David Dunstan was doing nothing more than being at home at night with his family, when his terriers – Tax and Pip – told him something was wrong.
The story of what happened next echoed around the nation after he grabbed his 22 to confront the man with a knife and piece of wood at his back door.
The man was arrested: no-one got hurt. Except that NSW Police took HIS guns and suspended HIS licence.
Three weeks later the police are still sitting on this while they work out what to do. With your support, we’ve raised nearly $20k through a GoFundMe campaign to help David get a lawyer to help him out, especially if he his charged or loses his licence.
The lawyer, Stephen Mainstone, went to work straight away, which resulted in a local senior police officer saying he is willing to give evidence that it is not in the public interest for his own force to pursue this. This is because any decision on this is made in Sydney, not Albury where this started.
CFCV Secretary, Neil Jenkins, with David Dunstan
On Thursday (28 September), Stephen wrote to the Registry seeking an update, noting that David hasn’t been charged, and needs his firearms for his work. Today (Monday) is a holiday in NSW so we’re hoping to hear something real soon.
The next day (Friday), we went up to see David. We went through a few things relating to his situation, the support he received, and some options for us to look at when this is over.
However in the meantime the Police are showing their capacity to ignore public opinion, ignore the fact the Deputy Premier of NSW took a full day out of his own diary to see David, and the fact David was the victim.
To give you an idea of how this has resonated, our own Facebook post which started the donation drive has been shared over 1,400 times and been seen by over 240,000 people – more than the number of people who went to the AFL and NFL grand finals combined. It also attracted over 1,000 comments.
We can’t wait for this to be over. When it is, it won’t be over. That’s because we’ll be looking for changes in laws to make sure this can’t happen again. We’ve got an executive meeting on Wednesday where we’ll be working through this in more detail. If you’d like to stay up to date on what happens, make sure you’re on our email list by clicking here. Details on our funding campaign can be seen here.
As you put it. the decisions are made in Sydney; not local. There is a legally arguable case for misfeasance here. Some-one who may think they are untouchable ought to do their job over this!
This may not be as simple as it appears, but to me it is this simple: We are being denied the right to protect ourselves & our loved ones without being inconvenienced or charged with a crime!
It is illegal for anyone to purchase or carry anything for the sole purpose of self defence. Now it is obvious that we are not allowed to use a firearm for our defence, even though this firearm was NOT purchased for that intent. We have a law that says we must not use excessive force, does that mean that if faced with an attacker with a knife we must also arm ourselves with a knife? Does this mean that if the attacker is bigger & stronger than the victim but is not armed that the victim must protect themselves with only their bare hands? Surely the right to protect oneself & ones family is a human right? If we no longer have this right, then we no longer have our freedom.
Keith.
Would a Police officer cofronted with a armed intruder in thier home say get out or you will be in truble ??? NO THEY WOULD PROTECT THEIR FAMILY WITH ANY MEANS REQUIERED …but the public need to die first before the POLICE/LAW say “O” what a tragity..
Lets assume a case:
Someone broke into John’s house with an illegally obtained firearm threatening John to give all his money.
John is not firearm licenced. John somehow took the firearm away from the intruder and pointed the firearm at the intruder asking him to get the fuck out.
Then John called the police. Should John be charged with procession of a firearm without a licence?
It is cases like David Dunstan’s that are fueling the NRA’s stand on firearms law. It is no wonder that Americans are defending their rights so strenuously when Australia’s draconian laws show what happens when the gun grabbers get their way.
http://cdn.nraila.org/articles/20170929/australian-farmer-defends-family-from-knife-wielding-trespasser-government-confiscates-firearms