any-one who attempted such a HCA challenge without
        such a level of serious commitment would be either a total cretin or an out-and-out shill for the gov(dot)au…..
        you following me?

        • harry buttle Reply
          10 December, 2017 at 3:09 am

          No Phantom, you called the guy who won’t put his house on the line a fool and yet you won’t step up.

  2. the phantom Reply
    6 December, 2017 at 10:53 am

    (of course: he tried to get it though Customs and got caught…so….uh-oh!…yeh!….he wouldn’t get too far with an appeal…the ideal situation is to have a gun [of indeterminate origins] and, then, if ‘buckled’, use that as a pre-text for a High Court appeal case….once you get caught trying to smuggle some-thing through Customs…they’ll just chuck the book @ you……you have, then, committed a federal OFFENCE as opposed to “a state offence” in contravention of state fire-arm laws……what we need is to get the laws changed here and now.. on the ‘ground’ so people can go out and buy guns etc legally and easily with a minimum of interference)

    • harry buttle Reply
      7 December, 2017 at 12:46 am

      Nothing stopping you giving it a go phantom.

      • the phantom Reply
        9 December, 2017 at 1:59 am

        or you…..

        but…..you’re quite clearly not “getting” what i’m saying…yr certainly not “getting” the sub-text….

        this will require a very well-funded effort ….. with a legal war-chest of, let’s say, $AU coupla million min. …..
        why?
        because: you are going to have to hire the very best QCs in the country to ‘take it on’…and… they don’t come cheap…

        so….you’d need some sort of formal org. to raise that sort of money….
        the SSAA is in a good position to do that….
        even if it ‘levied’, say, $AU100 from its 150k member-ship…..that would be….what?
        $AU15mlln … unless my ‘math’ is out….

        get it?

        • harry buttle Reply
          10 December, 2017 at 3:10 am

          Then stop complaining about individuals who won’t take on a HCA challenge – put up or shut up.

  3. harry buttle Reply
    7 December, 2017 at 12:57 am

    I must admit Taser = Nerve Agent in the eyes of the law, is the one that caught my eye for the most asinine section of that legislation.

    However, on the “danger of such devices being turned on the person trying to act in self-defence” issue, I always go back to Jill Meagher – I don’t imagine that her final thoughts, having been raped, as she was being strangled to death prior to being dumped in a shallow grave, were “well thank christ I didn’t have a taser or handgun, as this could have gone really badly for me”.

  4. gutshotbob Reply
    7 December, 2017 at 4:46 am

    Are criminals taught that their weapons could be turned on them? Someone needs to warn them!

Leave a ReplyCancel reply

  • Popular
  • Recent
  • Wankers: Victoria Police tell citizens not to fight back against African gangs 29 December, 2018 123
  • Australia has also had school shootings and they were after 1996 24 February, 2018 46
  • NZ Police shut down gun confiscation website in less than 24 hours due to trolling 22 March, 2019 43
  • Dean Webber case exemplifies everything that’s wrong with defending yourself in Australia 15 October, 2018 38
  • Why we push for self-advocacy 3 December, 2023 0
  • The Grinch that stole reloading for Christmas – A Mark McGowan tale. 21 December, 2021 0
  • Species highlight: The Red fox 11 November, 2021 1
  • Pest control methods spotlight: Biocontrol 7 November, 2021 0

Recent Comments

  • Val on The Sound Case for Firearms Suppressors
  • Anonymous on Species highlight: The Red fox
  • Anonymous on Gel Ball Blasters now illegal to possess in Queensland without ‘reasonable excuse’
  • Anonymous on Gel Ball Blasters now illegal to possess in Queensland without ‘reasonable excuse’
  • Philip Kevin Walter on FGC-9s: 3D Printed 9mm Carbines Found in Aus

Social Media

Firearm Owners United

Firearm Owners United was founded in response to the many hysterical voices crying out for further gun control in this country. We already go through so many hoops to get our firearms as it is. We do not need more hoops. We don’t need a mother/father figure deciding what’s the best for us. We are Law Abiding Firearm Owners, and we are sick of being treated like second-class citizens.

Social Media

Explore FOU

  • About Us
  • Blog
  • Current Campaigns
    • Bowhunting South Australia – Our Statement
    • Inquiry into Victoria’s Recreational Native Bird Hunting Arrangements – Submission
    • National Firearm Register consultation submission
    • Western Australia Firearms Act Reform – our submission to the consultation
  • Database
  • Donate
  • FOU Elite Atheletes
  • How to get your firearm license : state -by- state
  • Media Affiliates
  • Merch Shop
  • Our Partners, Sponsors and Corporate Members
  • Policy and Stance
  • Publications
  • Suppressor letter templates
  • Suppressor September 2023
  • Suppressors 2022
  • The Australian Firearms Industry
Follow @FOU_official

Follow Us

%d