Shooters Union officially endorse Katter's Australian Party for 2020 QLD State Election

Shooters Union Australia
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QUEENSLAND’S leading pro-shooting group is officially backing Katter’s Australia Party (KAP) as the ‘Vote One’ choice for its Queensland members in the upcoming State elections on Saturday, October 31.

Shooters Union represents the interests of more than 280,000 licensed firearms users in the Sunshine State, including hunters, target shooters, farmers and primary producers, collectors, armourers, dealers, security guards, and emergency services personnel.

The organisation has launched its 2020 Queensland Election project with an announcement to all shooters from national president Graham Park to put KAP first if they had a candidate in their electorate, and to put the ALP, Greens and LNP last on the ballot.

“Over the years, KAP have shown themselves to be friends not only to shooters but to regional and rural Australia as well,” Mr Park said.

“A strong rural economy means a strong Queensland, and regardless of your view on guns, that’s something everyone can agree on.

“The Majors have shown time and time again they aren’t our friends and they don’t trust their own citizens. They’re restricting toys (gel blasters) and shutting businesses down due to vague ‘public health’ concerns and refusing to answer questions about it or provide an explanation. They look after the top end of town, particularly Brisbane, and ignore the rest of the state.”

Where KAP are not running a candidate, Shooters Union are suggesting Pauline Hanson’s One Nation (PHON) or a pro-gun local independent candidate as the ‘Vote One’ choice.

“Like KAP they have the interests of rural and regional Queenslanders at heart, as well as the interests of law-abiding firearms users,” Mr Park said.

Mr Park said it was absolutely critical Queensland voters understand the Major parties and the Greens need to be at the bottom of the ballot to send a clear message that shooters have had enough of being mistreated, lied to and ignored by them.

“It’s all well and good for people to say ‘Well I don’t care about guns’, but it’s only a matter of time before the Majors and the Greens decide to treat things you like the same way – cars and 4WDs, fishing, hiking, camping, internet and telecommunications, video games; they’re all in their sights,” he said.

“At the last election, the ‘Flick’em - Put The Majors Last’ campaign we supported resulted in the lowest major party primary vote in Queensland history and directly cost both ALP and LNP more than $1m each in electoral funding.”

Mr Park said the sole exception to the ‘Put The Majors Last’ message was for Gympie LNP MP Tony Perrett, who crossed the floor to vote against unnecessary restrictions on law-abiding firearms owners.

“It’s rare to see someone in politics who puts principles above the party, but Mr Perrett did just that and showed himself to be a friend of law-abiding firearms users in the process, so we are encouraging everyone in his electorate to ‘Vote One’ for him as a result,” Mr Park said.

“Make no mistake: This is one of the most important elections in Queensland for decades. How people vote will directly affect what the state’s COVID recovery looks like, and whether we are actively getting back on our feet or locked in our homes terrified the Stasi might kick the door in because we shared a meme the Government didn’t like on social media.

“Look at Victoria. As far as we’re concerned, a vote for ALP is a vote to turn Queensland into East Germany, and we’re making that point abundantly clear to our members and supporters.

“This isn’t about guns, it’s about making Queensland a better place for everyone to live.”

Authorised by J Linsley, 61 Arthur Street Dalby QLD 4405, for Shooters Union Australia

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Do the Shooters & Fishers party run candidate in QLD, they do ok here in VIC.

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At this stage they don’t have any declared candidates in QLD, and neither do the LDP (who we’d also endorse).

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I’m a big fan of the LDP also, cheers.

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I want to begin with that I get some of you peeps are single issue voters, with firearms being the primary concern for you, and just because you vote for Katter, or One Nation you don’t necessarily agree with everything they stand for.

I’ve had a good think about what to write here; I don’t want to come across as a preachy inner city Melburnian, but I think it’s important that there is awareness about what else the KAP or ON stands for.

KAP

ON

That’s also not to speak a boat load of other fringe policies that the two parties have. I’ve only highlighted the policies that are discriminate minority groups.

How does the shooting community endeavour to lose their lose the image of being a community for only older white men with more conservative views yet still endorsing politicians who support these views? How do we bring the shooting community into the mainstream wider community, yet vote for people with fringe values?

I get that @ShootersUnion are in a tough position, and that there are few politicians that are willing to vote along the firearms community, but at what point does this fringe association hurt our ability to have firearms be mainstream politics because of the cultural associations?

I’ve introduced friends to the sport, who had a great time, but didn’t want to further join the community and get a licence partially because of how the community is perceived. The only involvement that they want is to go to the range and shoot whenever I go.

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I understand where you’re coming from mate, I left the Shooters and fishers party in VIC when they were against gay marriage (my brother is gay) but I will still put them before the major parties or the greens.
If the Liberal democrats were to run up there they would be a better option in my opinion, but in QLD if you want to protect you right to own guns ON & Katter are your options.
The liberal party is also very white, Christian and misogynistic. Not long ago we had the PM giving character references to George Pell.
Australian labour and the greens want to usher in a communist utopia (which always starts with a purge of a few million of your countrymen).
There is in my opinion no perfect political party, just gotta try to pick the least worst for you!

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This year i’m going to be a single issue voter just because we (shooters) have copped such a beating of late.
I find it interesting that as soon as a white person says they’re against something or that they think something’s not their cup of tea in relation to another way of life or religion, they’re instantly hammered as being a racist instead of just being someone who has an equally valid but differing point of view on one or several points on the subject (i’m not talking about ranting extremists on either side just people with differing and valid opinions).
I think i’ll just drag some non white people into the debate (because they’re never called racists) and say i admire and agree with Japans stance on immigration and who they do and don’t allow to be part of their country, and how they go about the integration of these “outside” cultures, plus the honesty behind their reasoning and their ability to openly state those reasons without being branded evil racists.
As far as KAPs more “Christian” views towards marriage and especially same sex marriage, well we all know those draconian views are never going to be anything more than a dream of some hard core churchies, that battle’s been hard fought & won by the appropriate side.
But it’s still KAPs opinion and probably the opinion of many their rural local community of voters and they’re entitled to it just as we are entitled to disagree with them without either side being labelled.
Just my non racist non hom ophobic (wouldn’t let me say h o m o ) opinion.

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The liberal party is also very white, Christian and misogynistic.

Agreed that they’ve got plenty of members with these views, but at least they’re not trying to put out policy that’s explicitly endorsing these values.

There is in my opinion no perfect political party, just gotta try to pick the least worst for you!

That’s true, I guess it becomes a question what you’re willing to trade for.

@JSS

white person says they’re against something or that they think something’s not their cup of tea in relation to another way of life or religion

I think there’s a difference between having something not be your cup of tea, and letting live, and actively campaigning to remove something you don’t like.

admire and agree with Japans stance on immigration

I mean, I definitely find some Japanese nationalists revolting, especially their historical revisionism. Racism definitely isn’t a problem limited to Anglos, there are plenty of racist Asians. Their immigration policy has softened in recent times due to their declining working population though.

never going to be anything more than a dream of some hard core churchies

I mean, yes that political change isn’t likely at all, but at the same time voting along these values may give them more legitimacy than they deserve.

I’m not saying that voting KAP or ON makes you a racist, or discriminatory in any other way. I just don’t see how this works in conjunction with a broader community goal of having the shooting community be more accessible, and more mainstream.

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Unfortunately we need to make sure there is a shooting community, then we can concentrate on making it inclusive and accessible.
We started this forum so we’d have somewhere inclusive and accepting of the broader shooting community, but our enemies enemies are our friends in the greater war otherwise we won’t be able to keep our guns let alone be in a position to welcome black midget left-handed lesbian Eskimos into the sport!

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It’s an interesting point @Tempestman raises and I see where he’s coming from.

Personally, my view is that one of the two majors will ALWAYS be in Government, and they’re both pretty much of a muchness for me, so I’m a limited-issue voter and the top of my list is guns.

I support SSM and generally not being actively horrible to people, but I also think there’s validity to some of the non-gun issues KAP and PHON platform on, particularly around support and infrastructure for regional and rural Australia, and also not letting culturally incompatible people move here (IMO your ethnicity and religion don’t matter, just your willingness and ability to get with the program and not expect special treatment).

One of the massive issues is that there aren’t any political parties (at least that I know of) of a centrist or progressive stance with openly pro-gun policies, except LDP and I can’t remember the last story about them that didn’t portray them as a joke. Lots of shooters, myself included, would love to support a more progressive (or at least not as openly right-wing) party but there just aren’t any.

Half the time the parties which are pro-gun aren’t even running candidates in most electorates either, or the candidates are muppets who won’t get elected anyway.

I honestly think the people who identify as leftist/LGBTQI/etc need to be a lot more vocal about owning guns and it being OK and it having their support, and making it an issue for their political parties too.

Pretty much all the shooters I know are normal people, and even the more bogan ones genuinely don’t give a shit if someone is gay or ethnic or whatever since it’s all about being a shooter and enjoying the activity together.

Otherwise, I agree with @bentaz on the “Unfortunately we need to make sure there is a shooting community, then we can concentrate on making it inclusive and accessible” aspect, because that’s the reality.

IMO our biggest enemies are fudds, and we need to start encouraging them to STFU whenever there’s conversations about changing the gun laws to something more sensible for gun owners.

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@Tempestman i understand what your saying and also that just because someone votes for them doesn’t make them a misogynist or a racist, BUT you are saying that by voicing and acting on those views does make them misogynists and racists… My point is that just because we don’t agree with them doesn’t give us the right to label them, just as we don’t want to be labelled. Their views and actions are as valid as anyone else and they aren’t voicing them any louder than other groups or political parties with different stances.
My gauge for this kind of stuff is, If their views come from a place of hate and intolerance then they’re fucking arseholes plain and simple, but if they come from a place of faith and pride and a belief they’re doing the right thing then we have to respect that just as much as views we agree with, otherwise we’re actually the intolerant arseholes.
As far as Japans stance, yes they have softened and their current position is what i was referring to when i said i admire it, they have a reasonable take on things but are still in control and have set out conditions, it’s not just a free for all.

I think @Martini summed it up perfectly.

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@bentaz

Unfortunately we need to make sure there is a shooting community, then we can concentrate on making it inclusive and accessible.

I suppose we’ll have to agree to disagree. I think bringing it into the mainstream, and to get as many people to support the sport as possible will be what saves the shooting community. Luckily these goals aren’t usually mutually exclusive.

@Martini

particularly around support and infrastructure for regional and rural Australia

They do have some good ideas about regional development, though I think his proposal for a separate FNQ state is legally questionable.

who identify as leftist/LGBTQI/etc need to be a lot more vocal about owning guns and it being OK and it having their support

Definitely agreed. Pre-Rona, I was definitely trying to take as many of my close friends as possible.

@JSS

i understand what your saying and also that just because someone votes for them doesn’t make them a misogynist or a racist, BUT you are saying that by voicing and acting on those views does make them misogynists and racists

I suppose I might not have been clear enough. Voting for either party doesn’t necessarily make you racist, but some of their policies definitely have racial undertones, and attract racist people.

but if they come from a place of faith and pride and a belief they’re doing the right thing then we have to respect that just as much as views we agree with, otherwise we’re actually the intolerant arseholes.

For extremist white nationalists though, some absolutely believe that they’re doing the right thing though. A lot of White Supremacy beliefs were based on the idea that white people were superior to other races, and thus should dominate them to save them from themselves. Literally one of the articles that I linked about has Katter describing that white people brought civilisation to the world.

I’m not entirely convinced that where these views come from is entirely the important thing. What’s important is the outcomes that happen because of these views.

I think we’ve all probably talked this to death though. I only originally wanted to reply to the SU post to urge people to be aware of what else they were voting for alongside shooter’s rights if they wanted to vote KAP or ON.

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I see where you’re coming from but would respectfully suggest the people in the electorates where there are KAP or PHON candidates know exactly what they’re voting for.

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We don’t disagree mate, I’m not a fan of PH, Bobby K or duck hunting for that matter. I bet Churchill wasn’t a fan of Stalin either but nessecity makes strange bed fellows.
I wish we could get by trying to bring shooting sports into the mainstream. You say your mates wanna go shoot with you but not get into the sport because of the redneck view they have of shooters, well the demographics of shooters won’t change unless they do, people need to be the change they want to see in shooting, until they do we are stuck in the rut we are in.
JS & I are trying, I believe we have the most progressive shooting forum in the country and running plinkfests to bring shooters from every walk of life together. I also get out and campaign, hand out how to vote cards for the likes of the LDP and SFP (till they said my bro couldn’t be as miserable as the rest of us married blokes anyway).
Young blokes like yourself and Nomis are the future of shooting, if you run as a candidate I’ll vote for you but until then I’m stuck voting for whatever pro-shooting candidates I can find.

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