Wild Origins Australia
Wild Origins Australia explores the stories, science and realities shaping Australia's wildlife, hunting culture, and conservation future.
Hosted by Dodge Keir-father, professional hunting guide, educator, and owner of Accurate Hunts--this podcast builds on his legacy of hosting two of Australia's top hunting shows.
Backed by The Origins Foundation, we share its mission: truth through storytelling and facts, changing how hunting is understood while championing more effective, transparent conservation. If you care about the outdoors responsible hunting, and the real work behind wildlife stewardship, you're in the right place.
Stay wild Australia
Wild Origins Australia
United We Stand as one Firearms community
The room was crowded, the mics weren’t perfect, and the mission couldn’t be clearer: get Australia’s hunting voices into one place and push back on rushed, headline‑driven laws with unity, evidence, and heart. Cody’s seed turned into a national roundtable featuring hosts from Wild Origins, Get Outdoors With Drew and Cam, Women Who Hunt, Hunting Connections, In The Dark and Bullet Points, Australian Hunting Backcountry, Nature’s Perks, Hunting Republic, and the Australian Hunting Podcast. What followed was a frank, sometimes raw, always focused conversation about protecting a lawful lifestyle that feeds families, fuels regional economies, and keeps ferals in check.
We unpack what “four guns” really means for humane shots, competition disciplines, family setups, and the ethics that guide calibre choice. We challenge the proposal to strip appeal rights, knowing due process isn’t a luxury in a democracy. We talk national registry pros and cons without ignoring data‑leak scars, and we explain why registering barrels and stocks would swamp understaffed branches for no safety gain. The group calls out media myths and belt‑fed fantasies, then gets practical: short, respectful emails to MPs; signing both NSW petitions; and supporting each other without ego or infighting. Industry voices outline the real cost to retailers, importers, guides, and country towns, while long‑timers share lessons from 1996 and why the public mood feels different today.
This is not a culture war monologue; it’s a plan built on unity and calm persistence. We ask listeners to act locally, communicate clearly, and check on their mates. If you care about hunting, target shooting, conservation, or simply fair process, this conversation gives you the words and the steps to make a difference right now.
If this resonated, share it with a mate, sign the petitions, and send your email today. Subscribe for follow‑ups and wins, and leave a review so more Aussies can find this conversation. United we stand.
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If you have a question, comment, topic, gear review suggestion or a guest that you'd like to hear on the show, shoot an email to dodge@thewildorigins.org or via our socials.
Well, what you're about to hear is some interesting content that came from a seed that was planted by the one and only most interviewed hunter in Australia, Cody Gearin. His seed was that the podcasting community of Australia get together. We did that. And what he assembled was a team consisting of Get Outdoors with Drew and Cam. Carly from Women Who Hunt. Zach from Hunting Connections Podcast. Maxwell from In the Dark and the Bullet Point Podcast. Tobias, Australian Hunting Backcountry podcast. Lawson from Nature's Perks. And we also had Luke from the Hunting Republic podcast on, although he had some audio issues and couldn't get involved. And someone else who jumped on halfway through or a third of the way through, and it's a really important voice in this space, one of the OGs of what we do. Jason Selms from Hunting Austral I'm sorry, from the Australian Hunting Podcast. And then myself from Wild Origins podcast. What you're about to hear isn't the most amazing audio you've ever heard. It isn't the best edited podcast you've ever heard. But I'll tell you what it is. It is a bunch of people, a room full of like-minded individuals that came together to create some unity in our community. We joined together, we spoke, we connected, we shared stories, we shared opinions, we shared viewpoints. And what we could all agree on was the state of the country we're living in right now with the way things are changing so fast. It's a tricky and developing world. It's a tricky space for our industry. And one thing we need to be conscious of, we all agree on this, is how we come together and gel in this time. What we do in the next coming months is going to be very important for the future of our industry. It's going to be very important for my kids, their kids, and beyond that. So I ask you all to listen, to think, to share, to check on your mates, to give them a ring and see how they're going. And this is a tough environment. We did aim to get this podcast out a little sooner but due to the intricacies of having so many people recorded at one time the result was over 60 gig of download and a lot of editing just to get it to the point where things lined up. Now unfortunately, in that process, we lost audio from Carly about a quarter of the way through, a third of the way through. And I'd asked that you go and visit Carly's channel, Women Who Hunt, because the things that she said were amazing. And they were great points and great responses. So I'm extremely devastated that that has happened. And unfortunately it's not something we could pull back. So I'm sorry to you, Carly, and I'm sorry to those that listen that miss out on that. But please go and listen to her other podcasts that are out there because you'll see the same answers. Again, Unity in strength. A call to action to you guys is to sign the petitions, to write the letters, to remain in touch with your friends and be strong. I hope you enjoy this episode. United, we stand. This is a little bit different tonight. You're gonna cop a lot of different voices, but the reason we're all here is to bring each other together on a united front to talk about something that affects all of us. I'm Dodge from Wild Origins Australia. We've got a whole host of Australian podcasters come together. This was the brainchild of Mr. Cody, probably the one of the most prevalent guests on podcasts in Australia. I'm gonna ask Cody to uh to say something first. We're gonna move around the room and everyone can have a little introduction and I'll finish with myself and then we'll get into tonight's conversation. So welcome, team, and thanks for jumping on together. Thanks for having us, Dylan.
SPEAKER_12:Yep, yep, yep. Thanks for everyone, all the podcasts for teaming up and joining us here tonight. I'm Cody Gearin, I'm a hunter and farmer and factory worker from New South Wales. And I had an idea to try to unite the community and get our voices out there and the voices that we all hear quite often while we're driving to work or sitting back and relaxing or doing chores about the house. I thought we could all share our unique abilities to just share and get our words out and yeah, it's as simple as that, really.
SPEAKER_07:Sorry, do you want to go around the screen, Drew? You're next.
SPEAKER_08:Yeah, mate. Um it's Drew from Get Outdoors with Drew and Cam. We're a podcast that is trying to encourage everybody to get off the couch. Cam and I are both um hunters, fishers, hikers, family men. Um we've been doing this for I don't know, I think seven months, isn't it, Cam? Yeah, it's something along those lines. Yep. And we're finding a really good response, and because we're both avid hunters, we're involved and following the industry quite close, and that's where we stand.
SPEAKER_11:It's gonna affect all of us. Definitely. Cam, do you want to follow up from that? Yeah, mate. Uh look, I've been an avid hunter and outdoor enthusiast for many years now, and this is something that's going to affect all of us, like I've already said. It's I remember I was young enough to remember when it all happened through in '96, watching my relatives go through the hand-in process and the like. So, mate, this is our turn to sort of stand up and try and have a bit of a say in regards to this. So, yeah, thank you very much for the opportunity to come on board with all of this. Carly, you're next.
SPEAKER_05:I'm Carly, I'm from Women Who Hunt. So uh just giving the the ladies of the of the community a voice. Uh I'm a mum, I'm a hunter, and uh I'm raising a young hunter as well. And it's really just about uh a lot of these proposed uh things will will impact my family and uh and the next generation coming through. So it's really just about having a voice for for everybody and and showing what an inclusive uh community we do have in this firearm community that we've uh all part of.
SPEAKER_09:Thanks, Carly. Exactly. Oh sorry. I was gonna jump in on Carly's next on my screen. Um Maxwell from In the Dark and the Bullet Points podcast. Um so I'm a late onset hunter, been hunting for probably about 10 years now, and um yeah, a lot of thermal and and night shooting and that um also done a lot of target shooting and seeing the regulations that are coming out in New South Wales is going to be massively affecting that community as well as hunting. So yeah, here to sort of put a voice out for all the target shooters as well. Tobias.
SPEAKER_01:Thanks, Dodge. Um yeah, Tobias from Australian Hunting Backcountry. Um I've been doing my podcast now for about two and a half years. Um, have been shooting and hunting since I was preteen. Um I'm now involved in the firearms industry, and something else about me which I don't talk about uh at all is I was a Queensland police officer for nearly 21 years.
SPEAKER_13:Alright, Lawson. Uh name's Lawson. I uh run Nature's Perks with my uh business partner. Uh we do everything from guided hunts to um hunting courses to giveaways. Um I've been in the hunting industry for quite a while now. I've been a guide for about 10 years. Um you know, I also work in the industry selling firearms and much, much more. Um yeah, so this time I'm here to to say my share on the whole situation. It's very um stressful for myself because this is my living. This is pretty much everything we um you know have been put towards for the last many, many years. And yeah, so um thanks for sorting this out, Cody.
SPEAKER_07:And Zach, to close us off, who's probably the longest running podcaster out of all the people here, I'd say.
SPEAKER_03:That's scary for everyone to hear. Um Zach from Hunting for Nation Podcast, avid hunter, fisherman, outdoorsman, been hunting ever since I can remember. Started with my grandfather, um, I hunt with my kids now, and I love podcasting and uh bringing the community together. And most of you guys and girls have been on the podcast, and yeah, so I'm here to fight and make a stand against the proposed laws in New South Wales and around Australia.
SPEAKER_07:Right now, I'm Dodge uh Wild Origins Australia podcast. Um it's not my first podcast, had some others, and when uh got picked up by Blood Origins and the question was, would we like to do a Blood Origins Origins Foundation one in Australia? I jumped on that and said, why not? So we're a conservation-based community and really just focusing at the moment on what's going on here in Australia and the problems we're all facing. And I think this is a great opportunity to show some unity, to show some gel that this community can get together, can work together, and can be a team, whether we're like Maxwell said, whether we're sporting shooters, target shooters, hunters, archery shooters, we're all here for one purpose, and that's to to continue what we do until our children can pass it on to their children's children. So um I don't know if everyone's okay with me sharing my condolences, and the whole reason we're here is because of a tragic event that has brought this around, and I just I can remember seeing it pop up in the news, and I just I couldn't fathom what was happening. I'm like, this doesn't happen here in Australia. This is just a disgusting act from from two sick people that it's just it was unfathomable for me. I just I wasn't around when 96 happened. I mean, I was alive, I wasn't involved in firearms, so for me, this is my first time really experiencing that on home soil, and that that hurts. It was hard to hard to watch. If anyone wants to jump in and add anything to that, it's been a very hard one.
SPEAKER_04:Um I finished uh recording a podcast and I jumped off. That was the first thing that I think on the social media on the weekend. Um everything that would happen in all the rule for you. Unfortunately, that's uh something that social media.
SPEAKER_03:Um unfortunately all the hatred's being spread around all the communities, and that's what we're trying to combat here by bringing everyone together. And um yeah, it's just no matter what our background is, you know, we're we're all in into hunting and fishing in the outdoors, and we all need to respect each other to keep this passion going.
SPEAKER_01:I was old enough, or I am am old enough to um have been through uh the aftermath of 96. Obviously, the world back then was a very different place. We didn't have social media, so we didn't have you know the the almost live footage being broadcast to us and so forth. So we were reading about it afterwards, or it was on the six o'clock news that night and that sort of thing. Um but uh I saw the effects of the buyback then, the the fallout, um, and obviously the nonsensical firearms laws that then followed, which we are still suffering with today, uh, through legislation that doesn't work in effective government departments, uh, and just like I said, uh nonsensical bans um and then the whole gun buyback. And and friends of mine were affected in the gun buyback where they were not uh fairly treated. Um, and that's one of the things that definitely concerns me about this the particularly the New South Wales um proposal where they're going to remove the right of appeal. Um, because during the last buyback uh you had two courses basically, so you could appeal uh the financial decision, and then after that it was on you to take it um civilly. So it's for me, it's a real concern because I've I've seen what happened, how we were treated. Yes, the world was a very different place back then, but um everybody I guess the point that I want to get across here really to everybody is that regardless of whether you are a target shooter with your 22 or a skeet shooter or somebody who hunts with a compound bow, you all need to be concerned about this potential legislation and the changes because it might not affect you today, but I can guarantee you down the track they will be coming for you.
SPEAKER_08:That's a very important uh point. My wife and I we both shoot um competition and we've just introduced my 12-year-old daughter, uh 13 now, into target shooting as well. Um if they were talking about these reductions in the amount of firearms they can keep, four rifles won't cover the disciplines we shoot, and then still wouldn't allow to cover out in the field either. I mean, if you carry shotgun 22 223 as a minimum and then a 308, you're out of the game. And then if you're talking about lever action, you're talking about field rifle, any of these others, you're straight away out of the game. And I think uh Cody or Dodge, you were saying earlier that there's actually they're taking away the right of right of appeal. Reading the proposal they were talking about, you could apply to have extras, but it stated in their elite shooters only, I believe it was under the discretion of the Commissioner of Police. So I mean that that makes an exclusion for just about everybody, no matter what, unless you're an Olympic shooter.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, we're in the same boat here. So we we do um competition shooting, so there's myself, my husband, and and our 16-year-old son, and I know that a lot of the oldest are in the same boat and that uh the far on number limit. Um you know it just it it's just not viable for for us because we are hunted and we are also competition shooters uh and uh and uh you know effectively all of the trends might be implemented pretty much the uh the thing that you want to do in crash uh every avenue to that is taken away. And I think that's probably the biggest thing that's uh the biggest concern it's it's the legacy that's not gonna be able to be passed down uh from generation to generation. So it's not really my generation that I'm concerned about, it's the future generations that that we're robbing them of these skills and and these traditions um by red panther.
SPEAKER_11:The hardest thing to I'm looking at, sorry, was it's also gonna come down to like an animal welfare issue if you look at it, because we're talking about a maximum of four firearms, right? So you look for your legal requirements for Samber Red, you're 270 plus. Your fellow hog deer chiddle, you're 243. So there's two done. Then you're a duck shooter or a quail shooter, there's your shotgun. Then you've got to make the decision are you gonna be smoking rabbits with a 223 or not? It's it's gonna have to look at that sort of stuff at the same time. It's a bit a bit hard to gauge it, I think. I think that it's a bit of a knee-jerk reaction in a way, and they haven't thought this side of it through properly.
SPEAKER_01:I think that's very obvious, and and that was uh very obvious in the 96 legislation that came about was that this was legislation written by people that have absolutely zero understanding of actual working firearms and how they're used in a real-world situation. I mean, we we've all joked about the comment Belt Fed magazine uh fed shotguns. You know, uh like a simple Google search uh for the premier of New South Wales to come out and say that is simply embarrassing. Um it's woeful. So once again, we're the ones that are going to have to bear the brunt of bureaucrats that can't be bothered doing a job properly and actually coming out and talking to stakeholders and working out what path they they want to try and pick rather than let's just do a blanket ban on on everything that we think is going to grab a headline and and uh appease the people.
SPEAKER_09:Yeah, it's quite a scary concept, really, that they can just instantly say, Okay, that's it. We're we're gonna limit what you can have and and that's that. Um and especially the the right of taking guns without appeal. Like you you look at some competition shooters, um myself included, I've got a fifteen thousand dollar competition rifle. It's like, well, I've got ten other rifles, I'm also a contract shooter. Um I cover my contract shooting stuff with a few of my rifles, I can't cover some of my private shooting with some of my other rifles, and I cover my competition shooting with my compet shoot competition shooting rifles. If I was suddenly limited to four, there's no way that I could work, do competitions, and go shoot shotguns with my mates in the field or whatever that I choose to do in in my private time. Um and it's quite a scary concept that they can just knee-jerk reaction this and and just say that's that. Um so I I really hope that we do see um the public standing up for us as well as all the firearms owners in Australia. Um and I think a big thing is if you've ever thought about getting your firearms licence or your wife doesn't have a firearms licence, you should go and get them their firearms licence.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, the the one thing that's being shared right now is that the limit of firearms is no good and Seeing a lot of stuff on Facebook from the government, from you know just everyday people. Why do you need to do it? At the end of the day, like a golfer has a caveat of different golfers. Each one has their individual purpose. Whether you've got 322s, each one of them would have their own specific purpose. Whether it's you know you've got hindsites on one, you've got you know thermals on another, typical scope on the other one, and then you've got a variety of rifles with small games, big game, ducks, rabbits, competition, everything. You know, we we need this cattle of firings that we have because each one serves the purpose. Even if it doesn't serve a particular purpose, there's a lot of community. There's a lot of people with rifles that are you know over a hundred years old and they've been to you know through wars, they've got stories, you know, they've got memories embedded in these fires, you know. Why does someone need to collect cars? Because they like them, they're you know, there's an uh like a artsy side of it, you know, it's the same with rifles, you know. We've there shouldn't be limits on this type of thing, and it's just ridiculous that these things are being pushed out there.
SPEAKER_08:I think a really hard part we've got with our industry as well is there was a news article that was released like in the last 48 hours, I believe, that they were saying that there is a New South Wales Sydney resident with over 300 firearms in his collection. And it was massive wording. I mean, we're by rights, I suppose, we're the we're the ugly stepchild of media now, but when you've got the media trying to beat it up harder than a trying to beat a dead horse, basically, um, trying to instill the scare on top of everything, and your average Joe probably doesn't look at Facebook like they should. They're happy to take what they read as gospel. We're automatically tagged as criminals until we can prove ourselves the other way around. Like we're far from it. We have to abide by many more laws than the average person. I mean, we're all shooters, we all understand that. But then when you've got the media trying to beat it as well, how do you try and beat the media at their game to prove that we're not? And I guess putting this podcast together, we can show that we're actually from around Australia, we're a diverse different group. And we're able to say, look, none of us have we're not allowed even, you know, you're accused of doing something wrong, we lose our firearms. And then you have to prove yourself right. I mean, this is probably the hardest part that we've got as owners of firearms. And then, yeah, our mate elbow comes out and go from the room.
SPEAKER_01:That's exactly right. It's it's one of the only legislations in Australia where you are guilty until you prove your innocence. Terrorism laws are there, are one of the only other ones. So the the commissioner, the authorised officer in whatever state that runs the weapon licensing branch can use whatever information they deem necessary to suspend or revoke your firearms licence, and then you have to take them to court and disprove it.
SPEAKER_07:Yep. I think the tricky part about that is in Australia having a firearms licence is not a right, it's a privilege. Yes. So then, as you say to your kids, you know, you don't you don't have a right to that, it's a privilege to do that. Um that can be taken away from you, and that's what they're trying to exercise now.
SPEAKER_11:That's I I feel the hardest part with that is too, like looking at some of the proposed changes, when they're talking about this national registry. I understand that Victoria doesn't talk to New South Wales and vice versa, in regards to who owns what. So I think some of the changes might be a handy thing, a national registry where they know who's what and who's got what. Look, that will play in alright, but it's the other stuff that they're going to try and bring in. The national thing should have been done years ago because I know as a person that goes from Victoria to New South Wales every so often shooting, I take a photocopy of my firearms registration papers so I can prove that that own I'm the owner of that firearm. And that's the thing the national thing would bring. But it's it's also the data leak issues that came with it too. We had a data breach here in Victoria in regards to storage addresses and the like. This is something else they're talking about, having the um, you know, the gun, what is it they're calling it, gun safe online platform. I think that's the similar thing to what they're bringing in in WA where there's an app that you have to check in on. I think that's a bit far-fetched, to be honest, and a bit of an overreach, but this is just me and my personal opinions at the same time, unfortunately.
SPEAKER_09:I did hear someone talking the other day about the possibility of them bringing in registrations for barrels, stocks, um, and other firearms componentry, and that'd just be an absolute nightmare if you have a registry that that you you want to sell a stock to someone because you're gonna change to the the new model that you've got to put in a PTA or whatever to to send a stock off. Um I th I think it's it's a good thing and a bad thing at the same time, because like you said, that they're gonna pull in all this other junk that's not really gonna change anything and make anything safer. It's just gonna make it more complicated.
SPEAKER_01:Um the weapons licensing branches are already understaffed, uh under trained, uh overworked, under-resourced. They they can barely manage, in fact, I might even accuse them of being currently not even able to manage the workload that they have, and they're going to potentially quadruple it by doing that. Where's all this funding coming from as well?
SPEAKER_11:Well, when you mentioned that to buy I'm not sorry, Zach. Um when I've been had a safe inspection for my firearms as part of their requirement here in Victoria, I've had um uniform officers turn up, not even sure what they're looking at, and ticking it off on the piece of paper to the registration numbers. It's it's a bit of a hard thing for them to look at it and be able to say, yes, I know what I'm looking at, rather than just ticking the piece of paper.
SPEAKER_13:So and we've had many customers at the shop that we work at and say exactly the same thing. They've come in, they're saying, you know, to the client or the customer, you know, the the person they're checking the safe on, you need to take the bolt out of that gun. It's a lever action. So um you know, I think maybe the police need a little bit more training as well. Um but yeah, it's pretty sad to hear that class, yeah. We get that quite commonly, you know, that we hear that they're doing a safe inspection and they have no idea what they're looking at.
SPEAKER_08:All right, before sorry, Dodge, you're right.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, before we go, we've had someone just jump on. Now I have to reclassify what I said earlier. I said that Zach is probably our most experienced podcaster in this chat right now. But someone has just walked in the room that kicks us all out by about 27 years, I think. Welcome to the room, Jason. Can you hear us?
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, sorry guys. No, Zach's way better anyway.
SPEAKER_07:Not better looking, that's for sure.
SPEAKER_06:Welcome to the podcast, Jason from thinking, definitely better looking and more experienced, definitely.
SPEAKER_07:Jason from Australian Hunting Podcast, one of the OGs, or probably the OG podcaster in Australia. You've missed all the introductions. Go for it. Tell us now, it's all good. Welcome. Um, you're one of the first.
SPEAKER_06:I was just driving. My parents lived north of Sydney, so I had to had to drive up today about four hours. So I mean, yeah, I mean, I'm just looking at this stuff. It's some of the wow, I never know what to say, man. I've never been I think if you guys haven't been online, I think someone just released the draft about an hour ago. If you haven't seen it, it's one of the worst things I've seen, man. PCP air rifles, straight pulls, lever actions, all gone, man. So I don't know. I heard yesterday they're possibly, I don't know if you guys know any different. Maybe you might be able to add, but they're they're two seats, they're two votes down at the moment. That's what I've been hearing. So it's obviously not good. So if it's two votes down, you can consider it to be basically game over at this point, unless something drastically changes. But you know, I don't know how they're gonna ram it through tomorrow, that's all the next couple of days, because they need to do certain things. So I don't think they're gonna have time to do it, especially when people are gonna be giving their point of view. Uh needs to be debated. So I don't know what if there's any special, what would you call it, not privileges, but special things they can do to try and ram it through. I don't I don't know in that respect, but it's bad, man, really bad. Like, even I'm sitting there going, like, what about people that have got like pistols? What about people that have got do different types of stuff, long-range shooting, shotguns? How are you gonna do this on four guns, man? And what's gonna be the criteria for the 10 guns, even for a lot of people? Like, I've got guys ringing me the other day saying they've got 45 guns, and they're not cheap guns, a lot of Matikas, with and this guy doesn't have anything other than Swarovski on his uh on his guns, and he's got 45 at about six and a half thousand a pop per rig. That's 240 grand, man. Like, how are you gonna get the money back for this shit? You know what I mean? How are you gonna that's just one part of it?
SPEAKER_01:I'm not even talking about the money right now, it's just I don't know how much Jason, they won't they won't pay us fairly for these things. They didn't the last time, and they won't do it again. They'll look at accessories and say, sorry, we're not paying for it, or you can sell it on the private market. That that's a that's a nice problem, that won't be a them problem.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, it's pretty bad, man. I just I don't even know what to say at this point, man. Like I'm just I've got this Bluetooth headset on, man. I can only charge it every two days. I've been charging three, four times a day just talking to people and you know, and you know, it's just gonna be careful about what we say online sometimes. I know I can be a bit full on, but I'm trying to calm it down just a little bit, you know, within reason because they are looking at people, man. Like when you stick your head up, you know, you've got to be careful, man. You know, like I always say, try and sign off with, you know, you know, remain calm, you know, those sort of things just keeps the he keeps the heat off you because a lot of us want to say, you know, trust me, I want to say some things, don't worry about that, but I've got to keep it in check, you know what I mean? So you've got to do the right thing.
SPEAKER_07:My phone's been blowing up since it happened to, and to the point where I nearly have to turn notifications off just to work during the day because certain chat groups are just going and none of it is exciting. Like it's all I'm reluctant to say depressing and mental health things. Like I'm you know, you don't want to say those things um in the current world because they'll it's another reason for them to take guns off you. But it it eats at you when you don't have an opportunity to not think about something, and that's all you know. I'm I'm in an industry, a few of you guys are too, where this will not only hurt us as a hobby, but financially. This this is a business. This is a small business for me, but it's a bigger business for a lot of people. I always take the opportunity to talk to people who uh aren't hunters, whether it be on a plane, talk to anyone at the shops or a customer with my day-to-day job. And I had one bring it up just yesterday, and I used an analogy that I've been using for years. And uh the question from this lady was, Why do you need so many guns? And I I told her how many I have. It's more than 10. And her cause her husband is a har Harley builder, maker um custom stuff in his garage. And I said, How many cars have you got registered at this address? She's like, Oh, I'm about 13 or so. I said, How many do you drive? Oh, we got this for that and this for that, and that's for that occasion. So my analogy is the golfing analogy. You can't play golf with one club. You need your putter, your drive, your wedges, your different irons. You just you can't do what we do with three or four uh firearms, and then add on that a second person. Uh Roy Butler, the member for Byron, was saying that his firearms are sized for his children because they are kids, they have shorter stocks, different scope setups. You can't just have it's not a one size fits all situation. But just having these discussions in my day-to-day life outside of my normal circle has shown me a greater understanding and willingness to understand that I hadn't seen prior from people outside our circle. Um, you know, you've got the Jewish community coming out and saying it's not a gun thing. You've got John Howard saying, guys, settle down. I did what I did, but you don't need to do it right now. Like to hear that from him, that was surprising.
SPEAKER_01:Unfortunately, we Yeah, I think the the general consensus out there on um on social media and so forth has been a lot of people are recognizing that it's not a gun problem, it's not a firearm issue. It relates to the people who were wielding that tool at the time. Had they not had access to firearms, and we've seen this before, they would have used a vehicle or they would have used an explosive device or they would have used knives or machetes or something like that. It just so happens that they had access to that at the time because they manipulated the system and they were allowed to. And I don't want to go too deep into the reasons why that happened, because that's not not the direction we want this podcast to go, I don't feel. Um, but it's easy, it's very easy for the government to then turn around and say, bang, there's the quick fix to the issue, uh, and I can look good doing it and appeal to a majority of voters. Because at the end of the day, politicians just care about getting in the next term.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, understandably. Yeah, and I um unfortunately with old Johnny Howard, I think it's more of an ego thing than anything is the reason he's stepped out and said um he doesn't want his firearm laws over overruled and overshadowed with new ones. Um and that's what it comes down to a lot of the time as well in our community ego. So we've seen WAs fall to limit and strict um firearms law this past year, and they weren't able to weren't able to do anything. And unfortunately, that did come down to a lot of ego within the shooting and hunting community, and people not being able to put their egos aside to work together to get things done. And also, that was said earlier is the raised understanding of how firearms work and what what's going on with firearms. So here in South Australia, our firearms branch is randomly two, maybe three people at a moment, and we're seeing delays of PCAs eight to twelve weeks, we're seeing licenses renewals 12, 14, 16, 18 weeks before people are getting their physical license. Um it's it's crazy. If you've got your digital license, which is another big thing, um you get it back quicker, but if you're waiting on that physical card, you're looking at three three, four months before you're getting a physical carbon back. So we're going to they're going to introduce these two firearms laws on an already for system with people who struggling as it is, who have no understanding of how firearms work, it's just gonna be uh terrible, terrible thing. And my understanding of policing in South Australia is they only have to do one shoot a year when it comes to using their firearms. And even then, speaking to um a family member who's a police officer today, he was saying that they don't have their own firearms, they just get given one each day that they have their ship. So they're not even straight into the firearms that they're using every day. They've got no idea of how that that particular handgun works. So it's it just blows my mind that the people that are bringing in laws and enforcing the laws have no clue when it comes to firearm safety or anything.
SPEAKER_12:And another thing to be worried of within our own community is that back when Johnny Howard had his little stunt, people just sort of bowed down and said, Yeah, no, like we'll we'll be good little boys and girls and do what you say. That is not something that needs to happen now. Like a farmer doesn't need to go, well, these new changes don't really affect me because I'm a primary producer, so like I still got what I need. Like if you give them what they want, they'll go, Well, maybe you don't need that many, maybe you don't need that sort of type of firearm to do cattle work, or you don't need that to control uh roos and pigs. In fact, you shouldn't be shooting that ruse at all. So maybe you shouldn't just have guns in general. Like keep taking wherever they can. So those in the community that want to be like, yeah, no, it's just we'll agree to the laws or we'll agree to the changes, we'll hand our guns in, like that's that's not the way to go.
SPEAKER_01:I think that's that was one of the tricks. Sorry, sorry, Cody. Yeah. That was one of the tricks they did back in '96, was they said they're they're only going to target certain types of firearms like semi-automatics, pump action shotguns, that sort of thing. So what what we saw was different sectors of the shooting community duck down behind the barricade and go, okay, well, I only shoot target 22 at the range on the weekend, or I only shoot my double barrel shotgun at uh clay targets. So these changes are not going to affect me. So I'm going to remain silent, and that way I won't catch any uh catch any shrapnel. Um, and I'm still gonna get to maintain the the lifestyle that I want. Um, and that they're by by targeting these different styles of weapons, they're trying to do that again. They're trying to divide us as a community, and that's the main message that I really want to get across out of this podcast is that we all need to stay together. Unity is strength, regardless of what you do, whether you own uh uh 10 rifles, uh one rifle, whether you own a compound boat, whether you're a fisherman, four-wheel driver, whatever it is, we all need to join together and just put on a display to the government, let them know that we will not tolerate this and it's going to cost them at the next election or whatever other lawful means we have at our disposal.
SPEAKER_07:I'll happily put my hand up and say probably a bit not being there for 96. I've I've probably been a bit complacent in the thought that like they did take away some guns, but at least we've got some now, and that you know, we use because that's all I've known. I didn't know what it was before. And I think Cody said it just before we recorded. I actually wrote it down, they didn't have podcasts in nineteen ninety-six. I mean Jason probably started in nineteen ninety-seven, but in nineteen ninety-six they didn't have them.
SPEAKER_04:And I'm not that old, I'm not that old.
SPEAKER_07:Like I was saying, prior to being in the industry as I am now, I was probably a little bit on the back seat of just taking the pedal off a bit and cruising with what I had access to and what I could enjoy. But now just seeing all these people sending letters, contacting their members for parliament from every area of our industry. Bow hunters are into it, pig doggers are into it, four wheel drivers are into it. It's all overlapping, it's all interconnecting.
SPEAKER_08:I think we have a small part of a problem being Australians that it's starting to. played out. I think Tobias and I wouldn't be too far off each other in age. Um I remember at the time when that all the changes happened with Howard, I remember the famous picture of Howard standing there with his hands up in the air, and you could make the outline of his bulletproof vest in the back of his suit. And he was saying that I I'm with you guys, I'm doing this for you know to make sure everyone's safe. And it was a very small protest. To look at the photo, I think it looked like it might have been five, six hundred people. Could have been bigger. But as Australians we seem to sit back and I think you mentioned it a bit earlier or I can't remember who mentioned it, but everyone stood back and yeah it went oh it doesn't affect us so we're not going to stand up and rattle the cage. As Australians we're more relaxed until now's the time that we need to make that push into a shove we've actually the generations moved on from what was adults in the 90s where now what 30 years later that now the younger people coming up are listening to greens and stuff because they're told that they've got to protect the environment and they've got to protect the the the carbon gases and all that kind of stuff but they're not talking about protecting the environment from foxes or introduced species that the government introduced all this kind of stuff and then they're trying to bait them and they're doing aerial shooting and all this kind of stuff and we all stand back and go yeah yeah that's cool. But where's the difference being made and we're trying to do that from our pocket and it's our identity as hunters, fishers. It's not just a hobby that we look at and go yeah cool. I mean you guys all probably have have taken a decent buck. I take a lot of rabbits with my daughters 15 20 minutes from my home um shared them with Cam. Cam shares his deer with me it's all part of that industry. It becomes your identity and now they're trying to strip us of that identity and I think we all agree that we need to stand up and go, hang on, we're Aussies. We love what we do we're not criminals. How about you listen to somebody about what you're trying to do.
SPEAKER_03:So dating myself a little bit um 96 I was three when those laws were brought in I don't remember too much about the before to after stuff but growing up with my grandpa and going shooting with him every fortnight as a young child my display started then because of me seeing how he had to hand over multiple firearms and guns and everything. And then from then it was just every other year was a different firearm he had to give up due to wars coming in. So I was three and my disputation and my distrust of the government started then on this stuff and we're already seeing now you know my son as bad as it sounds he doesn't trust the government because he knows that it he that they took bow hunting away from us and he hates that and he goes and tells his teachers he goes I don't like the government they took away bow hunting and then you know it's just one of those things. It's just their building distrust in the government by doing this type of thing.
SPEAKER_09:It's yeah it's horrible I think the big thing is is just um as Voltry Bodas likes to say if anyone's an F1 fan what's next um is is what it comes down to. It's like okay they've taken that what's next? They they got bow hunting and SA, what's what state's next? What they get get us down to four firearms is is two next is is one next where where does it stop is is the question. I think we in South Australia are the next to go to the polls and I think everyone needs to take a a big look at what firearms policies the people they're voting for have and make sure you're voting for someone who who has a good firearms policy and he's gonna can continue to allow us to do what we want because at the end of the day that's it. They allow us to do it. And there's there's no real option to change that but um we can make sure we put the people in place to to make sure that we can keep doing what we love.
SPEAKER_08:Do we have a figure of how many shooters there are in Australia?
SPEAKER_01:Licensed shooters in Australia 37,000 sorry I think it was 937000 I think the somebody posted some stats on their Instagram I think it's just over one million. It's actually gone down since 96.
SPEAKER_03:We've got a million shooters so in different states like WA you have to have a license for each firearm you own. So when you own multiple that builds up the firearms and firearms licensing numbers what they deal with so I do believe it's just when you take in take that it's what 9430 as of August 2025.
SPEAKER_07:No one for a total of four million guns. Well one of the things you shared today talking about what Jason just said about the Lebanese guys not going into the shop.
SPEAKER_03:Yep yep so I'll I'll I wasn't going to go into that but yep I'll go into that um yeah it's it's very disappointing to see the hunting community at the moment um spreading hate on the community in the hunting community um we have a very rich very you know knowledge base people that put so much time and effort into the hunting community um everyone here knows cats hunters um yeah people like her she goes these people like her she goes um courses through double swa and she is getting attacked from people inside our community people that run hunting um not just faithful groups but actual hunting hunting groups um have been sending her hateful messages because she is a proud woman and as disgusting as not and we should call out these types of people um through their face you know not just make it not make a deal about it on social media but message to these people because without people like cats in the hunting community or bringing outsiders in bringing you know she's done more for women in hunting than anybody I've met um I haven't met CAS but I've podcasting her and spoke to her plenty of time but yeah it's just very very disappointing to see how people especially in the time where we together.
SPEAKER_08:Is CADS a um what is it permanent resident of Australia or she's on a visa? She's Aussie born she is Aussie born okay because I was gonna say if they do bring in the you can't get one while you're on a visa if she was on a visa it'd be good to actually talk to her about what effect this would have on her down the line if they bring that as a Kiwi fellow lived here for 20 years married an Aussie woman got mar got kids they're saying unless he's a security guard he can't have a gun.
SPEAKER_07:Wow he's unfortunately still got the accent but he's more Aussie than I like it's just they haven't thought this through Russia's policy creates unintended consequences.
SPEAKER_08:We're gonna see it again like Min whose faces in the media Minz is in the media screaming and yelling what he's gonna do and what he wants to change yet we've got belt fed magazines in guns you've got what was the other one he talked about there was another one he had complete disinformation about yet they want to bring all these changes in laws I don't I I don't get how they can do that without consultation.
SPEAKER_07:If there's one war law that I'm okay with him bringing in it's the banning of the belt fed shotguns he can have that one.
SPEAKER_06:I think we can accept that no no one can buy 40 mil um grenades anyway to put in a belt fed so it just goes to show who we're dealing with belt fed shotguns. I mean who when's that been available shit I'm I'm I'm I'm 44 but I'm like I don't even remember that being before 1996. I didn't even know what guns even make that sort of thing so I'm like this is what we're dealing with an idiot that doesn't know what he's talking about you know like it's just crazy man but if you're seeing anyone to I just tell him if you're seeing anyone there's a couple of guys I haven't posted about I was going to but I thought it's not going to help you we've even got people up north from the one of these hunter valley clubs up there if anyone's up that way already selling us out saying we only need don't even need five guns and I'm like just tell your friends not to do that because I mean I'm sure anyone here they're not doing that which is good but like why anyone from a club out there saying that sort of stuff is just not helping at all man at all.
SPEAKER_08:Well I think the other one needs we need to stick together. Mins was talking about high capacity firearms well he was talking about high risk weapons.
SPEAKER_07:What are you deeming as a high risk weapon any weapon could be deemed as high risk it depends behind with the nut behind the stock doesn't it you can jump in a semi trailer that's correct higher risk than a firearm and it comes down to the things is the Weapons Provision Act of 98 where they're gonna relook at knives and things like that but like it's starting off with guns and they put they've slipped that in there but like where's again the line of that like any bladed weapon like could that be extended towards broadheads for your archery gear like where like that's like if they've you could effectively take away bow hunting and rough hunting in one fell swim so there's no hunting at all like 100% and that and Mins has come out and said he's going to remove recreational hunting as a um genuine reason to own firearms so they've they've targeted bow hunting in South Australia already we've already seen that what's to stop this government doing the same thing I think the benefit we have to buy us down here in the way of what is actually recreational hunting because I hadn't considered it from a legal word legal terminology standpoint and it doesn't mean that we do it as you know far like just for fun it's it's not that it was a it was a split between you either do it for work or you do it for recreation. Just to remove that as a genuine reason reason wipes out so many New South Wales shooters.
SPEAKER_11:I don't know what the numbers are but the benefit we have here in Victoria sorry Max the benefit we have in Victoria mate is um we've got the game management authority so every year they release harvest data on deer shop by by us hunters on public land and they're providing the numbers to prove that we are an effective management tool we're not a fully effective management tool in the numbers of Sam Badir because they seem to breed like mice and I can never find the mongrel things but you know it's the the thing about it it's yeah a government agency is releasing these figures and data every year. So if they want to argue it you could go to those sorts of regulatory bodies that you have in your states and go, what are the harvest data for us as hunters from last year and use that as a means to prove that hunting is a general and uh that should be considered a capable method for obtaining a firearms license.
SPEAKER_09:I just want to say what happens to all the farmers that rely upon recreational hunters in New South Wales and Queensland to to keep their pigs under control?
SPEAKER_12:How many how many fox numbers that's when you get the government from local land services that take hold and they hire their government people to do all the shooting from the helicopters and stuff so they're just buddy scratching themselves on the back of the thing.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah whereas one thing that I had to say to my little chat group you know who keeps trying to talk Go Zak.
SPEAKER_03:No you go um unfortunately the Invasive Species Council has come out against recreational hunters as well saying that they believe in a two to four gun limit as well as um a caliber limit of three away in the last week as well. So having the invasive species council jacked off um that's not me butchering it but it is a very unfortunate name suits um is very unfortunate that they'll come out as well people that are supposed to be thrown getting introduced and feral out of the top of the landscape have come out against recreational hunters saying that they agree with like we said earlier the greens also um pushing for no one with suburbia to own firearms they're looking at firearms in a safe place like a gun club not being able to store them at your own address and there's a bunch of other things being floated around like that as well which is just horrifying like where a criminal's gonna go they're gonna go to a gun club that houses everyone's guns because they know that's where they're going to be at least private citizens they're keeping them in the house and they don't know unless the media like WA releases home addresses in a big map again look I have no doubt that the invasive species council, the Greens, animal libs they could all write a very impressive report on the taste differences between Ajax and Windex but there should not be people involved with what making decisions on a subject they know nothing about no experience with but act like they do.
SPEAKER_07:But it comes back what I'd like to see is consultation with community and I'm my prediction is I haven't been through this before my prediction is what's going to happen on Monday, Tuesday Wednesdays they're gonna dump a hundred laws on us and we'll all go into hysteria because they'll all be wild. And then over the course of the next six eight twelve months however long it takes to come in we'll rein a few of those back in they'll lose a few of them and by the end of it we're gonna have a sum of them stick and it won't be fun. But it just the rushed const lack of consultation from people that don't know the difference between magazines and clips and all the terminology they should it's the wrong people to make the decisions. Why not you know say hey look we'd like to change the firearms laws because of what's happened let's all talk about it for six to eight to twelve months and see if we can find some sort of happy medium.
SPEAKER_01:Obviously we don't want to see things changed but let how about we wait for the in the investigation to happen and then the coronial investigation and then be guided by the coroner's findings who is who is more independent than uh than this supposed panel that they've put together to consult with that didn't didn't happen to have anyone from the firearms industry on it just constant coincidentally can I ask from a layman's background there Tobias you having the background within the industry back in the years ago what's a coronial inquest gonna do for the benefit of hunters and shooters in in changing laws or introducing laws or backing laws off how would that affect the everyday bloke that wants to go out and shoot I I wouldn't necessarily say it's going to benefit uh anyone it's just the coroner has uh different powers to a criminal investigation. So a coroner can ask different questions, um can direct people to answer questions um can you know examine evidence differently um so basically uh the idea of the coronal would be that they would the cor coroner would then come out with some recommendations rather than trying to find guilt or or um innocence they can come out with some recommendations about what has actually happened and what they might think is going to change. So you know for example a child death uh they would investigate that and they would say maybe it's it's because of this uh particular product that was in the cot with the child or something like that and therefore they'd recommend you know it'd be banned or changed or uh you know something along those lines so it could be a benefit for for shooters and hunters to wait for that. And again post-96 what was one of the first things that Johnny Howard did stop the coronal inquest in the Port Arthur so yeah it could go either way like there's no guarantee it's going to be a benefit um but that would be that would be how you would approach this situation from an evidence based perspective rather than this knee jerk type reaction one thing I'm worried about is firearms law legislation rarely well I don't know that it's ever gone backwards.
SPEAKER_07:So once it's been put in it doesn't go backwards.
SPEAKER_01:Whether it was right or wrong once it's in it's hard to reverse no and that's the big thing too that people need to understand the whole whole of us need to understand is that once we lose like you said before we don't have a right we're not America we don't have a Second Amendment everything that we're afforded is a freedom and once you lose that freedom it never comes back. So even if the government is wrong they they won't change it.
SPEAKER_08:They will never take a backward step that they'll just change it and progress it forward slightly so something like the firearm laws being changed they can actually be forced through Parliament or do they have to actually sit for a debate and then later on down the track can it be I think the words rescinded can it be brought back upon debate again or not?
SPEAKER_09:I think the big issue is that is there enough people to debate it.
SPEAKER_01:So if if there isn't I I my understanding is if there isn't enough dissent within uh either House um if there isn't enough objection to it then it doesn't have to go through a debate so they can put it up for for um for vote and if if it's unanimous or the the majority I think it has to be over 70% but whatever it is if it if it gets through the vote then it it just goes through. So this is my understanding is in New South Wales you've got the the lower and the upper house and this bill that they're going to present has to go through both first of all so this is why it's still important for people to be emailing calling and writing politicians to say to them that you this is going to cost you in the long run. It's going to cost you votes in the long run unless you object to this so they need and unfortunately the the Minz's party uh has a majority um power there at the moment so it's going to require his own party members to go against him.
SPEAKER_03:Yes something that was said that was very very good there is emailing your local MPs state and like your your local and federal MPs emailing your police minister emailing your police commissioner your premier um as as The statement. So our police commissioner actually came out the other day on a radio interview saying that the laws are sufficient and that the process that we go through here in South Australia to get a firearms license and then apply for firearms is sufficient enough. So that's one benefit if things aren't being brought through on a federal level. But yeah, the only way we can get politicians to speak for us is to email them in numbers and not just a generic email. Put it in your own words. If you're like me, very dyslexic, I write a rough email into ChatGPT and tell it to fix it, make all the grammar, spelling, everything to make it flow better, and then also tell it that this is going to an MP, so also include what it needs to meet the meet the standards that the MPs will actually sit down and consider as an email and then reach out to your moment and sign them and also use. So we've got a bunch of different shooting organizations that are uh sharing different assignments. Um we need these shooting organizations to work together. Um like I said about WA, they need to put their egos aside and work together. It doesn't matter what discipline of shooting you do, we have to put our egos down. Email every entity, every contact you can get your wife, your dad, your mum, your uncle, your auntie, everybody to email. I did five emails the other night with assistance of ChatGPT, it took me five minutes to get those emails out. It is not a hard thing to do at the moment. It's not a hard thing to personalize them, but it's something that we need to do.
SPEAKER_12:Adding on to that, people in the community who if you've got the energy, like we'll circle cats back into this, if you got the energy to write a hateful letter, buddy pegging her out, like she's a lovely woman, I consider her family. We go hunting at least once a year together. If you got the energy to beat on her, who's a big supporter and advocate for all things hunting and uh firearms related, get bugger off of that energy attacking on the people that are doing good and focus on doing the emails for the MPs. Like put the energy where it needs to go, not where it's gonna divide us.
SPEAKER_09:It's not a time for hate.
SPEAKER_03:No, it's not complaining on social media, you've got the time to write an email, whether it's through chat GPT or just write it yourself. Um and if you're complaining on social media or complaining in person about whether these firearms are really going to affect you, and you do not write to your federal, state, police minister, police commissioner, premier, whoever you need to send these emails to, you don't deserve to have firearms at the end of it. Because you aren't fighting for your passion. You aren't fighting for your right to own firearms. So I don't want to hear any complaining from anybody that's not.
SPEAKER_07:And with the emails too, I've heard people say that well, the responses have been coming through mixed from the people they're emailing, but one of the main themes is uh they're not responding to cut and paste emails. So when I use GPT, I say things like, This is an emotional topic for me. This affects my livelihood. Please add the right amount of emotion using Australian English, Australian language and give me 10 different varieties of this email. And then it does it for you. And then I spit that out. I've done that. Um just to update on the petitions, the two petitions, because people seem to forget or miss the fact there's two. There's one for the legislative assembly is currently at 73,884 signatures. Sorry, that's the lower house, and the upper house one is at 50,708. Um so those links for those will be in the show notes for this when it comes out this episode. But keep signing. That's we shut down their website. The amount of people logging in to sign over the last 72 hours has shut down and slowed down Parliament's own website capacity, which is increasing incredible.
SPEAKER_03:Just New South Wales people. That's not Australia wide, that's New South Wales resident. So that's amazing to see those nothing. But unfortunately, those two petitions should have exactly the same amount of signatures on them.
SPEAKER_01:But I think one of the other things that we need to get across to the entire Australian population is that if we do have this gun buyback, um where do they think the funding for that is gonna come? How much is it gonna cost? They've they've estimated that I've seen I've read things between one billion and fifteen billion. Where do the where do the people of Australia think that the funding that's for this is gonna come? It's it's gonna have to come out of everybody's pocket. It's the the shooters are not gonna be paying for this on their own. It's gonna be an increase in the Medicare levy, some other form of tax, something. You know, Albanese's not gonna not gonna sell his assets and and fund it privately, is he?
SPEAKER_09:I think the thing is with that, there's so many things that that 15 well one even one billion dollars could make so much of a difference in in so many things in Australia, the homeless. There's a number of things like and you say 15 billion, like why aren't we putting that towards anti-terrorism? Why why aren't AZO and and the others getting back to full staff and and actually focusing on protecting our country instead of trying to take away the rights of our countrymen?
SPEAKER_06:I was gonna say too, one of the bad parts about it too is this um NCAP part of it, and having that gets knocked on the head very early, too. I'm not sure if you guys spoke about it before I logged on, but apparently what happened was this guy got a license in 2015, didn't get the photo applied in 2020. As we all know, mate, it doesn't take three years to get a license. So I'd say what's happened is it's a wild guess, but this is what most people are saying is that he got the line, he applied for it. They knew something was up with this guy, obviously. They tried to reject him, and then they took he took him to the tribunal at one, and they gave him the gun. So he got the license. So that needs to be knocked on the head. I'm hoping, at least, I know the Greens are our enemies, but I'm hoping for they at least, because then they'll be pretty civil liberties, they normally are okay. I hate them, like all of us sitting there, let's get that clear. But I'm hoping they knock that on the head. I mean, otherwise they'll be the cops will be just going, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, we're gonna start looking at could be any reason. And then who's gonna spend five, ten grand going to court to try and fight it?
SPEAKER_01:Where where about in any other democracy? Do you not have the right to appeal a decision by a government department? Because that's no longer a democracy. Exactly. Yeah, shock.
SPEAKER_06:I couldn't believe I was reading that. Man, I go, who does this guy think he is, man? Like, like just the you know, yeah, no democratic process, you can't go to NCAT. That's the sort of the cheapest and most effective option to challenge government decision. I'm hoping that gets knocked on the head first, followed by take the pick, really. You know what I mean? The the limits obviously got to go straight for, you know, got to go. So basically all we have is basically bold actions and you know, over shotguns with lane target. That's pretty much it, isn't it? Really? What else is left?
SPEAKER_12:Yeah, it's kind of annoying because like my old man's primary producer, so he's got the Cat C and he still has a the old Ruger 1022. So how is it that like he can still have that? He doesn't touch it, like barely gets used because he prefers a bolt action because it's more accurate. So how is it he can still hang on to that? But like a bloke that goes out west pick shooting with a lever action 30-30 and does a good job doing it, why does he get to lose that like over because it might be able to shoot a bit quicker if you if he can crank it hard enough?
SPEAKER_01:Again, the the laws are being based on uh emotion, not evidence, not not common sense because of the the images on the news uh and what the um the the government thinks is what the people want to hear. And a majority of people don't actually understand firearms and how they work and the differences between them. So for them it it's it makes sense because they see these horrible images and and hear the news article and think the government's doing a good thing because they're banning this. Um and we saw that exactly the same thing in '96 where you know like they banned pump action shotguns, but didn't ban pump action rifles. Not not that either of them should have been banned, but but why choose one over the other? It was it didn't make sense then, and it's not going to make sense now, unfortunately.
SPEAKER_10:Well, that'll be a large group of people that are impacted.
SPEAKER_03:Unfortunately, when it comes to the people who have firearms laws, their knowledge of firearms comes from watching movies like John Wick and Terminator. It's like if someone made all of our car laws based on watching Tokyo Drift and the other parts of the rest movies. It's absolutely ridiculous that the people that are making these laws have absolutely no clue on what's going on.
SPEAKER_11:We have a demographic down here in Victoria of hound hunters, a large group of people that do it regularly, and a lot of those guys run pump action rifles. So this will be something that will if it comes into effect in Victoria, it's gonna change a lot of people in the way they hunt. So sorry, I had dropped out earlier, so I'm back.
SPEAKER_07:You're back. Can we just see if Luke can talk? He's been trying to play with some microphone issues. Can you hear us, Luke?
SPEAKER_09:Like like Jason said earlier, um with with the banning of those sorts of things, like the wedge toe industries, they'll get wiped out, um Australian sporting agencies, um, all all the importers of of those button release and the the Templeton style shotguns and rifles and that, like that's a whole industry. That's that's people's livelihood. They're they're employing ten, fifteen people, like at least at a minimum, to run their operations. Then all those people need to find new jobs. Like, how do you how do you recover from that?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, they won't. That's the thing. That's what we saw post-96. A lot of gun shops closed down, a lot of places went out of business. And and the the people that have designed and and are importing those guns did so because of the laws that were brought in back then. So they're compliant with the laws. And now the the government just wants to keep moving the goalpost until eventually we're we're gonna be down to slingshots.
SPEAKER_07:Has anyone heard of anything happening? Yeah, well, they are illegal. Um has anyone heard of anything happening since this event? Like, have the police come and done anything, taken anything? And I'll give you an example. I had an interesting chat with a contract shooter. The cops turned up on his door and requested, they literally said, We will be there at one o'clock, not the old can we come? Um and they forcibly took under a temporary warrant his two legal suppressors uh and said just due to the current situation we're removing them from the community. And he had nothing but to give them any word on that, Max, on your side of things? What what what state was that in? New South.
SPEAKER_09:Okay, interesting. I mean I'm in South Australia. I'm I am an owner of suppressors um for for urban work that I do. Um I haven't heard anything about it. Um but yeah, that's quite interesting that they've done that. Um I don't know why they would do that and and what law they've done that under, but yeah, that's that's a strange one. I haven't heard of any anything like that happening.
SPEAKER_07:But I just asked him, were they actually real policemen?
SPEAKER_09:Or were they Yeah, yeah, that's that's very strange. Like I mean, if they're gonna do that, it's like, well, why aren't they just taking your whole inventory of guns if if they're expecting it like what's a suppressor gonna do? The terrorists didn't have suppressors. Um and and why would they use them? They're they're trying to cause as much emotional damage as they can as well as physical. Um the the loud gunshots are are a plus for them. Um it it causes it it's yeah, it absolutely horrible to hear like when you watch the videos and stuff. Um and yeah, it's I'm dumbfounded, honestly.
SPEAKER_07:Um you heard of anything being taken, Chase, or any? No, man, not from anyone, no.
SPEAKER_06:I just just get telling people to so just keep it, you know, sign off with, you know, keep calm, stay calm, obey the law, even though sometimes you don't feel like you want to say that, but that's what you have to do. You just gotta keep them, you know, keep them, keep keep the sharks at bay, so to speak. So it's a culture, it's a that's a political, it's not cultural, it's not cultural, it's not we can sit here and talk about what's not right and what's not this, but it's purely political, man. Nothing more, nothing less, and it's a different fight, it's not a cultural fight, it's a different one. That's where I think we pull up short a lot of the time.
SPEAKER_07:One thing they've removed from us is our right to protest, too. And you know, that's a very clever, a very clever timing choice. Um, I was in a chat the other day, and I won't say who said it, because you probably won't want it said out loud, but he said they haven't removed your right to walk down both sides of the road legally as a large group, but as soon as you step onto the road, you're in trouble. Um so they were you know politely suggesting that that might be an option, but I definitely don't recommend that sort of thing happening yet.
SPEAKER_03:That is unfortunately with protests, that's our biggest form of publicity. If things do go to a protest form and they allow a protest in New South Wales, um we have to be legal, respectful. That has to go because that would be our largest public gathering, and everyone has to do the right thing because as soon as as we've said we protest in the past with all these other issues, as soon as bad eggs show up to start causing issues, it just can't actually be all day. Like we have to do things smart about it. And as angry as we are, like you know, I've joked around about you know, we need to block off you know, all the cities with drugs to make a big jokes, obviously, but like we're all emotionally upset about this because it is our lives, like it's not just a part of the weekend or soccer on the weekend. Each one of us sitting here right now hunting, shooting, the outdoors is who we are.
SPEAKER_07:There was even some suggestion about if there is to be a march, whether it be a dress code or something like that. Like, I I think the bigger boys, the bigger players that would usually organise a march are nearly reluctant to put their name to it too. We all think it's a great idea, but no one wants to put that name forward and say, well, this is the double SAA march, because then anything negative falls back on them. Um so that you know, I don't think someone needs to have the Kahoonas to step up and do it.
SPEAKER_12:Um I don't think it'll be the Wild Origins Australia march, but I was just about to suggest it's interesting with for the whole like with the double SAA, like there's been a bit of a divide there too. It's like who like which organisation do we back up to push the fight for? Like do we do you back Australian Recreational Union, do you back doubles double a? And I was like, no, you shouldn't back them because they did this and that back then you shouldn't back these ones because they're only fresh, they they don't have enough buddy members to get anything across. But like I I don't know how to handle that side of it, but I think support all of them and whoever gets a bit of a lead up and everyone back them up on it.
SPEAKER_09:One team better than none.
SPEAKER_06:They've done this on purpose, man. It's obvious why they've done it, you know, and then a lot of people are gonna be. I mean, I'm on holidays for a week, I'm gonna know you guys too. Most people are on holidays for most of January, so they've done this on purpose, man. You know, to because they know people are gonna be on one, you know, with the situation, just gonna put down there's no beast with anyone at this point. We've just got to get it done the best way we can.
SPEAKER_01:To your point, Cody, I think it would be great if everybody had the um the budget to share the love across a number of different um associations and uh unions and and groups and so forth. Um, but if you don't, um then definitely do some research, have a look at who is out there um you know, really pushing pushing the the the whole narrative, not just a self-serving narrative.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, some of our larger organizations have uh enormous kitties already in the bank. I mean, obviously that's not designed to be used for this, but what's the point in having it? There's one Sydney Gun Club, oh Sydney Hunting Club with several hundred thousand in the bank. What's it for if you can't use it for events like this? I'm not I'm not saying you know that I'm not putting my money in two, but how many committees and everyone says, oh, we just need one. If every hunter in Australia or every shooter in Australia, 947,000, put in ten dollars, we'd have, you know, however many millions of dollars. Yeah, we've already done that. We're already members of how many clubs? Where is that money being spent? Oh, it's we're working on it in the background. I want to see it in the foreground. One of our major shooting parties, probably hate me for saying it, shoes Farmers Fishers Party. Yeah, they're out there putting some content out. Hire an editor, put together a classy video that can, you know, reach wide because it's just it just frustrates me that we've got this financial backing behind these lots of little clubs, or we shouldn't say little, lots of different options. But it's not one of them is stepping up that I can see, or doing what we're doing here, coming together that I can see. I mean, that might be happening in the background, but let's get some unity behind some of these larger clubs.
SPEAKER_06:Surely there's got to be one guy out there, or two, or three, or ten, that have just got the big bucks back. Where are they? Where are the Clive Palmers or the I don't know, who cares? I don't care where the money comes from at this point. Where are they? You know what I mean? Like, and you're not the first one to say that there's a lot of stuff going out there. People just trying if they want to be on the internet, but they're just not like you said, the videos that you were just referring to. Like, you know, I spoke to Alex, he called me the other day from Shooters, Vicious and Farmers. I said, Well, once you they know you're talking to me, they're probably not gonna want, you know. I said, I don't care, man. I'll share the stuff. Doesn't bother me, let's just get it done, man. Whatever's gone's gone. Let's move on. And I said, You've got to get them out there. But you know, some people even talking to me, going, Well, they're just the editing's not there, and it's a bit They're looking down when they're talking, and I said, We've got to make it professional if we possibly can. So at least as best as we possibly can. I know it's time sensitive, but try your best, bit editing, you know, just gonna make your life better. Be prepared, but I get how can you be prepared when this just gets straight on you for five days before Christmas?
SPEAKER_01:So is there an option for a high court appeal to the laws in New South Wales?
SPEAKER_07:I can ask Chat GPT.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I'm just thinking like I I do remember there were there were funds set up uh at times for um further legal costs. So if this legislation does come in, is pushed through, perhaps people are keeping things in in reserve for um yeah, paying big legal fees and trying to challenge it that way. Because let's face it, the re that's realistically the only option that people have.
SPEAKER_03:Everyone wants to be the name behind it, but no one wants to be the face. There's a lot of stuff going out behind closed doors, and we've seen that with biopic here in South Australia. Everything happened behind closed doors, and we try to face it. Everything behind everything has another friend that has another one. So that the numbers were out there. And we are not giving a single fire to veto. Any firearm fire?
SPEAKER_07:To answer your question, Tobias. Yes. You can challenge this is obviously AI, not me. You can challenge legislation changes in the High Court if you believe federal law is unconstitutional or beyond parliament powers, parliamentary powers. Uh the High Court won't veto laws, but can declare them invalid if they breach the constitution, like implied uh freedoms or power limits, making them futurally ineffective. So it needs to infringe on implied freedoms like free political communication or exceed the power of parliament's constitutional powers. I mean, we all agree with this being those options, but uh it'd be interesting to see the money to do it, man.
SPEAKER_06:That's the problem now they'll only hear as far as anyone said freedom and constitutional things, so they choose what they hear too, so they can just say they're interested. If it's political, it could be a problem too, you know, sometimes and it was good. Yeah, some people even say, Listen, I don't want to go to this path, but you know, so if we get if we can have 10 guns and and you have to get a membership, well then who stands to profit by that? You know what I mean? We could think we've all got half an idea of what I'm talking about here. So having to go to the range and you know, wanting to turn out about a double SWA, let's be honest. You know, are they gonna fight for this or are they gonna be pumping their fists saying great for us? You know what I mean? We've got now a shit ton of money coming. Like it's not about that for me, man. Never has been. So I'm sure the guy sitting here is exactly the same made money off this fence, and you know, they're gonna do the right thing too, mate, and suffer the consequences.
SPEAKER_08:I think one of the turn on I think one of the hard parts, Jason, you were saying before, why haven't we got big money backers? I think the one question they're gonna ask is what's in it for me.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, man, just doing the right thing, man. Like, you know, we're all here giving up our time because we want to be, you know, not because you know, we're making 200 grand a year or a million bucks a year or even ten grand a year, you know what I mean? It's just gonna be love this sport, man, and it's been ripped away from us, man. I just never thought I'd see this in my lifetime. Even with WA stuff, I saw it. You know, they're a bit funny over there, there's probably something in the water over there, I don't know, but you know, I've just kind of thinking I thought I'd never come here, man, and I'm having these debates with people, you know, people sitting there going hunting, and three months later I'm sitting here and I'm not sure which one of you guys are from New South Wales here, but I've just never seen anything this bad, man. I've been known about this for years, man, and people disregarded it, and I wanted to think we can complacent now. We definitely won't be complacent.
SPEAKER_01:I think there are some organisations and um wealthy backers out there who just don't want to have their name or business at the forefront of this movement. So and that's that's a little bit of uh insider information. Um so there there is money behind it. Uh there is some um political uh sway that can be applied. Um but it just needs to be the pressure needs to be put in the right place.
SPEAKER_08:I suppose anything positive, like positive, anything anyone that's gonna back it is going to be tagged as a negative because they're trying to promote more guns in the community, aren't they? Or the media's gonna portray it as they're trying to keep as many guns as they can in the community, where we're just trying to stick within the laws we've got and look at the actual real issue of the problem, not the guns in the community, but what caused the issue to start with.
SPEAKER_12:It's annoying too because like we all know each other through reputation or know each other personally, but like majority of the community work we're not bad people. Like and I don't and it's hard for the media to see that. Like they don't see what we had recently with boars for a cause. Like that was a charity-driven event where bow hunters went out and shot bores and raised money and got kids buddy toys for Christmas at the hospital, like Britt Meldrum's currently running a giveaway for a jet or hunt, I guess that's all hunter-driven, but that money's going towards boys from the bush. And you know, just like if you got rid of the general reason for hunting as a reason for a firearm, like how's that affecting rural communities? Like my hometown of O Ronald will be surrounded by public land hunting, and nearly like during the winter months and during the rut, like if I go through town, there'll be hunters in camo walking up to the servos ready to get ready to go out, or they've just had success and they're going to the pie shop. Like, that's if they can't do that anymore, then there's no income going into my local town, and it's like and that'll affect elsewhere as well.
SPEAKER_01:Katie, the the problem there is that the government recognises that we spend our disposable income on this hobby. So if they remove that hobby, we still have this disposable income. So we will then spend that on something else, whether it's motorbikes or fishing or or playing the pokies or sitting at the pub and getting drunk all day. Either way, they still get their tax out of us because we are geared to spend that disposable income. And that that this is this has been explained. I think Clark McGee was the one that uh that um quoted it once upon a uh in one of his videos. Um so the government the government doesn't care that a regional centre will die uh if there's no hunters going through it. I mean, look at Dargo, that that place there would would probably shrivel up and die if they removed and stopped deer hunting in Victoria. The government doesn't care about that. Because at the end of the day, the tax dollars are still gonna come to them just through a different source.
SPEAKER_12:Oh, but they won't get my money because I'll leave.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I'm going to New Zealand. New Zealand. Yep, New Zealand with me to New Zealand.
SPEAKER_03:Unfortunately, the New Zealand lawmakers are looking to follow the Australian laws. Uh whatever comes down to this, there's already tools that they're going to follow. Is that you're gonna make me cry, mate?
SPEAKER_09:Right, we can all go to Texas.
SPEAKER_08:Texas.
SPEAKER_03:We bring Texas to Australia and maybe live living here.
SPEAKER_06:You know, it's crazy, isn't it? Like people ringing me saying, oh mate, they're looking at you know, Florida real estate already, and I'm like, why do we have to leave our friends, family, loved ones because of what's happening with these bastards, you know what I mean? Like it makes me sick, I swear to God, you know. Like, you know, you know, but look at this man, they're just ruthless, these people, like just ruthless, cold-hearted, don't care about us. And you know, we just did a miracle, man, come by Monday or Tuesday. I mean, hopefully some listen, he can have his belt fed and he can have his maybe Australian citizenship, even though you know it was rightly one of the fellows mentioned there's a couple of Kiwi guys that are freaking out, they're gonna lose their licenses. So um, and I totally agree, man, that that sucks, but you know, they're not gonna accept nothing. They're not gonna accept nothing. We know that. So I think Dodge said it at the start. Hopefully, we just try and water it down to some degree. Uh, what we're gonna be successful in watering down, if anything, at this stage, if they just ram it through, it the whole thing could go through now. That's how bad things could get.
SPEAKER_01:If if the government is anything like uh in the negotiation, it's a typical tactic where you know you aim high, you you come in low, low, high, low, high, low, high, and then you settle somewhere in the middle. So this may be shock and awe tactics where they say we're going to aim for four, and then uh you know, through argument or debate or whatever, they'll settle on six or eight or or whatever. Regardless of that, though, it is still a loss of freedom because the reality is that up until this point, we have for a majority been law-abiding, hard-working citizens of this country. And regardless of how many firearms we own, it's now come down to two people who circumvented certain parts of the system, and there were government, other government failings and lack of communication between state and federal agencies that has resulted in this catastrophe. And coming back to what was said at the start, this is not a firearms issue, this is a terrorist attack. And and uh that needs to be highlighted throughout the media uh and and all the politicians need to be reminded of that.
SPEAKER_07:I want to play devil's advocate. I want to move forward a little bit into the hypothetical future. We're allowed five. We'll just stick with the number. What's going to happen to the people that say no?
SPEAKER_01:I would suggest all man, yeah.
SPEAKER_07:So they'll be doing the reference.
SPEAKER_01:That's that's exactly right. Pre-96, we didn't have registration of individual firearms. So they had no idea how many how many guns were out there, who owned how many, blah, blah, blah. Now, since compulsory registration, they know who has this number, they know exactly where they are. Um, so if you don't comply, I can guarantee you there will be there'll be a m moratorium time frame, and once we get past that, if you don't comply, your door will be kicked in, your weapons license will be revoked, um, there'll be probably charges laid. It'll it'll like a terrorist. Yeah, exactly. We're gonna see it. Do I think we're going to see it?
SPEAKER_07:Do you think we're gonna do you think people would do that, stand for it that strongly?
SPEAKER_01:I think there's there's potential for people to yeah, to do that. Maybe I shouldn't say this on air, but um I do know uh you know that the the sale of um four-inch PVC pipe post by 96 went up exponentially.
SPEAKER_06:Just saying people are saying that, but I wouldn't say that publicly, obviously. But a lot people say talk that people say that too, but then when it comes down to a man, they they generally don't do it, man. You know what I mean? No one wants to afford lawyer binding, no one wants to lose their license, you know what I mean. And but listen, there this probably is a part way around it, I guess, if not for me so much. I haven't got any kids and all that. If you're married, get your wife a license. If you've got 18-year-old kids, get them a license to marry another one. That way, at least if you've got you know 15 or 20, you can spread the load amongst family members, you know what I mean. But there's a lot of guys ringing me, single, no kids, that there's no way from the door, man. So there's no way to get out of that, you know. One guy has spoken the other day, man. He's got 350 guns, man. You know, like worth a lot of money, a lot of heirlooms, a lot of winning chesters, man. He's like freaking out, man. He's got he's no kids, his wife passed away. He's what's he gonna do, man? He's just beside himself, man. I said, Oh, just calm down, man. It's all you can do. I know you're angry. Like, I've gone through spates have been really angry, man. Like, you know, working around, huffing and puffing and swearing, and just gotta calm down, man. You've got to calm down, you know what I mean, because it's not gonna help anyone.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, look, even I mean, that's an extreme example, 350. I I do know a guy that's got over a hundred, uh, and they're all very high-end firearms. Um, so he's you know, beside himself as well. Um, I mean, we're in Queensland, so we may not be affected uh at this stage, it's only probably a matter of time. But even if we were, if they said four, okay. Um, so in my example, I've got a 16-year-old son. I've got two firearms here that I want to gift him that he hunts with at the moment. He does have a Queensland miner's license, weapons miner's license. So it's legal for him to hunt with those firearms. Um but I want to gift him those when he turns 18, transfer them to his licence. My father is um has also just gifted me two of his firearms because because of his age and impairment, he's no longer able to hunt. So he wants to see them used. So there's two firearms, two more firearms that have very unique sentimental value to me. So even without my own firearms, there's my four already. So where and that I don't I don't feel that that's an excessive amount. Where do we go from here? And this is this is what the the government is failing to take into consideration. The likes of Minns with the comments that he comes out and makes around, you know, why do you need these, uh, why do you need this many? Why do you need these, you know, blah blah blah. You've got you've got no perspective, and you're not interested in hearing our side of the of the story and consulting with the with the industry or or any of the hunting community. So you're never going to understand.
SPEAKER_06:Wouldn't do anyone either. I don't think he's even talking to anyone that's like, I don't know if you guys are heard any different, but he won't talk to anyone from the industry, mate. Period, zip, nada, nothing. So uh I don't know if you guys have heard the same thing, but you know, like I said, I don't know if you guys do, but I just shoot plays. I um used to have my pistols because I didn't have time, but you know, I mean shooting, gun shooting, people do PRS, they shoot clays, they do a lot of different stuff, man. Like, how is four even gonna do anything, man? Like, it's just I don't know, man. That could be a thing you don't even thank God they just got hunting off. But I mean, look at all the rest of the stuff on the field, man. Like I was just I was talking to Nate from Edge of the Outpack, you know, like he's he got a bunch of PCP air rifles, they're on the list now. You can't even have those, it looks like the old Springer could be gone too, depending on how they shoot, you know, like air rifles for God's sake. I mean, God, this is terrible. Like, I've just never seen anything like it, man.
SPEAKER_09:Absolutely crazy.
SPEAKER_07:Like I was just uh talking about Edge of the Outback, he's shared the draft bill, and I've just got it here in front of me. It's called, believe it or not, the Terrorism and Other Legislation Amendment Bill. So we're gonna build we're gonna ban air rifles under a terrorism bill.
SPEAKER_01:What an insane one that that just shows the mentality of it, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_11:It's the lack of research that's been involved in it too, before they've come out with these allegations. I can skip those steps.
SPEAKER_06:I mean we're probably a little bit pissed off too, eh? Like, I know I've said it, man. Like, I mean, how do you guys feel about the conflict from freaking no being here us, man? It's nothing to do with us at all. Like, I've I've said it before, yeah, they've got some problems, but this is their fight, man. Head back home and have that fight over there, mate. Like, this has nothing to do with us, and we're sitting here in this chat having to talk about all this stuff, and it's nothing to even do with us. This is like a conflict from the three corners of the way around the world. Like, what is going on? Like, crazy.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that that's a whole other podcast, Jason.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, well, someone's just feel defeated, mate, see this stuff and then quite hope to you know, like I don't want to get negative, I'm trying not to, man. But it's like it's constantly like, you know what I mean? And I listen, I I've I'm trying to say to say like we just have no representation. Yet we've got good political parties and all that, but you know, the other listen, the only one that's got the money, let's be honest, is double SAA, and they've they would say, Listen, I don't want to hustle them because I don't know what I don't hear, but yeah, there's some good people there. I'm I'm friends with some of them now, still to this day, they're some good people. They're in this mess, a lot of it, because they've got to stand up for us, man. You know, I mean that that's just the fact that that's just gonna be tricks and you know, like where are they now? Yeah, they're talking to people, but they don't even have the ear of the government. I mean, he's not talking to anyone. Where are we at? I don't want to lay blame on anyone, man. But we yeah, we yeah, back when Ted Rain was in there, it was 1996. I used to watch this guy, he was the head of the double SAA. Strong, direct, to the point. Now we've got weak people running the place, you know, that won't stand up and they're too scared to say anything, man. It's got to be political or what how bad's it gonna look. Like it's too late for that now, man. They've got to step up, otherwise, we're don't think if you're in Queensland and Northern Territory, I mean, they've said good things, these parliamentarians right now, there's gonna be no changes, or they'd have to see what the changes are. But you know, if we don't think it's coming, we've had two states in what less than a year that now have we're possibly gonna have you know limits on how many you can own. So what's next? Queensland and Victoria. I mean, Jesus, I don't know how Victoria hasn't done it yet. It's crazy down there with with Allen, Senator Allen. So then you saw the bow hunting ban, as Zach said, in um you know South Australia, but then there's not much left, is there? And then Tasmania is not much left, man. So we've got two in a year. That's when it's only got three or four states to go, plus a couple of territories, then you know, ACT will probably go the same way as well. So maybe the next two or three years, none of us were gonna have limits in every single state, you know. So whatever they're trying to do, they've got to step it up now, man. Otherwise, it's two other states are watching this game. Yep, that's what we're gonna do to eventually. And again, all this is relied on. How do you guys feel? All this relied on was someone just doing something stupid with a gun. We've all been sitting here, I guess, probably sitting on our laurels a little bit, you know, just took one shooting man, and that was it. That that that's what our whole sport wrote on. Just no one doing something bad with a gun. That's that's we've been you know complacent, I guess, you know, and just took that one issue, one thing, now we're in the ship.
SPEAKER_09:The hard thing is they weren't even Australians, really. Like you can't you can't sit here and call them Australians, they weren't. Um and to uh to take this away, I'm angry. I I I'm angry, I'm really, really angry, but you just gotta calm heads prevail. Um but yeah, I I don't know how you all else feel, but yeah, I'm I'm sad, I'm saddened, and I'm angry. Yeah, it's emotional.
SPEAKER_06:People gotta call. That's that's what they listen to. Like I got on the phone, being with so many people on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, just said 30 seconds, guys, tell them make sure it's just gonna be two, two or three paragraphs. They're not gonna read something that's long, just two or three paragraphs. I don't support this. This is gonna affect my business, it's gonna affect my livelihood, whatever they need to say at this point, you know what I mean, just to get it over the line and so they're gonna read it. Not that's some people are reading two or three pages. I said, No, they're not gonna read that, guys. One to two to three paragraphs at best, short paragraphs. I don't support this. That's it. Move on.
SPEAKER_07:I don't support this, and I will not be voting for you next year. Uh well next next time it comes around. They need to know the consequences. I want to we've delved into a lot of things tonight. Uh Lawson's joined us right for the finish. Uh we've we've covered off a lot of things.
SPEAKER_01:Typical Lawton mode he shows up when the work's over.
SPEAKER_07:Oh blisters. Yeah, it's been here for a while, to be fair. Hey, Luke's there. Was it the first time?
SPEAKER_06:He doesn't have any problems, so that's all right.
SPEAKER_07:Well, Luke's Luke's uh microphone's finally working too at the end of the thing. But I want to I wanted to, I mean, we're it's nearly two hours worth of recording and we could keep going. Um I wanted to ask for some final comments from people, but before they do that, I just want to talk about some of the positive things. We've spoken about a lot of the negatives and a lot of things that are probably to come, but just some of the positives for me personally that have come from this, and one of them is this tonight, this unity from all over the nation, from all over the different parts and factions of our community. Uh, I'm reluctant to call it a sport because for me it's a lifestyle. It is forms who I am, it forms my friends, uh, who I hang out with, where we go as a family, where we choose to buy houses, is there deer there? Um it forms my lifestyle. So, you know, it's direct, it's emotional for me. It is something I can't avoid. And I take it to heart personally when I see someone on TV saying we're going to do this, this, and this to firearms owners. And one of the positives majorly for me is this unity that has come from it. There needs to be more of it. But let's just start this conversation, keep this communication open. Jason said, talk to your mates, uh, talk to your pollies. And as a call to action, guys, sign the petitions. Someone said, Well, what about this petition? Like, what's actually going to happen? Well, this is the most signatures in a short amount of time a legislative um poll has ever seen. This is showing, you know, mass movement, and that's something we didn't have in 96. And I'm hoping it has some way of moving the scale of things right now. So I just want to call for some final comments. I don't know if you can go around the screen. First comments for you, Luke. May as well start with you, so you started and ending at the same time.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, cheers. Sorry for all the technical issues at my land, fellas. Um I suppose I'd like to comment from a a personal and a and a in a sense a professional perspective. Um a lot of times in the last week I've seen a comment um posted on social media um that cars kill lots of people and we don't ban cars. Um, not necessarily well, not today, but just literally yesterday, I was cutting a 17-year-old out of a car that was crumbled beyond recognition. And that is that is my my day-to-day breadbug, that is my profession. So I know firsthand the horrific toll um and the ripple effect that that it has on um people and and you know the water Australian community. And to read those comments and to know how horrifically true they are, um, and then have that same um argument just thrown out the window when it comes to how safe the the sort of of you know the the use of firearms is in in in our country and as as a pastime, as a as a as a lifestyle, as a as an occupation, is disgusting and it infuriates me no end. And I'm a latecomer to uh being a firearms owner. Um exactly has a bit of my background where I broke my leg five or six years ago. Didn't know how much go hunting I'd be able to do um and how many hills I'd be able to walk. So I thought I might be, you know, look into tools and help me reach out a bit further. So I am a late comer to the firearms scene, um, but it doesn't change my passion for what it is that it represents and and the connection and the cultural heritage that uh this this government wants to and the governments want to to strip away. And that um if any of you saw my recent um story in the Wild Dear magazine, that that cultural heritage and that connection, um be through whatever it is, a firearm or a bow or a spear or whatever, is is untangible. And to think that a government or any governments want to just strip that away from us because of the actions of uh a couple of grubs is just it just infuriates me, boys. It infuriates me. No end. That's me.
SPEAKER_01:You're still there, Dodge, you're frozen.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, no, I'm still here. You want to go next, O Tobias?
SPEAKER_01:Um yeah, okay. Um look, uh in terms of trying to keep things positive, um, again to echo your comments, mate, in that um what I've really noticed this time that is different from uh 96 is the external support that uh hunting in firearms has received. So there's a lot of commentators out there on their social media guys who guys and women who have you know said, I got no dog in the fight because I don't own guns, don't hunt, don't shoot. But the Australian government is so far off track here that it's not funny. Um so I think a lot of people and a lot of the media are recognising that the government is making this uh out. Uh they're picking the low hanging fruit here, and we're the ones that are going to suffer. Um so in terms of yeah, trying to keep it positive, I think that that's that's been really great to see that we are not perceived as the enemy, as these evil people, um, that hunting is a legitimate pastime recreation, what it does for us, what it does for our mental health, the the food on the table, all of that sort of thing. And that's been really encouraging. So whilst I'm sure we're all going to suffer a loss um in some form of um you know further legislation, uh I I do believe that a majority of the community outside of a firearms ownership is is with us.
SPEAKER_13:Awesome. Um yeah, very, very similar to the to the rest. Um I do like seeing what we're seeing online with the positivity, especially something like Zach posted a few hours before coming on. Um yeah, this is caused by two people that were just you know, I'm not gonna go down that line, but yeah, two people that were unfit. Um, this was just missed, and a lot of other stuff that, you know, went wrong and has gone wrong. Um so stay positive. Breathe. Um, you know, I know I I went into a bit of a a state of what's gonna happen. I've got a livelihood with this stuff uh to do with firearms, and I really had a couple of tough days there where I was stressed and um so on and so forth. Um breathed the thought about it, going through the process, you know, yes. Um so all we do is fight now. Send letters, tell your mates, you know. I've told my partner and she she's new to guns and she's like, I'll get my gun license. I understand what we're doing here. Well, I'll go get it. So yeah, just fight. Tell your mates, fight, send letters, call. And like Jace said, short, sweet, keep it to the point. And I'm not gonna vote for you next time because you haven't done your job. So yeah, that's my final comments and thanks Cody for sorting this out and Dodge for posting it.
SPEAKER_03:I'm gonna keep it short and sweet, but peace, love, and unity. We all need to stick together, we all need to love each other, and if we're gonna stick together, we're going to lose his amazing lifestyle.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, I think it's different this time. I think I'll keep it short too, as I can. Um, I think the people on our side as to buy so it's not like 96. We've got I was looking at a bunch of politicians today, like Michaela Cash just going berserk, man, against Al Benizi, like just saying these things. The governments are coming out from other states in support. Listen, I wouldn't say support, but I'd say no, we they do things different there. We're doing different things here, so it's good to see. It's not like 96 where it was bipartisan. The general public see what's going on. Get your friends too. But anyone on social media, like I'm not you know, not gonna say who, but there's several high-profile people I've just not seen anything from in regards to this. Like, this is just begs belief how people in different, even if they're in different states, can be different states, how they've not a single post on this stuff, man. It's just like get them in if you can, talk to them if you're seeing anything from pages that aren't sharing. Just say, mate, come on, man. We've got to go together, otherwise, it's gonna be it's gonna be bad for us. So, you know what I mean? Keep it nice and friendly and yeah, let's see how we go.
SPEAKER_07:The magical moustache, Max.
SPEAKER_09:Um, yeah, thanks for having me on, guys. This has been it's been wonderful. Um, obviously, as everyone said it for everyone, but um feeling the unity of of everyone here and um all the love going around here is absolutely awesome, and just want to send that out to everyone else who's out there. Um call your mates, check in on people. It's it's gonna be a tough start to a new year, but um we can only go forward, so let's just keep moving, keep writing letters, keep doing what we've got to do. Thanks, Max. What about you, Drew?
SPEAKER_08:Um, I think you've all actually covered. I'm not sure if Cam's still on. He said he had to jump ship. Um, but Cam and I both probably sit on the same page as everyone else here on this podcast. Um biggest tagline at the end of our podcast is check on your mates. I think that's one of the most important because even for myself, uh, my wife shoots, my daughters are getting into it. Um trying to keep that positivity running and seeing the unity, even for us all on this podcast. I mean, Cam and I are new to this, but the unity between us and trying to roll that down the line is something that I think we need to do. And even if this doesn't come off in a negative manner, I think we need to try and continue this within the industry. Uh across the board, between, I mean, I know there's big gaps between pistol shooters and rifle shooters or members of different clubs and disciplines and things like that. But if we can all unite and stay as a top united front and keep our voices and keep our reputation in intact across the board, then we I think we'd become less targeted as such.
SPEAKER_11:I am still here, and I'm just going to say thank you to everybody that's jumped on and had a conversation. It's been a really good conversation, the bits that I've been able to hear, because I've been dropping in and out. But look, I'm encouraging any of my mates to start sending emails to politicians and voice your concerns. So that's all we can really do, unfortunately. That's my feel anyway. But and like Drew did say, we use it as it's not really a catchphrase, it's a genuine thing when we say to check on your mates, and it's all it is a major thing that we need to all do. So thank you everybody for the opportunity to absolutely thanks heaps, guys.
SPEAKER_07:Well, this opportunity was brought to you by the Curdy Gear and Factory. So, Curdy, do you want to close us out?
SPEAKER_12:Well, first of all, I want to thank all of you for coming on and being part of this. When I put the idea out here, I thought it was going to be a long shot and no one would be too keen on it because you know, some egos tend to take over, but you've proven me wrong and shown that ego's not part part of this debate. You know, new people were worried about coming on whether they'd be able to make it. But like those of you who have, thank you. And Jason, I know you've copped a fair bit of flack and been bombarded by everyone, but that you found the time to make it on here. Thank you. Luke, I know you got in last minute, but like thank you for making it in the end and being part of it. Um, we did have the Hunters Campfire Boys, Ian, Mark and John O. Part of it too, but unfortunately, conflicting schedules made it that they were unable to be part of this. But I'll thank them anyway for being part of it and being part of the discussions to get this up and going. And huge thank you to Dodge and Wild Origins Australia for hosting and doing all the logistics out of it. And to those of you uh listening now, thank you for you know, know what whichever podcast feed that you've found this on because it's getting shared across everyone's. Thank you for listening to this far in and if you can share it around and yeah, do what everyone here has asked you to do and email your MPs and do whatever you you need to do. And yeah, and unfortunately it's the um meant to be the holiday season now and like we a bit of a negativity, so I'll just wish you all a Merry Christmas and it's the 21st now, so it's gravy day, so I wish you a happy gravy day as well.
SPEAKER_07:Thanks, Cody. Thanks for everyone for jumping on. Two things. Obviously, this podcast is gonna go wide, so I feel sorry for people who listen to several of our podcasts because you're gonna just get this dumped on all of your platforms. But listen to it twice, three times, listen to it on everyone's channel. But the key is to share it so this reaches everyone. United We Stand is what we've called this episode. I hope it's not the last time we meet together. I hope next time we meet together, on it's either hunting or two, it's celebrating some wins. Um and I forget who said it, but unity and strength. We're showing it tonight. This is what we're doing, and that is what we need. So thank you to everyone. Thank you for joining us, and stay wild, Australia.