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Further implications

Recent motions presented in the federal and Victorian Parliaments to allow Australians to carry non-lethal weapons such as pepper spray, mace and tasers, may be part of a larger campaign to encourage Australian voters to accept gun law reform.
There appears to be a growing politicisation amng those seeking to relax Australian gun laws. In Queensland, prior to the November, 2017, state elections, Shooters Union Australia released a list of 68 candidates marked to receive its support - all from One Nation and Katter's Australian Party. The Shooters Union also distributed how-to-vote material for those supporting its positions on gun law reform.
If it formed government in Queensland, One Nation pledged to review the Weapons Act within the first year, to reduce waiting periods for purchasing handguns and to recognise licensed firearm ownership by law-abiding citizens as a 'right in a free society'. Katter's Australian Party(KAP) wants to reverse changes to the National Firearms Agreement which include the reclassification of the lever-action seven-shot Adler shotgun. KAP is also committed to a real-time licence verification system to replace paper-based permits for category A and B firearms which would reduce waiting periods prior to purchase.
The Electoral Commission of Queensland's donations disclosure website shows the Shooters Union gave $1400 to Brian Higgins, the One Nation's Gregory candidate; $1327.45 to Chelle Dobson, One Nation's Gympie candidate; and $1476.95 to Jim Savage, One Nation's candidate in Lockyer. Katter's Australian Party received $175,314.81 in donations from gun dealer Robert Nioa.
Mr Nioa is the managing director of the Brisbane-based company, NIOA, Australia's largest privately owned firearms and munitions supplier. NIOA has supplied Australian and New Zealand police with 70,000 Glock pistols and provided the military with their latest infantry weapon - an automatic grenade launcher.
Bob Katter's connections with Mr Nioa are personal as well as political. Mr Nioa is Bob Katter's son-in-law.
Australian Electoral Commission returns show that since 2010 the state branches of the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia have donated $440,800 to support the KAP, the Shooters Fishers and Farmers party and the Liberal Democratic party among others.
Some suggest that garnering support from the gun lobby is a marriage of convenience for these right wing fringe parties. Sam Lee from Gun Control Australia has claimed, 'The courtship of the gun lobby by political parties is definitely a growing theme.' However, it seems more likely that supporting gun law relaxation is part of the ideological DNA of the parties concerned and that the gun lobby is simply supporting its own in promoting them.
The connection between moving parliamentary motions to allow Australians to carry non-lethal devices such as pepper spray and seeking a relaxation of Australia's gun laws is that both are founded on the principle of a right to self-defence. Liberal Democrat senator, David Leyonhjelm, who was one of five senators to vote in support of Senator Anning's motion that importation restrictions on pepper spray, mace and tasers be relaxed, has overtly made the connection between allowing Australians to carry non-lethal weapons and relaxing gun control.
In June, 2017, arguing that Australians should be able to arm themselves against the threat of terrorism, Senator Leyonhjelm stated, ' We get into arguments about the details, of course, but I think the general idea of being responsible for your own safety and having the means to do it is pretty popular.'
Moving from a supposed general acceptance of the right to self defence, Leyonhjelm then brushed over some of the 'details' he had referred to earlier, suggesting that those who can safely use weapons should be able to carry them. 'Lethal means of self-defence, which are guns and so forth, obviously that should only be available to people who know how to use them, but off-duty police for example, who do know how to use a gun, why shouldn't they be able to carry them to protect themselves and their families and other people if the need arises?'
His concluding argument was for the immediate availability of non-lethal means of self-defence. 'Of course, non-lethal means of self-defence, the police can't be everywhere. They acknowledge that.'
It is interesting to note the political affiliations of the two senators who have moved motions supporting non-lethal weapons for self-defence.
Federal senator, Fraser Anning, joined the Senate in November, 2017, as a member of the One Nation party before becoming disconnected from them and forming a loose alliance with David Leyonhjelm of the Liberal Democrats and the Australian Conservatives' Cory Bernardi. In June 2018, three weeks before he moved his Senate motion, Anning joined Katter's Australian Party. Jeff Bourman is a Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party member of the Victorian Legislative Council, having represented the Eastern Victoria Region since 2014.
Both Anning and Bourman are opposed to gun control as are the parties to which each man belongs. Their arguments in favour of non-lethal weapons for self-defence appear the thin edge of a wedge designed to undermine Australia's current gun control legislation.