Yet perhaps one of the most offensive aspects of the Port Arthur aftermath was the vilification and hate campaign directed at firearm owners. Gun control groups and the media generally portrayed firearm owners as being an irresponsible group of macho slobs who were somehow complicitous in what had happened. Perhaps the media have got it wrong once again. Perhaps it is they themselves who may be implicated in contributing to events like Port Arthur. The media dodges and weaves away from taking blame, and governments fail to make them accountable for fear of receiving poor treatment themselves.
Individual politicians regard speaking against the media as political suicide.
We, the public, must demand greater media restraint and accountability. Mainstream Australians are provided with few alternatives given the five-channel television monopoly combined with narrow newspaper ownership and perspectives. Pro-firearm perspectives continue to receive little, if any, objective publicity. Occasionally, sport shooting events receive neutral coverage in the sports pages. The rest is of an irresponsible and often appalling type which shooters have come to expect.