by Dee McLachlan
There was a fair amount of crime in South Africa when I lived there, and house break-ins were common. My aunt and uncle woke up one night as an intruder was about to bludgeon them over their heads. My uncle jumped up, naked, and grabbing an non-working antique rifle, chased the intruder out.
My parents friends were not so lucky. Hearing a noise downstairs, the elderly husband armed himself with a pistol, and went down stairs to investigate. It didn’t end well. He was overpowered by the group of intruders and shot dead with his own gun.
The Farmer in Albury
Last Thursday, around midnight, a resident of Splitters Creek (in New South Wales) heard a noise. Arming himself with a hockey stick, he confronted an 18-year-old rummaging through cupboards in the kitchen. The lad was armed with a knife — but facing the hockey stick, he fled.
Then at about 3.30 am in the early hours, farmer, David Dunstan, 52, heard knocking. He opened the door to find the (same) young man with a piece of wood (and his knife).
The Herald Sun wrote,
“Frightened for the safety of his three children aged 9 to 14, who were asleep inside the Bungowannah home… [he said] ‘I thought there could be more of them out there,’ …Andrea Dunstan immediately phoned local police.”
The Border Mail’s article wrote that Dunstan…
“…went to his nearby gun safe and grabbed a .22 rifle after finding the man outside his home. He said he didn’t point the weapon at the offender, and essentially used the gun as a “prop” [causing the man to drop his weapons]. The father of three forced the man into his vehicle and drove him towards the Albury police station, and was met by officers nearby.”
The story doesn’t end there.
The police later returned to the scene of the crime (the home/property invasion), and seized Dunstan’s guns. Border Mail quotes Dunstan:
“I just don’t know what I should have done, what would have been the right way to do it? … I’ve always done the right thing, but I feel like I’ve done the wrong thing.”
His gun licence is for vermin control. And the Border Mail quotes Detective Inspector Woodward saying that it was hard to tell people what to do when confronted with such a situation. He said,
“I would though suggest that you call Triple-0 straight away and leave the matter to police. [Out on a farm?] …However in these (instances), both families were fearful for their safety and detectives will investigate the matter further.”
The Constable at Albury
I decided to call Albury Police Station to find out a bit more, and spoke to a Constable there. I fired a few questions — and got some very hesitant and cautious responses. I was given the number to the Police Media office in Sydney. As I was about to end the call, I announced my disbelief at the whole Dunstan situation. There was long silence, then the Constable said,
“Well he’s a hero. He’s got a lot of support up here.”
The police must be so confused.
But like the Dunstan case, the law is not always on the side of those facing the intruder. In 2012, the pub licencee of the Peakhurst Inn in Sydney was ordered to pay $50,000 to a 16 year old intruder for bashing him over the head — plus $18,500 to the victim’s mother.
So what do you do when you are faced with an intruder? Negotiate.
https://kiwigunblog.wordpress.com/2017/02/24/are-australian-gun-grabbers-the-worst-mass-murderers-in-the-countrys-history/
Dee, I tried for 30 years to get people to wake up to the gun control/Port Arthur Massacre agenda as being for the DISARMAMENT OF THE PEOPLE. This farmer has just had a wake up call that he can’t ignore, maybe now he’ll do some research. Perhaps send him a link to this site.
The reporter stated “As I was about to end the call, I announced my disbelief at the whole Dunstan situation.” – Well, after doing HUNDREDS of similar cases, I can say that this case is merely business as usual for a firearm owner at the Local Court – Hell, I’ve seen worse!
It was always part of the UNICRI/NCV agenda going back to 1987 that ‘self defense’ was not a genuine reason to own a firearm. His genuine reason was vermin control on the farm, he was using the firearm outside his genuine reason. The Magistrate may grant him a Section 10 dismissal because of the circumstances, but I expect that one of the charges is ‘not safe-keeping’. So, even if the Magistrate finds the matter ‘proven’ (its statutory, black letter law, its always ‘proven’), but does not proceed to conviction – he will still loose the firearms subject to the charge. Confiscation, no compensation.
The reporter needs to do some more research. Hopefully, his/her “disbelief” will prompt a trip down the rabbit hole – think this case is unbelievable? check out the case of Martin Bryant!
Yep, that was me who called Albury. And I said to the Constable “but this is crazy” sort of thing… and that is when this person disclosed their real beliefs
In WA possession/use of a gun for self-defence was axed by the FIREARMS ACT 1973 WA – SECT 11A:
http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/wa/consol_act/fa1973102/s11a.html
Its fairly obvious why a course of shop-front tolerance was favoured over a complete ban; an encouraging reminder that,ultimately, there’s nothing to contend with but cowards and wimps.
I’m sure the people of outer-urban Melbourne are grateful to have been disarmed when Africa comes calling with their baseball bats and machetes. Sooner or later Africa will come calling with guns (if they haven’t already), because they will find it easy to obtain guns, and killing will come easy to them too, given their genetic proclivities.
“Sooner or later Africa will come calling with guns (if they haven’t already)” – they already have them. The robbery video of a jewelry shop in Melbourne showed one of the Somali gang members with a pistol.
It appears that only criminals are protected by the law. This is reverse to why the law and police services were introduced many centuries ago. (Or so we were taught.)
The Port Arthur Massacre was to rid firearms from the population, so that when the criminals in high government positions get really stared on their crime spree, there will be no weapons to use against them.
Yeah, what you said Mal reminds me of this –
“The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”
Frederick Douglass
I keep seeing more and more encroachment of personal liberty. The immunization issue was one of the latest. It will just keep going, until it doesn’t…
According to the Border Mail “Mr Dunstan went to his nearby gun safe and grabbed a .22 rifle” . At 42 seconds, the 10 Clip record’s the man himself saying “I called out to my wife and said ‘You’d better get the gun out of the cupboard’ ”
And we’re supposed to believe it was unloaded? And that’s supposed to be some sort of exonerating factor? Talk about double-minded!
Not to many rural properties are sitting around without a loaded firearm. A fox after chickens or a brown snake in the kid’s yard doesn’t wait around until you’re ready. Thus, we have the fiction for the police of unloaded firearms sitting around safely in gun safes in order to comply with the onerous firearm regulations.
The whole point of those regulations is to present an unworkable situation so that a breach of the regulations is inevitable and the firearms are confiscated under the cover of ‘law’.
– I’ve seen more injustice in my legal career than I want to remember.
Eventually, Frederick Douglas’s comment comes true, history has shown it time and again.
I first heard the claim that PA had been engineered a few months after the event.I didn’t need any convincing, but I didn’t think to check out the details until 2007, when the local Po tried to justify thieving my oldest son’s guns per “failure to secure”. I call it theft because none of the prescribed “confiscation” requirements were met, and when he pursued the issue in writing he was confronted by three conflicting stories that defied other written records and other laws.
Having familiarised myself with the mother-ship I’m willing to bet my life that there’s never been a single confiscation scenario in any State that didn’t involve multiple violations of “binding” restrictions & requirements.
If the farmer had met the thief with a knife would the police have taken all his kitchen knives?
If the farmer had met the thief with a cricket bat would the police have taken all his cricket bats, hockey sticks base ball bats etc?
What a joke. When will Australia wake up. We should be able to defend ourselves and our family from people doing the wrong thing. Otherwise the crims will over run the country. Africa has already started in Melbourne. The law abiding citizens are once again punished.
I remember when I was living in South Africa when I was about 20, there was this radio show where they called up and PRANKED people. Where this guy (the radio host) called up several people saying that the government authorities were making an inventory of dangerous weapons in the house. This went on for about 30 minutes on live radio as this poor woman listed all the kitchen knives, golf clubs and cricket bats. Rat traps too. Then the most hilarious part was when he insisted that the tin opener was a dangerous weapon… that it could open up grenades and things. I think that’s when she finally caught on she was being taken for a ride. Maybe we close to that being a reality.
The difference between guns and other weapons is that, with the right sort of training, the former puts women, oldies, and even children on an equal footing with men in their prime: hence the threat to reprobate governance.
“I believe the the old saying, “God made man, but Samuel Colt made them equal,” originated as advertising slogan for Colt Manufacturing. There are a number of variations on the same theme that appear: “God may have made men, but Samuel Colt made them equal”; “God didn’t make all men equal, Sam Colt did”; “God made man equal. But, Colonel Colt made some more equal than others”; “God made every man different; Sam Colt made them equal.”
Yep, an 80 year old woman in a wheelchair can tell a punk to f..k off, when she’s holding a gun to his face – he understands the message, there’s no confusion, next move may be his last.