The future of hunting and shooting in Australia

There is been some debate recently both in the media and on this website about the future of our sport. It has made me sit back and think about the future of hunting and shooting in Australia.

By its very nature, hunting and shooting is heavily regulated throughout the different states and territories of this great country of ours. Our sport is only one of a few sports in Australia whose future is in the hands of politicians and lawmakers.  Its these politicians and lawmakers which will inevitably decide the future for us all. 

I will quickly go over what I see as our history in relation to hunting and shooting. 

Way back many years ago, guns in Australia were produced to maintain and eradicate feral and pest species, while also giving farmers and landowners a souce of food.

Understanding our past. 

Now since the early days pest eradication has come a long way and science has stepped in to create strange and wonderful ways to eradicate pests.  Now we use guns, drugs and even viruses.  We also mass produce  and slaughter animals in a commercial fashion, and in doing so has reduced the need for most people to own and use of firearms.  The majority of the poplulation does not know or understand how their food gets on the BBQ or why people should own firearms.  People are scared of the unknown and most people are not exposed to firearms, so they become the unknown - SCARY FIREARMS.  The media knows and understand this, and uses it to its advantage. 

Mass media has the ability to change the thinking of nations.This was no more evident than in the World Wars when the propaganda machine of the countries involved were flat out convincing their people that their side of the story was the right side.

Jumping ahead to what I considered modern times. The general populace is concentrating in large cities with mass population densities with little understanding and knowledge of anything outside their immediate circles.  Now without getting into an in-depth conversation and explanation about the economics of countries and their need to specialise, I will say this.  For countries to advance ecnomically their people have to speclise and it is this specialastion that also reduces the normal man or woman to understand and perform what would be considered normal/easy tasks. It is this specialisation that has brought this country from living on the back of sheep, to be one of the top 20 economies in the world.

An example of this would be:

Joe Blow does not have the skills of knowledge to do simple tasks.  Task like change a tyre, or a washer, have an understanding where their meat comes from or even how every day items work (refrigerator, how the TV signel is).

How did we get into this mess in the first place?

Martin Bryant killed a heap of people at Port Arthur. Now why this was a tragedy by everyone's descriptions, it was something that the media picked up on (if there is one thing I know about media and advertising is the use of tragedy, despair and let's face it bad news sells).  The media got hold of the story and ran with it, the general public already unaware and frightened of the unknown not only suck the story down like a child drinking a smoothie but also fed the political scene giving them extra tools and ammunition for their war chest (When and if they decided to use it - Read next election).  Now I'm not saying what happened at Port Arthur was not a tragedy and I agree it shouldn't have happened. What I'm saying and explaining is how the media affects the general populace.

The government used the knowledge that the general public was outraged by what happened - in Port Arthur - and decided to bring in extra laws and regulations to reduce the amount of rifles and types of firearms that the general public could get access to. 

It saw hundreds of thousands of firearms taken from legitimate firearm owners, with the understanding that it is these rifles will stop any type of massacre happening again.  Now I agree that some good came out of this, it tightened up and laws on storage and handling and I believe reduce the risk of our firearms being stolen and used by criminals, however I didn't necessarily believe that this was going to help the crime rate in associated with firearms, as most are firearms crimes are performe by crimals that dont have a firearms licence in the first place - READ illegal firearm.

Jumping forward a few more years we have seen the strengthening of firearms laws across Australia.  We have seen buyback after buyback, after buyback. The government has spent millions and millions of dollars without producing the desired outcome - reduction in crime and associated incidents in regards to firearms.

Now it is common knowledge that criminals do not register their firearms nor do they have legislation and the laws surrounding them.  They get their weapons either by stealing them, taking them directly from security guards, or in some cases making them.  They also import them by various means along with hundreds of tonnes of illegal drugs and narcotics.

The public now has had over 20 years of being bashed to death about the anti-gun message and how guns are used to do all sorts of bad things. Unfortunately our society is slowly decorating and the values and beliefs that we all shared only some 10 or 15 years ago are also being eroded.  Our children have no respect for property or life, the parents have no respect for their children or the responsibility they have put their upbringing.  We live in a world where it's everybody else's fault and that no one takes responsibility for their own actions.  It is no wonder that our society and the general public believe that taking firearms from legitimate firearm owners will make them safe, after all the media has told them so, so it has to be true, doesn't it???????

Lets look at where we stand today.

Victoria has for many years allowed hunters into their State forests and in some cases into their national parks. This has been an outstanding success and has been used as a blue print for other trials and feral reduction plans, not only here in Australia around the world.  New South Wales has learnt from Victoria and their experiences.  In the last few years they have taken on the Victorian model and created what is now called The Game Council of New South Wales.  This particular governmental body regulates and lobbies for the rights of qualified and trained hunters to have the ability to hunt in New South Wales State forests.  There is no doubt that this particular scheme has been a fantastic success not only for conservation in Australia but also the hunting movement. It has taken out tens of thousands of feral animals and is slowly returned the environments in those areas back to an equilibrium where native wildlife has a chance of survival.

In Victoria last week they are looking at paying landowners to establish native areas on their property.  For a small fee licenced and trainded hunters would then have the ability to access these areas ONLY to hunt feral specices.  I think this is a great idea and has lots of merit.

It will not only create additional habitat for native wildlife but help in the control of feral animals, while also helping struggling farmers with additional income.

While in New South Wales, they have removed some of the red tape when a licenced shooter wants to aquire additional firearms.  Before for evey additional firearm they were required to wait 28 days before they could take possion - Even if you already owned the same rilfe. Now if you are already licenced and you already own firearms in the same category you dont need to wait.  This will free up thousands of man hours and get our police force back on the beat catching crimials and not process pointless paperwork.

I believe hunting and shooting in Australia has a bright future.  

It is something that is not only a fantastic family sport it also contribute back into society and back into our ecological systems.  It brings me and my family closer to nature and makes us appreciate this beautiful country of ours. 

The risk we have is when us, as a hunting and shooting community don't stick together.  We allow bad habits and misinformation, that put our sport in a bad light, while giving the media and politicians more ammuntion.  It is our responsibility and duty to our sport to weed out any bad behaviour that will bring our sport into disrepute.