Anytime you pass a law, you have to keep an eye out for unintended consequences. For example, no one who supported Prohibition in the United States anticipated the rise of the mafia, but it happened. 

We’ve long argued that one unintended consequence of gun control–and that’s if we’re charitable enough to believe it’s unintended–is to disarm law-abiding citizens and make them more susceptible to being victims of violent crime.

Yet in Western Australia, their gun laws are creating a different unintended consequence.

nimal control volunteers say the increasing complexity of Western Australia’s tough new gun laws could be causing inadvertent harm to animals.

A retired environmental scientist based in Gingin, 80 kilometres north of Perth, Peter Palfrey says he is concerned animal suffering will increase as animal control officers stop volunteering their time due to the law reforms.

Through the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA) the volunteers use a firearm to euthanise severely injured wildlife, often on roadsides, and invasive species. 

Introduced in June, the gun law reformation introduced changes to the number of guns held under eight licence categories, physical and mental health checks, and tightened restrictions to the property letter system. 

Animal abuse might increase

Mr Palfrey says as an animal control volunteer he has intervened to stop people using unethical methods of dispatching wildlife. 

“You can’t hit [the animal] with a hammer or anything like this,” he said.

“I’ve seen people resort to dropping them in the green wheelie bin and drowning them.”

He said shooting remained the quickest, and most pain-free euthanasia method, and is often used after animals collide with a vehicle, and to cull invasive species.

Mr Palfrey is concerned volunteer numbers will drop because of the gun law reforms. 

Three months ago, he stopped volunteering because he felt getting the necessary property registration had become too complicated.

Honestly, this isn’t surprising.

I’m sure no one wants this to happen. No one wants to see an animal suffer needlessly simply because no one has a gun to handle things, but that’s exactly what is happening because of the gun control laws in question.

Honestly, putting an animal in a “green wheelie bin,” which is basically just a trash can with wheels, then drowning them is nightmarish. Trapped in a dark place, water all around you, no way to escape, panicking, all because no one could do the humane thing and deal with the animal quickly. That’s absolutely horrific.

And this is thanks to laws pushed for by the self-proclaimed good people of Australia.

The unintended consequence of what these supposedly good people created, though, is needless suffering for animals that have no say in political discourse.

Considering how many of these same people think hunting is barbaric, that’s almost hilarious.

Look, I don’t pretend animals are people. I love my pets like they’re part of the family and I’ve cried every time I’ve buried one–and yes, I’ve buried every damn one of them myself–but they’re not people and I don’t pretend they are. But because they’re not people, they don’t understand how to deal with suffering. If they’re hurt, their suffering needs to end, and the most human way to do that is to shoot them.

But people can’t do that there.

And considering the number of people who want to bring this kind of gun control to American shores, that’s a massive problem.