Greens MP's gun club application rejected

Image: David Leyonhjelm, club president, Inner West Hunters Club.

NSW Greens MP David Shoebridge  decided for some reason to apply for membership of the Inner West Hunters Club at Drummoyne and was rejected.  He also had to cope with the embarrassment of the story being reported in the media, owing to the opinion of officeholders that he was up to mischief.

Shoebridge is a notorious anti gun frantic who wants as many as possible currently legally owned guns to be taken away from legal gun owners: 

Mr Shoebridge applied for membership of the Inner West Hunters Club at Drummoyne last week to ''fully understand the rigour and process involved in obtaining a hunting licence in NSW'', reports Sean Nicholls. Joining a gun club is one way of satisfying the legal requirement that a ''genuine reason'' is needed to obtain a firearms licence. 

An advocate of stricter gun laws, Mr Shoebridge has also been a fierce opponent of the NSW government's decision to allow hunting of feral animals in national parks from March. 

But instead of receiving a phone call from the club president, David Leyonhjelm, about his application, the upper house MP took a call from a reporter at The Australian on Tuesday seeking his reasons for wanting to join. Mr Shoebridge said Mr Leyonhjelm later told him he had leaked his details to the media because he was ''up to mischief and therefore it was a matter of public interest''. 

Mr Shoebridge, who is a barrister, was also told his application had been rejected because he was ''not a fit and proper person''. 

Mr Leyonhjelm is a registered officer and treasurer of the Liberal Democratic Party, which advocates the right to carry concealed firearms for self-defence.  

 He said the hunting club's five-person committee had unanimously rejected Mr Shoebridge's application on Friday night. ''There are some people we don't want in the club,'' he said. ''Mostly the nutters. And I suppose that's another way of describing a Green politician.''

Gun and shooting related organizations need to be cautious of the type of people they accept for membership.  Were a Greens MP allowed to join, he could then claim that the club was accepting people who were idiots and completely out of touch with reality and use that as an excuse to have that type of club struck from the list of organizations whose membership entitles people to apply for firearms licences.