Gun ownership
The Greens have been very vocal in the media of late. As usual, the sky is falling under the weight of gun ownership.
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Chicken-Little Central has created a website where one can look up the rate of gun ownership according to postcode, the better to determine exactly how nigh the end is.
The website, which uses statistics obtained by the Greens under Freedom of Information from NSW Police, reveals some interesting facts about gun ownership in the Eurobodalla.
While anti-HuntFest groups have been very vocal in their opposition to the event, claiming residents don’t want it and the last thing the Eurobodalla needs is a “guns culture”, it seems it may already be too late.
The Greens website reveals there are more than 500 registered gun owners in the Narooma postcode alone, and at least 2906 registered gun owners in the Eurobodalla, between them owning 11,498 firearms.
The 2906 registered, law-abiding firearms owners represent 8.2 per cent of the total Eurobodalla population and 11.5 per cent of the eligible voting population.
SAFE, the Greens and the Animal Justice Party claim they speak for a “silent majority”. Determining the will of a majority that is silent is really quite problematic, unless of course their representatives claim telepathic abilities. What right do the Greens, the Animal Justice Party and SAFE have to demand that council marginalises at least 8.2 per cent and as much as 11.5 per cent of the community by denying HuntFest use of a community facility?
What other sport and leisure groups boasting even lower stakeholder representation might philosophical zealotry be applied to in the future, to deny them use of ratepayer-owned facilities?
With 11.5 per cent of law-abiding citizens having at least some interest in what HuntFest has to offer, does council have the right to deny access to a community facility, simply because a handful of telepaths don’t want “people like that in our town”?
Finally, this statistical snapshot, for which I must again thank the Greens, has led me to form a hypothesis, to which I hope the community will attribute at least as much credibility as the theories generated by Anti-HuntFesters.
The Greens have claimed the number of guns in the Eurobodalla is “staggering”, yet gun crime is all but nonexistent.
There are comparatively few guns present in Sydney, yet the incidence of gun crime is “staggering”.
Is it not logical to conclude, therefore, that it is not legal firearms owners Eurobodalla Shire Council should ban in the interests of community safety, but rather city people?
Garry Mallard, Bega
Respect required
Since 1980 I’ve lived in or frequently returned to Bega. In none of all of that time have any of the four faces of the town clock showed the correct time (except through happenstance).
If Dr Evershed’s memorial is intended as a joke, then let it stay. (I love a good one!)
If not – off with its head!
Perhaps its next position might afford the good doctor some respect and maintenance.
Jamie Forbes, Bega
Stating facts
As a member of the Labor Party and proud Mike Kelly supporter I would like to respond to Peter Hendy's letter (BDN, 8/4.)
Mike was not whining, he was stating facts.
Certainly Dr Gareth Long and others advocated on this issue, but if we didn't have our conscientious local member Mike Kelly to push and shove and nag the federal government, nothing would have happened.
I have no idea when the money finally came through, all I know is that it was already there because of Mike.
The only person who is petulant and insulting is you Mr Hendy. Mike spoke with actions. You only speak with pathetic words.