Ray Williams chooses his words carefully.
There’s an election coming that he needs to prepare for, and the sensitive subject of Tasmanian gun registration is back in the headlines.
He is a candidate for the Shooters, Farmers and Fishers Party in the next state election.
With that poll on the horizon, Williams wants to see a representative of the SFF – of which he’s a prominent member – not only on the ballot but in the newly expanded Tasmanian House of Assembly.
His concerns about local banking – what he calls “real community banking” – are still top of mind.
And more, he’s got two New Norfolk businesses and 35 staff to run.
There’s a lot going on, and in a politically charged climate like now, it’s smart to watch what you say.
Mr Williams grew up in Victoria, where hunting and fishing came with the territory. His eyes, he now admits, weren’t great, but he could use a shotgun.
Today he owns two of New Norfolk’s flagship stores, the local Mitre 10 as well as the well-known haunt of fishers and hunters, Williams Outdoors.
Experience in banking and business have cemented Williams’ grasp of numbers, so that when he talks about hunting and hunters, he wields statistics like a weapon.
“In Tasmania, only about 5 per cent of the population have a gun licence, which is about 30,000 people in the entire state,” he says. “Here in the Derwent Valley, there’d be fewer than 600 owners of registered guns.
“And those numbers are disproportionate because the 95 per cent without licences don’t care much about those who do,” he says emphatically.
“It just doesn’t matter to that majority of people that there are legitimate reasons to own a firearm. I think that’s unreasonable. We’re being treated unfairly.”
Williams has given a good deal of thought to the issues raised by the recent Tasmania Police decision that requires pre-1900 weapons to be licensed like modern firearms.
“The justification for this is community safety… that’s the key,” he says.
“But surely, if we’re concerned about community safety, we’d do something about the weapon most used for crime in Tasmania, and that’s knives by a country mile.
“Are we ready to require knife registration in the interests of community safety?”
In his typically blunt style, Williams slows to emphasise the last few words of the sentence.
The one-time banker turned businessman turned political candidate returns to the numbers as he digs into the announcement of January 18 about pre-1900 weapons.
“When we’re talking about this stuff, we need to put aside the emotional arguments and talk statistics, talk reality,” he says.
“I’m not a bad person, and these are not bad people,” he says indicating the store customers behind him.
“You can talk about blood sports, about culling seals or ducks, but these jobs need to be done, and cleanly and quickly.”
“Now is a good time for voters to really listen, to engage with people like me, people who have good and legitimate reasons to use a gun,” he smiles.
“That’s all we’re asking.”