HIGH-POWERED HOGWASH

It was inevitable and we've all been waiting for it to happen. 

On December 28th 2014 it was reported that an elderly man lay critically ill in hospital after having been shot with a "high-powered bow" in an attack at his home in Dandenong. Of course every syllable of "high-powered bow" was emphasised for dramatic effect.

To date archers and bowhunters have been largely spared the sensationalist attentions of Antis such as the Greens and their adoring fans, the media.

Mention the bow & arrow and the public thinks of The Hobbit, Brave, Avatar, the Hunger Games and of course Robin Hood and his band of merry men gallantly stealing from the rich to give to the poor; no easy job when you’re dressed in unflattering green tights.

Archery is looked upon as a sport requiring great skill and discipline and because bows seldom figure large in criminal activity, the public has always viewed them with a certain benign ambivalence.

The Greens, the RSPCA and the National Parks Association have each striven in turn to promote an alternative view of archery and indeed archers themselves.

Carefully contrived campaigns depicting native wildlife carrying arrow injuries are fed to an eager media, accompanied of course by demands to ban or at least heavily regulate the sale of archery equipment.

Happily the community has so far failed to succumb to the allure of rampant hoplophobia (a morbid fear of weapons) and this has resulted in a change of tactics employed by the likes of NSW Greens MLC David Shoebridge. 

That which you and I may call compound bows, David Shoebridge has taken to calling “high-powered hunting bows”, the better to terrorise the public and justify his demands for regulation.

And his comrades at the RSPCA and the National Parks Association have likewise picked-up the torch, albeit to a lesser extent to date.

As George Orwell demonstrated in his novel, 1984, when the objective is to control the public through fear, the manipulation of language is all important.

Thus in order to make the pedestrian seem terrifying the anti-archer introduces terminology never used by expert archers and bowhunters.

So what are the simple facts the public is seldom told about compound bows?  I’m glad you asked...

Compound bows are not hunting bows. They may certainly be used for hunting, but throughout the many millenniums bows have been used to hunt game, the vast majority was brought down long before Holless Wilbur Allen patented the first compound bow in 1969. 

The term “hunting bow” refers to a bow’s application by the individual and not its inherent design.

The majority of compound bows purchased in Australia today will be used solely on target ranges and they will be configured with sights, stabilisers, arrows & tips etc for this application.

A bow identical in design may be used for hunting and it will be configured with different sights, different stabilisers, different arrows & tips and perhaps a camouflage finish suited to this purpose.

The same can be said of the modern recurve bow as used in Olympic competition.

In fact if any bow deserves the title “hunting bow” it is the more traditional recurve bow and longbow of antiquity.

The longbow singled out England as a formidable power in Europe for many centuries and the recurve bow enabled the Mongols to conquer and rule over the largest contiguous land empire in history.

The allure of the modern compound bow lays in two main characteristics - the capacity to hold the bow at full draw for long periods with comparative ease and its unparalleled accuracy, the one being largely responsible for the other.

The cams fitted to the tips of the bow’s limbs distribute energy equally and store it within the bow with great efficiency. When the bow is tuned as it should be the result is a far more efficient release of energy resulting in a very flat trajectory.

Additionally, the design of the cams is such that when the bow is at full draw the archer is holding only a fraction of the bow’s stored energy.

Some compound bows boast as much as 80% “let-off”, which in simple terms means that a bow that might otherwise require, say, 50lbs of strength to draw fully and hold, will suddenly lighten-up as the cams engage, leaving the archer with a mere 10lbs or 15lbs of force to resist.

This means not only that archers are able to hold a compound bow longer and far more steadily while taking aim, they are also able to draw their bows more frequently, with less fatigue during competition.

Few people are aware that compound bows have perhaps demonstrated their greatest value in competition, where they have served to level the playing field between male and female competitors, or that the compound bow has opened the sport of archery to thousands of people with disabilities who lack the upper-body-strength to draw the more traditional bows.

Unfortunately the public knows little about archery, other than what can be absorbed watching reruns of Robin Hood or Rambo on late-night tele, where, thanks to the fantasy world concocted by Hollywood special effects, all things are possible, up to and including grenade tipped arrows and  13th century British outlaws with American accents.

The anti-archers’ use of the term “high-powered hunting bows” is nothing more than a linguistic ruse designed to manipulate and deceive the public and of course the man most quoted using the term is Greens’ spokesperson on all matters ‘weapons’ related, Mr David Shoebridge MLC, himself a barrister by profession and thus no stranger to the business of using emotive terminology to twist facts and manipulate an argument.

But if the compound mechanics briefly outlined above are too complex for the average Aussie to process, perhaps the following comparisons will put the power of the modern compound bow into some perspective.

A high-powered hunting rifle, such as the common .308 calibre deer rifle, can propel a projectile in excess of 3,000 feet per second (fps).

The average .177 calibre air-riffle of the type once so popular among children, can propel a projectile at around 1,200fps.

The average compound bow of the type impressively ignorant Greens politicians and their trained media circus will invariably refer to as "high-powered” (oooh, boogy!-boogy!) can shoot a projectile at a dizzying 370fps – that's three-hundred & seventy feet per second – a speed seldom achieved anywhere but in the laboratory.

Speeds of 320fps are far more common and in terms of cheap, over the counter stock-jobs you can bring that down to around 280fps.

Or in terms so simple as to defy even Greens ultra-thickiness, your so-called "high-powered" bows are in excess of 3 times less powerful than the average slug gun and more than 8 times less powerful than a deer rifle.

Put like that, it kinda takes all the puff out of the need for immediate action don't it? 

Which is precisely why they never put it like that!

Anyway, I'll get outaya way now....

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WHAT THE MARTIN PLACE SIEGE RESPONSE REALLY SAYS ABOUT SYDNEY

Well it's the night before Christmas and all through the CBD, not a creature is mourning, and that includes me!

I think it’s fair to say (or at least to hope) that Sydney’s pseudo Floriade has about drawn to a close. Oh sure, the media will continue to milk it for what it’s worth and no doubt Kochie & Sam and the gang will continue to reign as undisputed saviours of a city that would have been lost without their moral guidance and encouragement in our nation’s “loss of innocence”, but for the most part the Big Bang of solidarity has made way for a solemn fizz of righteousness as people return to 'normal' daily life.

As no one can have failed to notice, I was neither a participant nor a supporter of the "Great Outpouring", but I was a very interested observer.

Having given some considerable thought to the events in Martin Place after Monis took the lives of two out of 23.13 million Australians, it suddenly dawned on me what the flowers, the tearful farewells for total strangers and the “unprecedented outpouring of grief” in general actually signified.

Was it about the deaths of two “totally innocent people”? No!

Was it shock that something like this could possibly happen in Australia? It may have been about that a tad, but just a tad.

Was it about Australians coming together to demonstrate with one voice (or enormous compost heap) that “this nation shall not be overcome!” Not a bit of it.

Sydney does not represent Australia, nor are its denizens representative of the world renown "Aussie spirit".

As anyone who listened to the chatter in even the trendiest non-metropolitan, whole-grain, organic, freeman/woman-picked, small-holding, fair day's pay for a fair day's work coffee nook outside Sydvegas will tell you, the reaction of rural folk was much rolling of eyes, shaking of heads and asking "whatthe???"

And it was this response that gave me my first hint of what all the flowers and wailing actually signified.

It signified that we in Australia, and dare I say particularly those in our state capitals, enjoy an incredibly prosperous, safe, protected; even sanitised way of life.

So much so that we actually enjoy the very great privilege of having enough time on our hands and so few true crises day to day to occupy it, that we can indulge ourselves with over-the-top responses when two complete strangers die far from our gaze.

We know nothing of waking in the morning after a fitful night’s sleep, relieved that our home is still standing. 

We don’t send our kids to school in the morning knowing they will walk past corpses that lay rotting in the streets awaiting burial because folks are too busy carting water or firewood for miles through sniper fire to bury them.

We never have to fear being told a 10 year old son or daughter died after stepping on a mine left over from some half forgotten war, that lay in the rice field they'd been working in since 6am. 

We know little or nothing of watching a loved-one die for want of a few dollars worth of antibiotics. 

Hell, we even pack our elderly off to die in institutions rather than have to deal with all the mess, inconvenience, frustration and social isolation that goes with looking after a parent who has become as dependent as we once were when they brought us into the world and spent the ensuing years wiping our bums, our noses and cleaning up our projectile vomit.

If a couple has 2.4 children in Australia they expect 2.4 to survive to draw the old age pension, yet in much of the world the exchange rate is more like 7 for 2.

In fact in mush of the world there is no pension!

Even the animals we eat die out of sight to be wondrously transformed into specialist French and European cuts on Styrofoam trays, and the animals we keep as companions magically “go to sleep” when they’re too old and too ill to have "quality of life". Or when we tire of them we can give them to ‘shelters’ where of course all the animals find wonderful new homes with harbour views where they eat off silver plates.

What the Martin Place Floriade signified more than anything else is our enormous privilege!

It was a symbol of our profound softness and naivety...an emerging hothouse flower culture that enjoys the freedom of self-indulgence that’s the product of an increasingly controlled rarefied environment.

And perhaps the saddest part of this sorry tale of woe lies in the fact that having made their tributes to the dead they never knew but for Kochie and Sam and sundry other opportunists telling them they should mourn, these same people will have little time for the Salvos, the Smith Family, Oxfam or UNICEF when next they come a-callin'.

After all, they've already given generously to the cause of infotainment journalism, and of course to impoverished florists all across the Sydney CBD.

God bless them, every one!

Anyway, I'll get outaya way now....


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ENOUGH WITH THE FAUX GRIEF ALREADY

I hope someday there will be a detailed scientific analysis and report on Sydney’s water supply. I've always wanted to know what makes folk up there so shallow and self-indulgent and the problem's so widespread I’m convinced it’s in the water.

Two complete strangers die in tragic circumstances and all Sydney has to buy a chunk of the grief by rushing into town to donate $25 worth of flowers to the hot pavement.

That’s $25 they wouldn't have had for the Smith Family at Christmas, mind you, or the Red Cross, sundry homeless shelters and other not-for-profits struggling to minister to the living during the “festive season” and so on.

Oh no...that's about helping one's fellow man. The Martin Place phenomenon is all about me-me-me-me-me!

I mean, there are cameras everywhere aren't there. I might get on the tele! Koshie might interview me - swoon!!

These folk propelled by an abiding need to be a part of something, anything special, are the same folk who’d raise merry hell at the idea of being hit an extra $1 a week in taxes to provide affordable housing for those in need.

Where’s the opportunity for immortality and being portrayed as a member of the enlightened sensitive elite in that?

Now of course we have the predictable call to ban guns so this can never happen again.

That’s a brilliant idea! Why didn't someone think of that before? And why stop there?

Let’s ban cocaine, ecstasy and Meth too!

Just for the record, if initial reports are correct, the gun used in the Lindt Cafe seige is illegal to own in Australia.

And as we now know for certain, the gunman never owned the firearms licence that one must own before police will issue an authority to purchase any gun, even legal ones.

Of course the solution to these dreadful events is simple. We should ban city folk!

Honestly, we country folk don’t have social problems to anywhere near the degree they flourish in the city environment.

Whenever there’s a drive-by shooting, an horrific gang rape, a massacre, a massive drug hall, biker wars or terrorist seiges etc etc ad nauseam, it’s invariably city based, so let’s get rid of them!

Someone recently told me the "outpouring of grief" symbolised by the floral tributes in Martin Place was one of "Australia’s defining moments”. If such moments are defined by shallow displays of “me too” self-indulgence whipped-up and promoted by the gang at “Sunrise” and associated media manipulators, leave me out of it.

The only "defining moment" to have occurred in Martin Place in the past week was the one where a good looking young Aussie bloke named Tori Johnson rekindled, if only for one tragic moment, the true spirit of selflessness Australians were once admired for the world over.

Those laying flowers in Martin Place today are not paying homage to his spirit of bravery and self-sacrifice. They are swept up in a fashion statement contrived by the media to ensure emotive fodder for their reports and endless cross-overs.

Anyway, I'll get outaya way now....

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THE EROSION OF AN AUSSIE ICON

We Australians revel in our image as knock-about, easy-going, down-to-earth folks. Despite the continent’s harsh climate, its "droughts and flooding rains", its bushfires, its snakes, spiders, rogue man-eating sharks and a myriad other venomous bitin’ stingin’ things, we are nonetheless internationally renowned for our happy-go-lucky ability to wade through adversity largely unfazed.

“We are one, but we are many”, so the 1987 hit “We are Austra-lian” tells us. Bruce Woodley’s hymn for a nation entreats us to be tolerant of our differences and to embrace and indeed revel in our cultural and ethnic diversity and it must be said, we have been pretty successful in that endeavour.

Despite the fact that the vast majority of Australians, regardless of their origins, are city dwellers, the image of Australia is the image of the cattleman, the grazier and the bush. 

Ask anyone overseas what he or she thinks of when ‘Australia’ is mentioned and it’s images of the outback's far horizons, Ayers Rock and Hugh Jackman jumping off a horse that people conjure-up, not the Opera House, Kings Cross, Bondi or even (heaven forefend) its lapidary-jawed vet.

And when  we send a contingent of elite young sporting men and women to represent us overseas, do we dress them in drop-arse jeans barely held at pubic level by a silver-lame belt, accompanied by pointy court jester shoes and a horizontally striped metro-sexual v-neck t-shirt? No! 

When representatives of our superior physical prowess tread the world stage we want the medal bearers dressed proper, in a Drizabone, R.M Williams’ boots and an Akubra!

But despite the way we like to imagine ourselves and indeed want others to imagine us as a nation, an increasing number of metro-dwellers work doggedly to erode the way of life that is synonymous with the Aussie image. 

They do it with growing intolerance and a demonstrable contempt for cultural diversity they don’t even bother to hide. They are slowly, insidiously striving to erase the Aussie bushmans' way of life, to reduce it to nothing more than a romantic but extinct theme.

Everyday millions of ‘Australians’ busy themselves scuttling about in the completely artificial temperature controlled environments that are our major cities. Seldom looking up from their smart-phones other than to briefly get their bearings, they Facebook, Tweet, Instagram and text the same old people day in day out, rather than turning to greet the person sitting next to them on the train with a “hello” or “nice day isn’t it” thereby engaging with someone new of flesh and blood.

If you’ve been lost in the city lately perhaps you know the futility of trying to get directions from people who stuff their ears with speakers and focus their eyes on some electronic device at nipple-level in order to block out the reality of the press of nameless strangers they’re forced to wade through in their daily activities? 

If you want to know which pocket a city-dweller keeps his wallet in, just try smiling at him.  As if by instinct a hand will immediately secure the wallet’s secret location as its owner moves cautiously on, his face a study in fretting paranoia.

Influenced by fashion, popular opinion as dictated by Kochie & Samantha and whatever popped up on social media just then, these are people of the moment. Their opinions are absolutist, zealously promoted and always correct - obviously! They are ever conscious of the rights of the individual, they are politically correct to a fault and completely free from pretty prejudices. 

They are also supercilious, intolerant and in terms of their capacity to influence the world about them, largely impotent too. It is the frustration born of this impotence among millions of similarly impotent people that makes city folk inclined to lash out in bouts of indignant outrage in the hope of imposing their will upon others, thus alleviating their impotence, if only very briefly. (That may well be an oxymoron?) 

This is evident nowhere more than in the city’s attitude of contempt toward the bush.

The rural way of life is under constant attack from the new-age, metropolitan latte lapper, who loathes our traditions and considers us children desperately in need of enlightened counsel and a firm hand. The message is clear – if we in the city do not approve, you in the country must cease the activity immediately...we know best...that is an order! 

Rural folk are considered whingers by city folk tired of listening to them “carry-on” about droughts, floods, feral plagues, market prices, import competition, interest rates and so on. Our farmers are under constant attack for their intensive farming practices by the very people whose desire to live crammed together like sardines in a wasteland of concrete and steel, make those intensive practices necessary.

Each year thousands of tree-changers, jaded with city life, move to the country to escape overcrowding, pollution, violence and the faceless nameless insular way of life that makes even the neighbours of 10 years comparative strangers.  And right away everything must change! 

Lord knows how these simple country folk managed before their salvation arrived in the form of someone with a newly acquired Indian name and “a vision” for a fully biodegradable, ergonomically designed, wind-generated vegan future based on a sound community owned lentil economy.

In short order, because they know better than generations of locals, they run for Council and eventually take a turn at being Mayor, at which point they settle down to the job their unique talents and experience make them ideally suited to – turning a rural utopia into a carbon copy of the commercialised, impersonal and overpopulated social disaster they fled. 

And before you know it community life is changing to suit the visions of a handful of masseuses, tarot readers, sculptors and macrobiotic restaurateurs who are all united by their common love of esoteric Hindu names and the sense of creative freedom derived from destroying centuries of rural tradition in the name of ‘philosophical enlightenment’ and ‘progress’.

People in the bush are tired of being criticised and belittled by city-folk who have little or no genuine understanding of life in the bush, nor any concern for how much our traditions mean to us.  

Rural Australians' lifestyle and cultural activities are distinct from those of city dwellers and we are very proud of those distinctions. If our city cousins do not wish to share in our rich culture and practice our traditions alongside us, we respect their right to conscientiously and respectfully abstain. 

We do not expect to be targeted with culturally intolerant bigotry as is increasingly the case.

Our leaders and social commentators make much of the need and desirability of tolerance in Australia; indeed tolerance is increasingly celebrated as a most desirable higher intellectual attribute. But I often wonder how many people actually know what ‘tolerance’ means: 

Tolerance [tol-er-uh ns], noun - a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward those whose opinions, practices, race, religion, nationality, etc., differ from one's own; freedom from bigotry.  (The Oxford Dictionary)

The fact is, there is no ‘tolerance’ inherent in the acceptance of something one does not object to. Those who embrace contentious issues that do not challenge them e.g. abortion or same sex marriage, are not displaying tolerance at all.

For the virtue of tolerance to shine, one must, by definition, display it in relation to something one does not approve of or have some personal interest in, and in this regard agencies such as the Greens are abject failures!

When it comes to our most iconic and distinctly rural activities such as hunting, fishing, shooting, rodeos and equestrian events etc., the response of highly metro-centric agencies like the Greens, Animals Australia and Gun Control Australia is to declare them evil and demand they end immediately! 

They will then proceed to denigrate participants and practitioners with offensive epithets, which question their intellectual capacity, their evolutionary progress and even the size of their genitalia.

Once upon a more tolerant time, a person would demonstrate his opposition to an endeavour or practice by denying it his support and patronage. But not today. Today we must voice our opposition in the strongest possible terms! 

And of course one must launch petitions...thousands and thousands of meaningless petitions, each one testimony to the petitioners' intolerance and proof that bigotry is a flame that attracts many a kamikaze moth. 

Country folk are tired of the ignorant, holier than thou attitudes of self-absorbed people whose notion of community extends to pulling faces on social networking media and striving to make people ROTFLTAO.  Our message to our city cousins is simple....if you want to join us and participate in our way of life – the way of life Australia is renowned and admired for the world over – we would love to have you join us. 

If you don’t approve of the lifestyle, culture and traditions of those who put the food on your tables and produce the raw materials that sole your shoes and put the textiles on your backs, you are welcome to leave us in peace.

But be warned! We will no longer ignore the threat you pose to our cherished way of life. 

The manner in which rural folk across the wide brown land have risen in support of Narooma’s HuntFest is just one example of an increasingly effective and highly energised rural unity movement that is committed to the preservation of the Australian way of life.

And of course as the policies of the major parties grow less distinguishable from each other and even less inspiring with each passing day, we grow more inclined to vote on lifestyle issues dear to our hearts. 

A party that has worked tirelessly to deliver for bush and the party that has consistently demonstrated its willingness to work with other responsible parties in that same endeavour is the Shooters & Fishers Party

The Party's support is growing. New branches are popping-up in jurisdictions across Australian, due in no small part to dissatisfaction with the poor treatment rural constituencies have received in recent years. 

The next battle will be fought in NSW in March 2015 and of course the Party is already in campaign mode. 

If you are not a member of the Shooters & Fishers Party in your state or territory I encourage you to consider paying just $30 p.a. to become a member and support the party that fights to preserve your recreational activities, your lifestyle and your culture.

If you're interested in Campaign 2015 visit the website where you can also find out how to help by promoting the Party or handing out how to vote material for a couple of hours at your local polling station on election day.

Anyway, I'll get outaya way now....

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"EXTINCT" VAMPIRE DEER SURVIVES WAR AND AFGHAN POACHERS

The last time a scientist confirmed a sighting of the elusive Kashmir musk deer, World War II had drawn to a close just a few short years earlier. In the decades that followed, it began to seem likely that deforestation, unregulated hunting and warfare spanning generations in the animals’ native Afghanistan had driven it to extinction.

That is until a team of researchers spent considerable time interviewing locals in the Nuristan province of Afghanistan in 2008, then conducted a wildlife survey of the area, which confirmed the presence of at least one pair of the odd-looking animal that carries the trademark big eyes and overall gentle cuteness of most deer species, but with the addition of a large set of fangs protruding from the snout of the male of the species.

“Musk deer are one of Afghanistan’s living treasures,” said Peter Zahler, Deputy Director of Asia Programs for the Wildlife Conservation Society and co-author of the survey findings recently published in the journal Oryx. 

“This rare species, along with better known wildlife such as snow leopards, are the natural heritage of this struggling nation.”

The researchers also documented the carcass of a female musk deer that had been hunted in one of the villages in the region, pointing to one of the contributing factors keeping the animal out of the public eye.

“This was the first time the species was photographed in Afghanistan,” the report claims.

In addition to problems with security in Afghanistan, tracking down the musk deer is also difficult due to the inaccessible and often rocky terrain that is the animals’ preferred range.

The species is considered endangered and the WCS says its scent glands can fetch as much as $45,000 per kilogram on the black market, making it a target for poachers.

The report’s authors say musk deer need to be targeted for conservation and habitat preservation if the species is to survive, but perhaps the best indication of how likely this is to happen also comes from the WCS, which notes in its press release that conservation workers were forced to leave Nuristan in 2010 due to deteriorating security conditions.  

Anyway, I'll get outaya way now....

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GREENS OUTSOURCE HUNTFEST OPPOSITION

Unbelievable, absolutely unbelievable! That was my reaction when I heard about the latest and most unethical (thus far) stunt pulled by HuntFest's antagonists.

The anti-HuntFest group S.A.F.E (Stop Arms Fairs in Eurobodalla) and their Greens' sponsors ran two petitions recently. The first found favour with only 191 signatories amongst the community.  Unsatisfied that this response adequately reflected their position that “the majority of Eurobodalla residents are opposed to HuntFest”, a SAFE supporter launched a second petition and opened it up to the entire population of the Milky Way Galaxy.

This petition did much better than the first. It garnered 40,000 signatures, the overwhelming majority of them – i.e. a reported minimum of 34,000 of the 40,000 – from outside Australia. But that didn't stop 50 victorious demonstrators handing it to Councillor Gabbie Harding (the Greens) as evidence that HuntFest must be denied its application for an amendment to its event licence.  

Who’d have thought people in Pakistan, Ethiopia and the People’s Republic of Donetsk would be so vehemently opposed to a hunting and outdoors expo in Narooma? More to the point, what sort of community group is ethically corrupt enough to hang its hat on such a stunt?

Let me tell you why not a single signature on that petition is relevant and I mean aside from the fact that all but a miniscule few have no stake in the debate.

The petition was promulgated overseas where people have no idea what HuntFest is about, how it is managed, where it will be held, what the laws are governing such events, what its purpose is, what Australian culture is like and how it differs from the big bad US culture. They know nothing about the nature of the community HuntFest is held in, nor do they know that SAFE seeks support overseas because it has none at home, etc etc. No one who signed the petition has any of this information. All those who signed the petition know about HuntFest is what the petitioners told them, and that information was neither accurate nor unbiased. They certainly did not put the alternative position to the world.

Now while it may be fair to say that petitions are always somewhat one-sided, it is usual practice to run them in the location in which they are relevant. People in Narooma, the Eurobodalla, or even Australia-wide may have a finger on the pulse of the HuntFest debate; they may even visit HuntFest, but people in Ethiopia, Russia and Bulgaria do not. Yet such people account for the overwhelming majority of those who want HuntFest stopped. Let's be clear about this....they know next to nothing about the event but they want it stopped.

That anyone would sign a petition of any kind without making themselves comprehensively familiar with its subject from all perspectives, speaks volumes about the irresponsible nature of the 34,000. They are no better than the millions of cause junkies who recently signed a petition to force Steven Spielberg to stop hunting dinosaurs to the brink of extinction.  Sane people the world over realised it was satire. Millions did not and the petition went viral, garnering not only millions of signatures but also some of the most violent and offensive commentary on the Jurassic Park director's ethics and character one could possibly imagine...all of them from pacifists and animal lovers of course. And all because they saw a picture of Steven Spielberg posing with a gun while leaning against a dead Tyrannosaurus Rex.  

It is a well known phenomenon exploited by the desperate and unethical.  The easily led, the feeble minded and the dis-empowered will sign any online petition as a means of feeling as though they have flexed their virtual-muscles and exercised some power and control over a world they feel increasingly impotent in.

The fact that SAFE and the GREENS would submit such a petition to Council demonstrates their contempt for the Eurobodalla community. It proves, conclusively, that the consultation process they incessantly whined they’d not had, was nothing more than a vexatious demand to waste ratepayers’ money, because when the community fails to support the Greens and SAFE, the Greens and SAFE simply ignore their wishes and go fishing for support in Taipei.

The Greens and SAFE display a contemptuous paternalism for their community that is really quite offensive. They believe they must protect the poor hicks from themselves and that without their enlightened guidance and firm hand the community will descend into a state of violent anarchy nourished by the various follies of its simple hayseed mentality.

Not only is it time to call an end to the stupidity of the anti-HuntFest lobby, it is also time to rethink whether there is any room on Council for a representative who’d support a tactic that is so blatantly manipulative and disrespectful that it beggars belief.

The latest episode of the grand deception can be seen as it unfolds on WIN TV

Interestingly, Councillor Harding (The Greens) claims that HuntFest originally started out as a photographic and DVD competition and now, with an application lodged to include the sale of guns and ammunition, the event has changed from what was originally proposed.  It is strange that Councillor Harding would think this an odd state of affairs.  Many events commence as quite small affairs and with time change in response to consumer consultation.

It is when the scope and nature of endeavours do not change in response to stakeholder feedback, that they stagnate and die e.g. the Greens as a relevant political force in Australia.

The latest petition was presented to Councilor Harding by her co-conspirators with surgical precision and TV cameras rolling. What was not made clear was the fact that while the petition certainly carried many thousands of international signatories, it garnered precious little local support. 

As the image below shows, SAFE closed its local petition on October 6th 2014, by which time it had garnered the support of a measly 191 signatories, a considerable number of whom were not Eurobodalla or Narooma residents. 

They had demanded community consultation and the process had run its course. Faced with irrefutable evidence that the Greens and SAFE have an abysmal level of support for their 'sky is falling, we'll all be rooned' motif,  they had no choice but to switch to Plan B aimed at baffling the community with sheer numbers.

Of course had HuntFest's organisers been unprincipled souls, they too may have gone a-hunting for support overseas. Given the resurgence in hunting and target shooting activities the world over, it doubtless would have taken no time at all to secure 2million signatures or more. But had they done this, the Greens and SAFE would have been the first to cry foul claiming all manner of dark deals had been done with the "powerful US gun lobby" they see behind every corner and in every shadowy recess. 

One wonders how many of the people who signed SAFE's petition were members of 'People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals' (PETA), an organisation vehemently opposed to guns and hunting, a registered domestic terrorist agency in the US and carefully scrutinised in Australia? 

HuntFest began with modest objectives, as a photographic competition/exhibition and outdoors expo. It included displays and sales of outdoors and camping equipment, food and drink and so on. All the stuff you'll see at any outdoors expo. The Greens and SAFE opposed it.

The following year, based on feedback from its many supportive participants, HuntFest applied for a variation to its event licence that would permit the display of legal firearms and ammunition in order that the event might grow and continue to inject money into the economy. The Greens and SAFE opposed it.

In 2014, again in response to visitor consultation and feedback, HuntFest has applied for a variation to its event licence that would permit the sale of legal firearms and ammunition, thus growing the event in the hope of injecting even more money into the local economy than the $900,000 it brought to the area in 2014. Guess what....the Greens and SAFE oppose it.

The Greens and SAFE will continue to oppose HuntFest because it represents and aims to preserve an Australian tradition and culture they do not care for or respect. Yes, hunting is very much an Australian tradition and in fact one of the few traditions European Australians share in common with first nations Australians. For this very rare cultural nexus alone Australia's hunting traditions are worthy of respect, recognition and preservation.

Those who support the Greens' and SAFE's many and various intolerant petitions should be regarded in the same manner as members of the community who'd sign a "No to gay marriage!" or "No to Muslims in Narooma!" petition.  Such people do exist in the Eurobodalla. They are perhaps even more numerous than the anti-HuntFest lobby and doubtless if they launched a noxious petition internationally they too could produce 400,000 signatories or more in support of their bigotry, all of which I hope we would treat with the contempt they deserve. 

There are a number of simple facts that SAFE and the Greens have gone to great pains to keep from the community or indeed have striven to misrepresent in order to engender fear and hatred.

• HuntFest is not an "arms fair". This term has been seized upon in order to spread panic. HuntFest is a combination of hunting and outdoors expo and photographic exhibition.
  
  The term "arms fair" applies only to the permit required from the NSW Police Minister in order to sell legal firearms and ammunition at a temporary venue. This is a very small part of what HuntFest is about.  To call HuntFest an "arms fair" because it carries a permit of that name is like calling the annual Bega Show a liquor store or a pub because it must carry a liquor licence to sell beer at the bar 3 days a year.
  
  SAFE and the Greens are using the term "arms fair" in much the same way people once strove to make AIDS synonymous with the gay community, to demonise people and a lifestyle they do not approve of. It's as simple as that!

• HuntFest is not a "US style arms fair". This again is an effort to employ a bigoted epithet in order to create fear and loathing in the community.
  
  The Greens' and SAFE's own paraphernalia clearly exhibits a loathing of all things American. For instance they are continually telling us we do not want to go down the path of America.  They use the "American guns culture" catchcry because they want you to hear the words "HuntFest" and "arms fair" and immediately conjure images of surface to air missiles, anti-personnel mines, machine guns and Uzis, Lars Rockets and laser guided missiles, tanks and stealth aircraft.  All these things may indeed be available at a "US-style arms fair" but they can never be sold at HuntFest.
  
  To sell or even to display such items requires a Prohibited Arms Fair Permit. HuntFest does NOT have one. HuntFest will NEVER apply for one. HuntFest could NEVER be granted one in Narooma. 
  
  Quite aside from the fact that no-one would travel to the boonies to shop for a thermonuclear warhead or a Star Wars satellite, I'm reliably advised that the premises one must have access to in order to obtain a Prohibited Arms Fair Permit do not exist anywhere on the far south coast. However, that will not stop SAFE claiming that is HuntFest's ultimate objective, just you wait and see. 

• The amendments HuntFest has sought to its event licence will enable it to sell nothing during those two short days in June that cannot be purchased every day at sports & recreation, camping & outdoors centres in neighbouring shires. These items are legal and in fact they are essential tools of the land that Eurobodalla farmers, unlike farmers in all other NSW shires, cannot readily purchase.

•  SAFE has claimed that it is not necessary to sell guns and ammunition at HuntFest or anywhere else in the Eurobodalla because they may be purchased over the internet. This is false! It is illegal to deal in firearms and ammunition in this manner.

• No one can't just mosey into HuntFest, hand over some cash and walk out with a gun.  In order to acquire a gun in NSW one must first posses a NSW firearms licence. One must then complete a form known as a Permit to Acquire a Firearm (PTA form), in which one identifies the type of firearm sought, how it will be secured and sundry other details. Once lodged with the NSW Firearms Registry the PTA is subject to a cooling off period, after which the PTA may be issued. This authorised PTA form must then be presented to the point of sale.  HuntFest is only open to the public for 2 days!
  
  The purchase or disposal of any firearm must be conducted by a licensed NSW Firearms Dealer.

• In 2014 HuntFest brought an estimated $900,000 to the community during the off season. Events of a similar nature held elsewhere bring far greater sums to their community as they prosper and grow. Hunting contributed $439million to the Victorian economy in 2013 and created 3500 full time jobs.
  
  HuntFest's organisers would like to bring some measure of this prosperity to Narooma and the Eurobodalla. What's more, they have striven to do it at absolutely no cost to Council or the community.  If the organisers' efforts to contribute to the recovery of a once prosperous local economy are thwarted by political cowardice, local people, especially businesses, are certain to make their disappointment clear at the polls. 

• While HuntFest contributes to the community's prosperity, SAFE and the Greens continue to drain Council's coffers with vexatious complaints and stunts, all of which take up time that is paid for by the ratepayer. It has been estimated that opposition to HuntFest has already cost the ratepayer in excess of $100,000 and delayed a great deal of important Council business. Council will soon apply to introduce another rate increase because it just can't make ends meet on its current income. Remember SAFE and the Greens when your rates go up.

• The suggestion that hunters "kill for fun" is an emotive manipulative construct of the ignorant anti-hunter. The objective of the claim is to promote community hatred and opposition to the hunters' culture and lifestyle. The Greens and their groups claim to stand for peace and unity. In reality they promote hatred, intolerance, disdain antagonism and division in the community in order to marginalise all who oppose them.
  
  Those interested in learning a little about the real reasons people hunt, may be interested in the article Killing for kicks.

• Hunting is cruel. This claim is also made to drive the public into a frenzy of emotion and hatred. Death in nature is always cruel. There are no exceptions to this rule for all the reasons outlined in The gaping wound in the cruelty argument also on this site.  When an animal in the wild reaches the end of its span, the best it can home for is that the agony nature inflicts will not last too long. Creatures waiting to feast on a carcass will not wait until death before tucking in.
  
  The hunters' obligation is to strive to ensure that s/he inflicts no more inhumane a death than that which mother nature inevitably has in store.  The vast majority of hunters uphold this obligation and they respect and appreciate the life they take to sustain their own.  They are honoured to be a part of and subject to the eternal struggle, rather than mere observers.

In the final analysis it is not for the community to make thousands of submissions to prove HuntFest has its support. Anyone who has conducted consultation processes knows that people will not rally to support things they do not object to.  Fervent objections are nourished and powered by fear, anger and hatred, which SAFE and the Greens have in spades. Less volatile, more reasoned people in the community will be wondering what the fuss is all about. They will be rolling their eyes at SAFE's antics and facepalming each time they hear yet another Greens rant in the "you'll all be sorry when the world ends" motif. 

Their petition of 191 signatures about sums up their support-base and given that the Eurobodalla's population is around 37,000 souls, that result proves one thing beyond doubt. It proves that 36,809 residents did not sign the petition. Likewise in the case of Council's submissions process, if 200 submissions opposing HuntFest were received, it is certain that 36,800 residents are not concerned enough to make a submission.  This is the logic Council is obligated to apply to the process. 

The rules of Council's submissions process put hunters and firearms owners at a distinct disadvantage from the outset. Hunters and firearms owners are responsible people with a clear moral and legal obligation to ensure they do nothing to compromise the security of their firearms. Yet Council demanded that people include their full name and address with each submission, thus creating a list of addresses of all the firearms owners in the Shire. With theft one of the main means by which criminals obtain guns, firearms owners are ever reluctant to assist naive agencies to make shopping lists for the underworld that may be available for scrutiny by who knows whom. 

Still, I am confident that HuntFest will get the go-ahead to grow just as it should. Its organisers are not planning anything that breaches the law of the land and that should be the only issue under consideration. If a sports store were to open in the main street of Narooma, it should be permitted to sell a comprehensive array of sporting equipment, including legal guns, bows and ammunition just as stores do in less intolerant shires and towns. If the Greens and SAFE don't approve of the law, their course is clear. Rather than attempting to infect the law-abiding citizens of their community with the virus of hatred and bigotry, they should lobby the law makers for change. 

Anyway, I'll get outaya way now....

Update: Councillors' opinions regarding the petition's relevance to the debate have been sought by the Bay Post

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