Letter Writing

[philw]

Gday All

just wondering if you guys send many letters to the Media or Politicians.


I my self have just started to get in to this over here

this is one that I sent not that long ago

I think we can all use bits out of everyones letters to help with getting the messege out there may be some idears you can use
I am also going to start another thread that has some facts and stats from here that you all can use in your letters

Dear The Honorable Mr Rann
As a legally responsible firearm owner who like many others abided by the laws set out by our state and federal governments I find the comments made recently by the Director of Public Prosecutions, Mr Pallaras, disturbing.
 
I refer to his continuing calling for ban of legal fire arm ownership; I refer in particular to this article http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/10/08/2385513.htm .  I am also concerned that although Mr Pallaras seems to be expressing his personal and very subjective views, he appears to be relying on his public service status and title as DPP to gain media coverage for those views.  While I champion the right of Mr Pallaras to hold his views, I object strenuously to his “Spin Doctor” tactics to push his particular agenda.
As a firearm owner who abides by our already existing strict legislation and extremely harsh penalties I find it extremely disappointing that Mr Pallaras needs point blame at law abiding people like myself rather than the criminals who continue to commit the atrocious crimes as evidenced just recently. Perhaps it is easier to cast blame at the innocent who happen to responsibly own firearms, rather than take blame for not being able to protect the public through poor prosecution techniques and inadequate sentencing by our judicial system.
Mr Pallaras shows no consideration for this, instead wanting to ban my chosen sport (an official Olympic sport no less.)

Many of the firearms on Mr Pallaras’ hit list include those used by Australian sports-persons to compete in National, International and Olympic events. Would he like to see Australians occluded from these sports, or forced to move out of our great nation in order to compete? The thought is laughable, but the precedent has been set with members of the United Kingdom Olympic Shooting Team finding themselves in danger of breaching the law by attempting to train within the UK.
 
It is worth taking note of the following facts from a recent government publication when considering the validity of Mr Pallaras’s comments:
 
"The Australian Institute of Criminology’s September 2008 Trends & Issues report on criminal use of handguns in Australia, compiled by Samantha Bricknell, made the following findings:
•   “The majority of firearms used to commit homicide in Australia since 1989-90 were not legally held.”
•   “Of the 150 offenders who used a handgun to commit homicide, 2% used a registered handgun.”
•   “Handguns were used in 10% or less of armed robberies over the period 2003 to 2005.”
•   Arguments over money or drugs represented the primary alleged motive for handgun homicides.”
 http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/tandi2/tandi361.pdf
 

Mr Pallaras Said "We've had three shootings in five months and I've previously said that when people in Adelaide wake up to the morning news and say, without any sense of alarm, that
there's been another shooting in Adelaide, on that day we would have lost the battle,"

Clearly Mr Pallaras HAS lost the battle and is seeking scapegoats to give the impression that he is taking pro-active steps in the fight against gun related crime. The last three shootings were carried out by unlicensed firearms owners using unregistered firearms. Is Mr Pallaras so naïve to believe that these criminals will willingly submit to a blanket ban? The hardened criminals that the Department of Public Prosecutions regularly releases into mainstream society would not even pay lip service to a ban.
   
The public has a right to demand that our DPP is directly accountable for the sentences handed out to the criminal element, including early releases and deals negotiated though his department. However I suppose it is of course just easier for him and others like him to say BAN GUNS as it cures all societies ills and makes us all safer, we can see evidence of this by looking at countries that have tried this approach most current is England who is experiencing the worst firearm related crimes ever, after banning firearms some few years ago.
I am looking forward to your response Mr. Rann