A LIVING HISTORY BLOG.

18TH CENTURY LIVING HISTORY IN AUSTRALIA.

Friday 8 April 2011

We Need More Positive Publicity. A need to get this off my chest!

More Publicity Needed.



Knee jerk reactions by the government in response to injuries & death involving sporting tools/weapons appears to be standard procedure & the whole thing is getting ridiculous. The banning of certain guns, a proposal to ban sporting black powder, tomahawks need a permit in Victoria, crossbows are on the dangerous weapons list in NSW, & now crossbows are banned in West Australia. Knives can no longer be carried for camping purposes in public areas. Pocket knives can no longer be carried in public areas. Even Catapults are banned! At one time flintlock muzzle-loading guns enjoyed the freedom of registration & licence in NSW. Which I thought was a good move, I mean who would bother holding up a bank these days with a flintlock, let alone use one to exterminate one’s family. I thought of it as throwing us some crumbs, & it made sense. But it was not to last, now flintlocks are all bundled in together with modern firearms which does not make any sense, nor do I consider it fair.


Sports cars are not banned despite the road toll, & I can see why. But can you imagine the government banning golf clubs if there was a spate of bashings with this implement? If a serial killer started smothering people with football bladders would they ban footballs? Just about anything can be used to kill or injure someone if you use your imagination.


The sporting community, living historians, historical trekkers, historical reenactors, hunters, we all need our tools of choice to be able to enjoy our pastime/hobbies/lifestyles. It simply does not make sense to keep banning things at our expense, & it just confirms what I have always thought, that these government bodies simply don’t give a dam. They play to the ordinary citizen who knows absolutely nothing of what we do & who we are. These people simply cannot see what it is that we like so much about sporting shooting, camping, living history & a host of other interests that involve the use of these banned tools.


I have been promoting living history in all it’s forms for over 20 years now, but in recent years, with the closure of some magazines, and newspapers no longer giving free space to groups & clubs except for event advertising, it is getting harder to find a way of promoting ourselves, to let the public know who we are and what we do. To explain to them how important our forms of recreation are to us. They, like the government, simply do not see the big picture; no one is treading on their toes so they are all right “Jack”. Or as we say in Australia, “she’ll be right mate”.


But she won’t be all right mate. We are talking about our right to seek a better life, our right to enjoyment & fun, and yes if that means to the expense of some poor chap who happens to get killed with a compound bow, then so be it. We cannot be held responsible for all the nutters out there who want to kill people, nor should we be held responsible because some kid gets hold of a gun, tomahawk, bow, crossbow, spear, javelin, boomerang or anything else & accidently kills or injures someone. It is NOT our fault. No matter what they ban, there will always be something that someone will use for some activity that with misuse will cause injury or death.


I fully realise that I am probably preaching to the converted here, but where else is there left to us to make a public statement like this? If this gets through to just one person who never thought of this before, then perhaps that perspective will spread to others. Simply put we are not bad people, some may think us strange, but we are not evil and therefore do not deserve to be ignored the way we are, not considered in the slightest when it comes to restrictions concerning sporting tools & weapons. We have already lost our right to self-defence using these tools, it is totally left to the discretion of the courts whether or not you become a criminal defending your own life, or have your guns etc taken from you for ever because you used these implements to defend your family. Even police officers have lost their jobs & their families because they shot & killed someone defending their lives in the course of their duties. We need some common sense here; we need the government to stop pandering to grieving families calling for a ban on this & that. Ask a gun owner who has just lost a family member in an accidental shooting if he would like to see guns banned. We know that it is not the gun; it is the person using that gun. Take our guns, swords, knives, bows, crossbows, catapults & everything else off us & we the good guys will be the only ones without them, the bad guys will always find a way of getting them because they are NOT law abiding citizens! They don’t need a licence, they don’t need permission.


Accidents will happen, but accidents can be brought to a minimum through proper instruction. Teach your child how to be safe, teach them not to play silly buggers with a crossbow. Teach them not to point guns or bows at people and to always point them in a safe direction. Failure to do so makes you just as guilty as the child making that “mistake”.











These people & events will crease to exist, as will thousands of others like them. Trades people such as seamstress, tailors, blacksmiths, traders, shoe makers, leather workers, hornsmiths, etc will be out of work, their livelyhood lost. Even those living historians who do not require weapons will cease to exist because there will be no clubs, no groups & no events. This is where our government's stupidity is taking us.

10 comments:

Gorges Smythe said...

Cigarettes and alcohol kill more people every year in my country than die in decades from so-called "gun violence" (most cases actually being DRUG violence), yet you see no move to make them illegal across the board. That's the danger in letting the FIRST anti-gun law in the door; it's the camel's nose in the tent.

Karl said...

Here-Here!
...(Thumps Table in agreement)
I have been saying thisd myself for many years now, I remember well the backlash from on nut in Tasmania who's name I refuse to utter so as not to give him any more publicity, I had just recieved my "Lifetime Shooters license" that was issued in Queelsland at the time and had been given my first rifle left to me by my Grandfather, I lost both in one fell swoop thanks to the over reaction of those elected officials in Can'tberra, when will the mob rtealise the truth, you can ban every impliment on the face of the planet and someone will still find a way to do what ever their will is at the time.

Cars can kill, Books can kill, my tv can kill, this laptop Im using can kill, a pair of boots can kill, a pencil can kill, a rolled up magazine can kill... do we ban them? no... they tell us that "common sense" must be used...

Whats next?

Karl

http://ranger-pathfinder-notes.blogspot.com/

John B. Todd said...

Ever try to talk "common sense" to a politician or a tree hugger? Good luck!

This situation isn't an issue of reason or logic, it is politics and power.

Keith said...

Totally agree Gorges, but the government makes money from tobacco & alcohol!

Martin said...

Hi Loup,

I find it hard to believe that an exception for Black Powder usage is something that reasonable people on either side of the issue couldn't agree on.

I always thought that those hunters who felt they had to use AR-15's or AK-47's to hunt, had no business in the woods, and anybody who needed more than two rounds needs to practice harder. The deer can't fight back.*

Martin

*Although I know of one exception. A couple of years ago near Knightstown, IN, a fellow bagged a buck with a pretty respectable spread of antlers. He placed his shotgun in the rack, and went to his truck for his camera. When he returned the deer and his shotgun were gone.

Hutch said...

Whether it be a good decision or not, I've come to simply ignoring regulations that come from our federal government in the US. They're pointless, repetitive, liberty reducing, and outright illegal 99% of the time. I do hope that it doesn't land me in jail one day, but quite frankly, if I paid attention to them I wouldn't really be able to do anything. It's ridiculous. We battled slavery once already here, and I refuse to participate in the process all over again, particularly when it is I that is enslaved.

Keith said...

Martin. That reminds me of the time when some blokes hit a kangaroo with their car. They stripped off and dressed the kangaroo in their clothes & took some photos. But the roo was only knocked out! It came round & took off fully dressed!!

Hutch. This is something that annoys the h*ll out of me. There seems to be no party one can vote for & actually get what you want. We ellect these people, & then they can do what they like regardless of what the people want. No good saying "well I won't vote for them next time", because you can't win which ever way you go.
We apparently have the right to the pursuit of happiness, but just when we find something they take it away & say find something else!!!

Hutch said...

It's pretty true. We have our democrats and republicans- they're both essentially useless. I tend to vote republican still merely as a way to keep democrats out of office. I realize how sad that is to feel like I have to do, but the reality of the situation is that without a revolution of sorts, we're on the road to serfdom. Both parties. Democrats run toward it; republicans walk. I'll keep the walkers and ignore the rest whenever I can.

H Wally said...

Up here in Canada our government's trying follow the Australian model... ban everything, then ban some more when it doesn't work.

I'm curious, when the bans came initially, and when further ones are created in Australia, did they hit the reenactors, pistol shooters, hunters, black gun crowd as a group, or was the community factionalised? IE Were the long gun hunters ok with the pistol owners getting screwed, then the semi auto people, then the long gun people, then the blackpowder people?

I ask because up here they keep trying to divide the shooting community by telling the hunters and antique collectors that they're safe if we'll just agree that pistols and semi autos should be banned, all the while adding guns to the prohibited lists and confiscating them without compensation.

Keith said...

Hi H. Hard to answere that one, because the regs vary from state to state. I can't say as though I have ever had the feeling that we were being played off against one another. Pistols are banned unless you are a pistol club member, & the club is the only place you can use one.
Automatics were the first long guns to go. Next they clamped down on black powder pistols after having for a time allowed them! Now they are going for the gunpowder. Basically the people who make these desisions are totally ignorant regarding firearms, despite supposedly having a special team to advise on such matters. This even includes we were told someone who is educated regarding muzzle-loading arms!!! Either he does not exist, or he too is ignorant, or they simply ignore his advice. Really they don't care about minorities, thay have absolutely no idea what it is like to have your hobby, the things you cherrish taken away from you. They have probably never had strong feelings about anything in particular their whole life.
Take away their cars, their home entertainment centre & their golf clubs & they still would not understand how we feel about our guns.