ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
Bunnings has defended the use of snipers this week after the hardware giant was accused of overstepping the mark in the name of personal protection.
Across the nation, teams of trained marksmen have been positioned strategically at the entrance to most Bunnings outlets in low-socio economic areas to help keep staff and customers safe from bad people.
It comes as a gentleman in Queensland’s Tuscany, also known as the corridor between Brisbane and the Gold Coast, was shot through the abdomen and again through the left eye by a trained Bunnings marksman after he was recognised as a person who stole an Ozito power drill in 2015.
The man was shot dead moments after getting out of his car on the orders of the Bunnings store duty manager. The act has been praised by sections of the community.
However, human rights groups have criticised the wholesale killing of suspected thieves and petty crooks by Bunnings. One group told The Advocate that the faceless, anti-competitive hardware megastore does not have the right to order the extrajudicial execution of Australians it merely suspects have having wronged them in the past.
“It’s a job for police to either arrest or shoot members of the community. On rare occasions, armed guards can also do it,” said local Greens candidate Shelley Douglas.
“But for Bunnings employees, it sits outside the scope of their job.”
In recent weeks, Bunnings floor staff were also given a Glock 42, the smallest pistol the Austrian gunmaker produces, to deal with people who break the rules inside the store.
Vision released this week by Bunnings shows a naked man being shot over 60 times by cashiers after an alleged mental health episode. One Bunnings employee was written up for shooting the man’s cock clean off his body, which goes against the company policy of only aiming at the face and/or centre mass.
The Advocate reached out to Bunnings for comment but were told they don’t comment openly on defence matters.
More to come.
