Australia’s national gun control group, Gun Control Australia (GCA), has its sights (obviously the metaphorical kind) set on a new ‘mass murder’ weapon which is soon to hit Australian gun dealers. The Turkish-made Adler shotgun is on its way to Australia after being imported by Robert Nioa, the son-in-law of independent federal MP Bob Katter, and members of GCA are not happy about it.

Based on GCA’s reaction, one can only deduce that the weapon is clearly being imported to only sell to murderers and serial killers, and the first in line to purchase this shotgun must be Australia’s most unstable, antisocial, sociopathic lunatics.

The slaughterous features of the shotgun are listed as its lever action, interchangeable chokes to facilitate varied shot patterns and user customization of cartridge choice depending on game, a smooth-cycling action, seven-shot tubular magazine, a soft ventilated recoil pad, positive handling as the result of its quality Turkish walnut and generously checkered grip panels, and reduced maintenance due to the hard chrome bore and chamber.

Besides maniacs and schiziods hell bent on mass murder, the shotgun is somehow being marketed to the obvious customers: farmers and recreational and professional hunters. Strangely enough, and contrary to GCA’s scare campaign, the shotgun actually has a place within these circles and professions. This shotgun will fill an important niche for these professionals, particularly in the space of vermin control where pests are spreading diseases and decimating crops at an unprecedented rate.

Samantha Lee, the chair of GCA, was actually quoted as saying, “The Nioa company is trying to bring into Australia a high capacity firearm that verges on being a pump action shotgun.” She also expressed her deep concern by claiming that this shotgun would actually threaten to take Australia back to the days before the 1996 Port Arthur massacre, where gunman Martin Bryant killed 35 people and wounded 23 more.

These absurd and fear-mongering claims are being made by the same organisation that once claimed the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia (SSAA), an association created in 1948 to promote the shooting sports and protect firearm owners’ interests, was not only ‘extremist’ and ‘pro-violence’, but they had in fact produced a person convicted of a firearm-related manslaughter in the state of Victoria.

Even though I am consistently dumbfounded by the baseless gum-flapping of groups like GCA, I still take solace in the fact that their membership base has been described as “small and declining.” In comparison, the SSAA enjoys a membership base of over 170,000 people who are actively involved in activities such as recreational and professional shooting, hunting, firearm collecting, and youth education.

If it were up to the GCA, I’m sure every law abiding citizen in Australia would be stripped of their firearms privileges. I am certain that this organisation actually believes that stricter gun laws somehow equate to less gun crime. Sure, it sounds like an interesting debate. So please, tell me again, how is that working out for Chicago, Detroit, Washington D.C., and New Orleans? I am confident that the current global security climate will continue to drown out these dangerous left-wing pacifists who seek to disarm the exact people who are willing to put themselves in harm’s way and return fire if the situation ever called for it.

Based on membership statistics of both the GCA and the SSAA alone, I’ll just assume that their nonsensical ramblings will have about as much effect on Australia’s firearms industry as the proverbial “fart in a hurricane” does.

(Featured image courtesy of latitudenews.com)