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It is with a heavy heart that I write this post.

Overnight, Roy Smith – Shooters & Fishers Party MLC died in his sleep.

Roy was only 56 and is survived by his wife Pauline and his two sons.

I only met Roy once, but had talked with him many times. He was the last person I interviewed on Hunt & Shoot Radio and I met him for the first and last time at this years SHOT Expo.

From my experience with Roy, he was a bloke that was all too happy to help – especially if it meant helping a fellow shooter or hunter.

Roy was a top bloke who had so much more to give to shooters and hunters of this country. The whole community will sorely miss him and the great work he has done and was doing.

Thank you Roy for helping us hunter’s and shooters your legacy will live on and when I vote 1 for The Shooter’s & Fisher’s Party in August I’ll be thinking of you mate.

My deepest condolences to everyone close to Roy.

Nine MSN is reporting of a story about a ‘Sexy Russian spy’ busted for arms smuggling.

If you were to read a judge a story by its headline you’d imagine a sexy Russian woman smuggling M16′s into Russia (presumably to pose nude with, well ok thats what I’d like to think), where was I? Oh thats right guns. She didn’t smuggle guns she wasn’t even Russian.

The First Paragraph reads:

A 24-year-old Latvian-born woman has been put under house arrest in Texas after being caught allegedly trying to smuggle rifle scopes designed for assassinations to Russia.

As far as I know there has been plenty of scopes designed for snipers but never specifically for assassinations. Thats a BS factor of 5/10 right there but boy does it get better.

This is the very next paragraph:

Anna Fermanova was about to board a Moscow-bound plane with three night-vision sights designed to shoot targets up to 2.4km away before being intercepted by federal agents, the NY Daily News reported.

What? Are we talking something that is available on an M1A2 Abrams Tank? I don’t think so. I think we are talking about Gen III Night vision scopes here. You know, the ones that you can buy in the US as a hunter. The world’s LONGEST kill shot was at 2474m in daylight by a British sniper in Afganistan. So this must be some uber-secret military technology if these night vision sights are designed to shoot targets 2.4km away OF A NIGHT. This set my Bullshitometer straight to 10/10 straight away.

But Wait there’s more… From a NYPD Official:

The US-raised woman told police she had bought the scopes for her husband’s hunting buddies in Russia, a claim former NYPD detective Bo Dietl described as “crazy”.

“These are used specifically for an assassination,” he said.

“You could take someone out with one of these scopes in the dead of night from up to a mile-and-a-half away.”

The BS Meter is off the charts. The guy doesn’t know what he is talking about and is just trying to impress the pretty little journo with big numbers.

Can you believe the trollop today’s media (and government officials of all countries) pull out of their butts?

Lets get the most impressive figures we can, demonise a woman who did the wrong thing but really was just trying to get cool gear for her husband to go hunting with (God love her). She is now a spy with supernatural powered night vision scopes capable of hitting targets at over 2.4km away. Not only that but these are optic systems not ‘arms’ as the article described.

Good on you Nine MSN, NY Daily News and any other tool out there that believes this BS give yourselves an uppercut!

You think you’d at least do a tiny bit of research when writing an article you knew nothing about. Sensationalist DBags!

What are your thoughts on this?

While this hunt was taking place, in another part of the Victorian high country people were coming to terms with the tragedy of a young hunter accidentally shot. Luke and his mate Aaron were both deeply saddened by the news on their return from the bush. As young hunters themselvs it was a stark reminder of just how important firearms safety is while deer hunting.

From the photo below it is easy to see how deer and hunters can both blend into the background. This makes it very important to always positively identify your target and what’s behind it.

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Once again Greens have called for a ban on semi auto handguns (as if that is news).

Lee Rhiannon was quoted as saying:

Ms Rhiannon says while police have not yet confirmed what types of guns were used, handguns are the most likely culprit.

“Because they’re so easy to conceal, semiautomatic pistols are a favoured weapon in drive-by shootings, in armed robberies, in a whole range of crimes,” she said.

“They are in many ways more dangerous than semiautomatic long arms because they can be concealed so easily.” [ABC News]

What happened?

Two people tried robbing an armoured guard van carrying 4 million dollars outside Dee Why RSL club, one of the three guards drew their gun and fired killing one of the robbers and another shot from his gun hit a bystander in the ankle. The other perpetrator fled the scene and to my knowledge still hasn’t been found.

Now what is wrong with Rhiannon’s statements?

Lee Rhiannon is vehemently anti-gun. She also has been exposed as someone knowing very little about guns. There has not been any information released as to what sort of guns were involved but the two people who were shot were shot by the guard that was with the armoured van. This person legally held his gun and unfortunately a bystander got shot. This man should be regarded as a hero and nothing short of that. He potentially saved his own life and the rest of his crew. Rhiannon is drawn to this like a fly to fresh manure and sprouts her anti-gun message regardless of the facts. To me that is just disgusting someone has died at the hands of their own actions and a firearm saved the lives of at least three people. What if these armoured guards didn’t have guns? The money would have been stolen and more innocents could have been hurt. Yes it is a tragedy that the bystander got shot but he will live. It is also sad that the perp got killed but you take your life into your own hands when you decide to operate outside the law.

Ms Rhiannon, please be quiet about your uninformed anti-gun message and praise this guard for saving lives and also acknowledge that without the guard taking action and firing upon the perps that more people were likely to be injured or killed and they would have been innocent instead of someone who is a criminal.

Another thing ms Rhiannon, how about we acknowledge that there is a very strong chance that the criminal’s guns were not registered, the criminals were not licensed and the guns were illegally obtained. If that is the case shouldn’t you be calling on the government to enforce the laws already in place rather than trying to restrict law abiding citizens partaking in their chosen sport?

You have no logic or reason, you use tragedy as a soap box to sprout your insane messages (which is abhorrent) and it upsets me that a someone such as yourself can actually be voted into representing the people who if they actually stopped and looked at what you have said in the past and your party’s policies would be disgusted and not vote for you. Shame on you Lee Rhiannon you sicken me.

A fatal hunting accident has shocked the hunting community as Nick Welch a teen hunting with his brother and a mate in Tallangatta Vic was mistaken for a deer and shot dead in a terrible accident on Sunday afternoon around 5pm.

Nick Welch was 19 and was a member of AHN. There has been an outpouring of notes about Nick with some saying that even though he was 19 he was one of the best deer hunters people had seen.

Here is a quote:

“Its Hard to fathom how such an incident could occur & still can`t believe we`ve lost one of the most knowedgeable deer hunters of our time & a true gentleman  . This guy at 17 had more knowledge than some of the most advanced  hunters amoungst the deer hunting fraterinty .He had a passion for deer & deer hunting that was un-equaled .  A true loss to all of us .

We`ll never see another one like him in our lifetime , he will be sadly missed  by all of us . We never got  see the full potentail  of what this guy had , a true leader and an inspiration to all of us. He was    far more advanced than anyone gave him credit for , a  true  hunter & conservationist but most of all a top bloke.”

I don’t know who wrote it but it just shows that this is a huge loss for the hunting community.

This is such terrible news and we are all shocked by it. Please hunters remember to identify your target beyond a shadow of a doubt and if you are hunting with other people wear some blaze camo and make sure you know where your hunting partners are. It is such a small chance for a tragedy like this to happen but it can and does happen to those who least expect even if they are very experienced hunters. As hunters we owe it to our families and the families of those we hunt with to hunt and shoot with the utmost care for ourselves and those with us.

Vale Nick Welch I had never known or heard of you but as a fellow hunters and humans the entire community is saddened by your parting.

My condolences to your family and your friends through this tragic time.

Please everyone be so careful.