The gun lobby’s hold on the O’Farrell government has further tightened with the State government now going to the extremes of joining with Gaddafi’s weapons supplier ‘Beretta’ and other gun manufacturers to co-sponsor this weekend’s two day ‘Shot Expo’ in Sydney promoting guns, knives and pistols from across the globe.
See the Sun Herald reporting here:
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/ofarrell-under-fire-as-gun-lobby-grows-20120616-20gq4.html#ixzz1xzUN9zhK
Greens MP and Firearms Spokesperson David Shoebridge said:
"This State government has no limits on how far it will go in promoting a pro-gun culture, including joining with death merchants to plug guns and hunting.
"It is just astounding that the NSW government's hunting body, the Game Council, is using taxpayers dollars to co-sponsor a pro-guns event with weapons manufacturers.
"The Game Council is simply out of control, and the Premier is now joined at the hip to them through his ongoing deals with the Shooters Party in Parliament.
"Most people will be rightly appalled when they hear that the O'Farrell government is co-sponsoring the 'Shot Expo' with a gun manufacturer that sold millions of dollars of small arms to the Gaddafi regime.
“In 2009 Beretta sold 11,000 pistols and rifles to Libya’s internal security forces, and this is the very same company that the O’Farrell government is now joining with to promote gun ownership in NSW.
“Not satisfied with getting shooters into National Parks the O’Farrell government is now getting out there and doing its best to sell more weapons.
"NSW has run down hospitals, broken public transport and thousands of public servants being sacked, but the O'Farrell government still has the cash to promote gun ownership and hunting.
“This is a government which is developing increasingly skewed priorities for public spending and public safety,” Mr Shoebridge said.
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