The strange case of the gun licence that wasn't
May 11, 2012
Bishop Hill in Climate: Sceptics

In recent days, the Australian National University has released the emails at the centre of the death threats controversy. The details are discussed in this useful article at Quadrant. Here's the critical message

ANU Climate Change Institute.
Sent: Wednesday, June 02, 2010.
URGENT AND CONFIDENTIAL.

Dear All,

Looks like we've had our first serious threat of physical violence. It has come from a participant in [the] deliberative democracy project last weekend. One of the participants left early after he took exception to my talk about climate science...[Deleted’s] exact words were:

"Moreover, before he left, he came to the Fri dinner and showed other participants his gun licence and explained to them how good a sniper he is. Because he didn't attend day 2 he will not be allowed to attend the final day. I will be notifying security to be on hand in case he turns up and causes a problem."

I think the final day is this weekend but I am not sure. Anyway, I've asked XXX to brief the VC [vice-chancellor] and the head of security ASAP. The latter will determine whether this should go to the AFP [Australian Federal Police] or not. [It didn’t]. But in the meantime, we should be careful about anyone we don't know who approaches our offices.

There are some real oddities in the timing, with this alleged incident taking place a full year before the story hit the media. But there is also this comment posted on a thread at Catallaxy Files blog.

John Coochey

11 May 12 at 7:07 am

I feel I can throw some light on this matter as I am undoubtedly the person who is alleged to have shown my gun licence to people at the dinner. That is not accurate. At the mediocre dinner on the first day I was approached by Dr Maxine Cooper, then the Commissioner for the environment, who recognized me as someone involved in the kangaroo culling program in the ACT which occurs each winter. After politely asking if she could sit next to me she asked me how I had gone in the recent licence test which is challenging. I told her I had topped it with a perfect score and showed her my current culling licence, not gun licence, to prove it. The conversation around the table then drifted around the benefits of eating game meat v the poor fare on offer.

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