fallingblock
Member
The Australian experience certainly demonstrates the end game of linking firearms ownership to "justification" such as hunting:
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MINISTERIAL STATEMENT
Duck and Quail Hunting
Hon. PD BEATTIE (Brisbane Central-ALP) (Premier and Treasurer) (10.06.05)
(am): I want to join with the minister for the environment and advise that there will be no more duck and quail hunting in Queensland. It is time to ban this recreational shooting of ducks and quail. This is not an appropriate activity in contemporary life in the Smart State. For example, in 1984 there were more than 1,800 licensed hunters and in 2004 there were just 376. Conversely, the environment minister has received more than 700 representations this year on the issue with all but 15 seeking to have duck and quail hunting banned. Community concern combined with declining bird numbers, diminishing wetlands and the effects of the drought mean it is time to act, and act we will.
State cabinet has agreed the Nature Conservation (Duck and Quail) Conservation Plan 1995, which manages the hunting of ducks and quails, will not be remade when it expires in September. There has been community concern that shooting ducks and quail with shotgun pellets while they are flying is cruel because the birds are often wounded instead of being killed instantly. The RSPCA has suggested that as many as 90 per cent of ducks shot suffer a cruel, slow death.
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The "Smart State" indeed! :banghead:
*********************************************************
MINISTERIAL STATEMENT
Duck and Quail Hunting
Hon. PD BEATTIE (Brisbane Central-ALP) (Premier and Treasurer) (10.06.05)
(am): I want to join with the minister for the environment and advise that there will be no more duck and quail hunting in Queensland. It is time to ban this recreational shooting of ducks and quail. This is not an appropriate activity in contemporary life in the Smart State. For example, in 1984 there were more than 1,800 licensed hunters and in 2004 there were just 376. Conversely, the environment minister has received more than 700 representations this year on the issue with all but 15 seeking to have duck and quail hunting banned. Community concern combined with declining bird numbers, diminishing wetlands and the effects of the drought mean it is time to act, and act we will.
State cabinet has agreed the Nature Conservation (Duck and Quail) Conservation Plan 1995, which manages the hunting of ducks and quails, will not be remade when it expires in September. There has been community concern that shooting ducks and quail with shotgun pellets while they are flying is cruel because the birds are often wounded instead of being killed instantly. The RSPCA has suggested that as many as 90 per cent of ducks shot suffer a cruel, slow death.
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The "Smart State" indeed! :banghead: