BATHURST has the third highest number of guns in NSW, with the equivalent of one gun for every 2.8 people, according to new data.
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The number of registered firearms has increased by 23 per cent in Bathurst over the past five years, and there are now 14,253 guns in the city.
But it is not the registered gun owners you should be worried about, according to NSW Farmers Association Bathurst branch president David McKay.
“People shouldn’t worry or panic [about the number of registered guns], it’s people who have illegal ones you should be worried about,” Mr McKay said.
“It’s generally people that have them for crime and don’t have a licence.”
Mr McKay said he was not surprised to learn there were so many guns in Bathurst, and said farmers needed different types of guns for different jobs.
Vermin, including dogs, pigs, rabbits and foxes, can not only destroy a farmer’s stock and feed, but their livelihood.
Different guns, he said, were used to kill each type of animal.
Mr McKay said that it would destroy agriculture if farmers were not allowed to use guns to control vermin on their property.
“A dog can destroy 200 to 300 lambs in a night ... they just kill for the fun of it,” he said.
“A wild dog can even take down a small cow.”
Mr McKay said guns were the “main tool” for controlling vermin, and poisons and traps were not as effective.
He said strict national firearms laws encouraged registered owners to “do the right thing” when it came to gun ownership.
It is not just farmers who contribute to Bathurst’s high gun ownership statistics, according to Mr McKay.
“There’s lots of shooting clubs in Bathurst and they all have guns,” he said.
Five shooting clubs are listed in the local community directory: Bathurst Clay Target Club, Bathurst Gun Club, Bathurst Pistol Club, Bathurst Rifle Club and the Bathurst branch of the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia.
The highest number of registered firearms in NSW was in Dubbo with 14,757, followed by Tamworth (14,542) in the state’s north.
Bathurst’s near neighbour Orange had 11,009 guns and Lithgow 10,859.
There are now 850,636 firearms registered to private owners in NSW compared with 758,802 in 2011.
