INSULTS FOR UNITY ON ELECTION EVE

My name is Garry Mallard and I am a complete dickhead with no idea what I’m talking about, whatsoever!

This is the judgement of those who support and promulgate the FUDD campaign and since their analysis of an individual’s worth is both accurate and binding I see no point in hiding my true nature.

Apparently I can now look forward to an epiphany, whereby I will realise and acknowledge the manifold errors of my wrong thinking, and return to the fold a reformed and useful member of the national shooting fraternity.

Oh happy day!

At least I must have faith that’s the outcome I can expect. I can do no other, since despite much searching I am unable to identify so much as a single outcast who claims to have seen the light and returned to the fold as a consequence of being declared a FUDD.

If that is not the outcome of being ostracised for wrong thinking, one can only conclude the FUDD campaign is simply a way for angry and disappointed people to express as much by marginalising the unpopular viewpoint.

We all have some experience of that; mobs of kids roaming the quadrangle pointing fingers at the odd kid out, calling him names, refusing to sit next to him and encouraging everyone else to do likewise.

In the long-run it had the effect of making us stronger individuals and often facilitated the forging of bonds in the most unlikely places, as those who were not the focal point of name-callers’ attentions today, nonetheless tapped us on the shoulder, perhaps in the dunnies or on the bus, to quietly express their concern and sympathy.

This has again been the case since my article “The Year of the Fudd” was shared on the Australian Hunting Podcast’s Facebook page, in the mistaken belief it was an endorsement of the FUDD campaign.

This error in judgment was soon rectified and the post given a suitably disproving intro, at which point the business of defending the indefensible commenced in earnest.

Of course smart people are not going to make themselves targets by popping their heads up above the trenches to express their own concerns, but confident I will not divulge their names, they have been eager to communicate with me by personal message and email.

With their assistance and with the help of defences mounted by key people at FUDD campaign HQ, I have been able to assemble some useful information about the FUDD movement’s raison d’etre.

1) The campaign’s aim is to address perceived disunity.

This disunity is defined as the failure of any individual to support the demands of all the stakeholder groups that constitute the shooting fraternity, equally and without exception or reservation.

This includes the rollback of Howard’s post-Port Arthur gun reforms in toto, along with supporting the right to carry concealed handguns, the right to own a firearm for the purpose of personal defence and any other dot-point on the individual’s wish-list.

The result being that failure to agree with any single item on said list is reason enough for FUDD candidacy.

2) The objective of the FUDD campaign is not to persuade but to silence.

I am reliably informed that while it may be permissible to harbour personal reservations about various objectives, it is in no way permissible to express them anywhere or to anyone. 

A non-party view must be a silent non-party view!

3) Those who express reservations about any aspect of any item on the list, is a press or Anti collaborator.

They are to be silenced, ostracised and vilified for their delinquency in much the same manner one might expect of a religious institution dealing with apostasy.

Not killed you understand, but simply left with no doubt this was a concession to legality rather than mercy.

4) Any firearms advocate who believes the FUDD campaign has been divisive, counterproductive and inequitable is advised he is obliged to “Toughen up, toughen up.” 

This is in fact considered an argument for the affirmative and given the teams performance to date in this regard, I can see why it would be. 

5) The FUDD campaign’s education component is best described as “an eye for an eye”.

Positions and statements attributable to ignorance and naivety are cause for insult and humiliation in place of patient debate and persuasive argument. 

And finally...

6) FUDD campaign organisers claim they have been given a mandate to FUDD by a majority of law abiding firearms owners (LAFOs).

In all fairness I believe it is reasonable to suggest this claim should be accorded at least as much gravitas as any similar stupefyingly deluded claim.

Despite the hullabaloo that has ensued since challenging the productivity and ethical legitimacy of the FUDD campaign, the number of LAFOs found leaping to its defence is miniscule, that being a charitable assessment.

The campaign’s “without reservation” support base is diminishing, as LAFOs realise it is not focused solely on those obligated to account for their statements or performance by some formal representative status.

So human nature being what it is almost universally, what is the likely outcome of the FUDD campaign? 

Well, I’m afraid no matter how objectively one looks at it, nothing good can come of it.

Never since the dawn of creation has anyone ever thanked someone for bullying and marginalising them, save perhaps those few sad souls suitably medicated for their malady.

In the long-term I suspect this will result in little more than some altered seating arrangements around the firearms advocacy table.

The hardcore and unapologetic who hold the concepts of patient education and strategic planning in contempt, will hunker down together, while everyone else works the room so to speak.

Alas, this will have its own consequences for the sector, with the media and the Antis in general bound to discover there are places where they can be assured of finding exactly the sort of immoderate activity they rely on for their anti-firearms stories and propaganda.

In the short-term the consequences for the pro-gun parties in the looming Federal election could be significant, though largely immeasurable, which might be seen as a get out of jail free card for the FUDD campaign.

Those watching the immature FUDDery unfolding may be inclined to reconsider giving a pro-shooter party a place on their ballot. 

It’s equally possible people who have actually been branded FUDDs, the injustice of their persecution still smarting and fresh in the memory, may be inclined to slight back at the polling booth.

Whatever the political realities of a campaign that could only ever alienate comprehensively on the eve of an important election, one thing is absolutely certain.

A percentage of law abiding firearms owners who could once be relied upon for their in-principle support of general firearms advocacy, now vehemently hate a percentage of law abiding firearms owners who just as vehemently hate them back.

The inevitably intemperate exchanges that will ensue will stand as beacons of anger and intolerance all over unsecured social media platforms, to be harvested at the leisure of journalists and anti-firearms campaigners eager to put a question to the general public.

“Are these really the sorts of people we want to give guns to....really?”

Anyway, I’ll get outaya way now...

©gmallard2016 all rights reserved

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