cuchulainn
Member
Help, help our children are being introduced to the eeeevil gun culture! Oh, the mortification!
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,5759938%5E2862,00.html
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,5759938%5E2862,00.html
Alarm at kids with firearms
By KATE UEBERGANG
29dec02
VICTORIA has a new generation of gun users -- including 151 aged 12.
Under the state's three junior licences, about 5000 Victorians aged 12 to 17 use hand guns, shotguns and semi-automatic weapons while supervised by a licensed adult.
Juniors have the same tests as adults.
Many youngsters use the licences to shoot foxes and rabbits, while others are competitive shooters or members of recreational clubs.
About 80 per cent of young shooters live outside metropolitan Melbourne.
About 650 juniors have proceeded to acquire a game licence to hunt deer, ducks, quail, pheasants and partridges.
Juniors are not allowed to own guns, but many do by registering them in a parent's name until they reach 18.
Gun Control Australia president John Crook said his members were "mortified and appalled the Government has acted so irresponsibly and allowed our children to be socialised into the gun culture".
He said people should be allowed to handle a gun until they were 18.
He believed many junior licence holders used guns without adequate supervision.
"It is a nonsense to think kids are only shooting with their parent or a licensed shooter," Mr Crook said.
Victoria Police manager in charge of the licensing services branch, Supt David Dettmann, said category A/B was the most popular junior licence, with 4809 juniors using long-arm rifles.
He said most young people with A/B licences lived on farms and used guns to hunt vermin.
Supt Dettmann said another 188 children held a category C licence, allowing use of semi-automatic and pump-action shotguns.
About 200 children had more than one licence.
Supt Dettmann said that while the Federal Government had clamped down on adults obtaining category C weapons since 1996, the guns were still popular with juniors.
"Semi-automatics are allowed for children because they are a lot softer to shoot. There is less recoil and kids who are taking up clay target shooting will use them," he said.
More than 130 juniors had hand gun licences for any calibre used in competitions.
Supt Dettmann said many people would think 12 was too young to hold a gun licence.
"But there are a lot of junior sports that have a set of rules that come in around 12," he said.
He said tests filtered out juniors who were not ready to use firearms.
"You have to have maturity as a child to pass those tests," he said.
Junior Werribee shooter Tracy Brownrigg said she enjoyed the sport favoured by her father and older brother.
The 17-year-old is the youngest girl at her Monday night practical rifle competition.
She sat for her junior shooting licence at 12 and joined the Sporting Shooters' Association Springvale range.
Tracy said she enjoyed the challenge of shooting.
"It is fun to try to beat your best," she said.
She said she would register her .22 and another gun in her name when she turned 18.
"They are registered in dad's name at the moment," Tracy said.
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