US Gun lobby inciting violence against journalists

Journalist details published by US gun lobbyists

This is an ugly turn in the rising tide of support for new gun laws in the US, following the recent horrific slaughter of 20 children and six adults. A New York publication The Journal News took the bold move of mapping local gun ownership locations to a Google Map. The gun lobby retaliated by publishing the home addresses and phone numbers of the publication's journalists (which I will not link to)!

Gun ownership map published by The Journal News, New York

It's debatable whether the publication's tactic was wise, and perhaps forcing a mobilisation and fightback by the gun lobby was a retrograde step.

But this is not new from the gun lobby. In fact, I was on the receiving end of similar tactics when I was one of the organisers of a rally on Queensland's Sunshine Coast to support strict new gun laws from John Howard's Australian Government.

These laws were initiated by John Howard and Tim Fischer following the massacre at Port Arthur, where 35 people were killed and 23 wounded.

Three people were central to the Sunshine Coast campaign against the new laws: Yandina's wannabe militia nut Ian McNiven, Gympie gunshop owner Ron Owen, and Bob Doring, the owner of the then Mooloolah gunshop. (In a curious coincidence, this last guy also ran "self defence" classes in the very same community centre where I and several others met to plan the rally!) These three led the national campaign against the laws, and McNiven was the one who performed the infamous "Flak Jacket Johnny" parody of John Howard.

For months, I was receiving unsolicited munitions mail order catalogues in the mail from the US, letter and media clippings from a number of people—both anonymous and named—and ominous messages left on my answering machine. I was stunned to learn that I could buy an Uzi machine gun in America for just USD2000...

Our rally was on a key anniversary of the massacre. Sadly, the "freedom" that these these gun supporters preach of is one-way—they and many others turned up in force to our rally to try to take over. I found myself on national TV news, with Ron Owen centimetres from me, shouting into my face. The other organisers and I were at a loss as to why the many police present didn't do anything to control things, despite our requests. They just let it degenerate. I admit I was at a loss how to deal with it without support from the police. To this day, whenever I see a protest degenerate into violence, I sympathise with the helplessness of the organisers. Regrettably, much of this happened before the web, so little archival information about the protests and rallies is available.

Where the campaign of intimidation against me took a particularly ugly turn was when Ron Owen started publishing personal addresses and photos of various anti-gun politicians, including photos taken in my own back yard... The President of the Queensland Council for Civil Liberties, Ian Dearden described it in a speech to a seminar on Hate Crimes and Discrimination:

On a Web page headed with an Australian flag overlaid with the words “Lock Stock and Barrel” the execrable Ron Owen, gun shop owner, President of the Fire Arm Association of Queensland and publisher of “Lock, Stock and Barrel” (a magazine and Internet site) currently runs something charmingly referred to as a “House and Garden Competition”.Web surfers are invited (with the prize of “a good book”) to send in their entries for “the best home photograph and address of your favourite politician or public servant”. Interestingly enough, despite his encouragement to Web surfers to breach other people’s privacy, he offers successful entrants the inducement that “entrants’ name only printed on request”.

If you look further through the site, you will find photographs of the residents (and address details) of the Queensland Premier, Peter Beattie, as well as other Queensland Cabinet Ministers including Matt Foley, Anna Bligh, and Robert Schwarten, Federal parliamentarian Ian MacFarlane, Shadow Cabinet member Russell Cooper, and Federal parliamentarians, Dr David Kemp, Peter Slipper and even local Maroochy Shire Councillor Ashley Kerlin. Chillingly, the bottom of the page promises us “More to come just send them in”.

It was a worrying time indeed. But the laws won through, and Australia is a safer place today as a result of all the thousands of people all around. I only hope that people in similar positions in the US stay strong and win through there too. Because as this chart shows, they have a far more serious problem than Australia ever did: