From Oz Fish And Game
and media reports
THREE months ago, NSW Premier Chris Minns called 75-year-old Keith Blessing a hero. It was difficult to describe him any other way after hearing what police alleged happened inside Keith and his wife Di’s rural home at Torrington, near Tenterfield, in June.
The couple were asleep when a 34-year-old man allegedly entered their home and attacked them with a knife. Di was stabbed in the chest and Keith suffered serious abdominal injuries.
Keith fought off the alleged attacker with a knife forcing him to retreat on to the verandah, and called 000.
Before the police could arrive, the intruder attempted to regain entry into the home, but Keith retrieved his legally-held firearm, and fired one shot. The alleged intruder was hit in the abdomen. Keith and Di were later airlifted to hospital in critical condition.
So why did this same Minns Labor government allow Keith Blessings’ firearms licence to be revoked and what happens next?
The alleged home invader has been identified as Joshua Dylan Trethewey, who survived the incident after being treated for a gunshot wound and placed under police guard. He was subsequently charged with attempted murder.
Detective Superintendent Chris McKinnon said at the time that Keith had done his best under extraordinarily difficult circumstances to defend himself and his wife, describing what he managed to do despite his injuries as “quite impressive”. Police also acknowledged that a person is entitled to use reasonable force in self-defence.
Speaking several days later, the Premier said: “I think Keith acted like a hero in these circumstances.” Minns said Keith had saved himself and his family and described the attack as the kind of crime that destroys people’s sense of safety inside the one place they should feel secure, their own home.
Oz Fish and Game says if Chris Minns truly believed that Keith was a hero, he’d provide him with enough support to overturn his licence removal.
“Between himself and his counterpart Yasmin Catley MP, they have enough clout behind them to influence the firearms registry.
“At the very least, this should lead to an urgent review of the facts surrounding this matter. At most, they could vouch for his use with a firearm in a self-defence capacity, and seek support from the attorney general for a retroactive exemption to his licensing conditions.”
The group notes that to date, none of this has happened and what’s more concerning is that they are unaware if any further legal proceedings are coming down the bureaucratic pipeline.
“Now, let’s ask the obvious question that exists here – Is there a precedent for MP’s to represent a citizen in this capacity? Yes, there is.”
The NSW hunting organisation Oz Fish and Game says local MPs routinely represent the public when faced with licensing refusal or revocation. While they don’t have direct control over the decision making process, they can request an ‘urgent review’ to be held on the behalf of the applicant.
Such a request is generally submitted to both the Police Minster (Catley) and the firearms registry. From their understanding, there’s also no legal barrier which prevents them from reaching out to the Attorney General and pleading his case.
The group also notes that in terms of quashing any charges placed against Blessing, there’s another precedent and ironically, it involves the misdeeds of another politician – the 2018 serving Police Minister David Elliott, who shared photos of himself and others shooting a handgun and a submachine gun at the opening of a prison shooting range near Windsor in north-west Sydney.
The participants were unlicensed, and the sub-machinegun is a prohibited weapon.
Elliot was investigated in 2020 after the photos were recirculated online. His defence was that he had “acted in good faith under the assumption that CSNSW had complied with all of its administrative requirements according to the Firearms Act”.
Effectively, he didn’t know it was a breach of the law and from any rudimentary understanding of the law, ignorance is not a valid excuse to break the rules.
Despite this Elliot was never charged, the matter was never taken to court, and he also retained his position as both an MP and the NSW Police Minister.
Oz Fish and Game asks why the NSW police failed to charge him for an obvious crime? They suspect that it was because of his influence as the Police Minister, along with the support of his colleagues.
“Now, if that’s the standard that politicians abide by, it’s worth asking – why can’t exemptions be made to otherwise decent, upstanding members of the community? Especially, in the capacity of self-defence?
“The answer is obvious. There’s nothing to stop an exemption being made. Only the deliberate avoidance of an issue by unscrupulous politicians, who’d rather push an agenda, than do the right thing!”