Former carpenter Shannon Draper refused gun license after telling police to ‘suck my balls’

A former carpenter who told police to “go and get f---ed” while also threatening their families lacks the “self control” needed to own a gun, a tribunal has heard.

Retired carpenter Shannon Draper has been refused a firearms licence after he sent a series of "rude" emails to Victoria police officers. Picture: A Current Affair

A retired tradie has been banned from owning guns because of his history of sending “rude” emails to police officers, including one that instructed a local sergeant to “suck my balls”.

Former carpenter Shannon Draper took Victoria Police to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal after a panel of officers found he was not a fit and proper person to own firearms.

The tribunal heard Draper sent a long, hostile email to his local police station in 2018, with the subject line “Acting Sargent (sic) needs to ‘Suck my balls’! (sic)”.

In the email, Draper said he would never confront a police officer at work, because he was “smart enough to wait until you leave and hit you in the dark … if I was that way inclined”.

The email finished with a threat on the officer’s family.

“I could be sitting out front of your house … getting ready to skull f--- those you love.

“No one is safe in this crazy world.

“F--- with people and they might just f--- you back, regardless of who you are! Take care.”

Draper was later prosecuted for sending the email.

He was convicted and fined $750.

Retired carpenter Shannon Draper has been refused a firearms licence after he sent a series of "rude" emails to Victoria police officers. Picture: A Current Affair

He told the tribunal late last year he now accepted it was wrong to send the email and that he was ashamed to have done so.

But he more recently sent another email to police officers reviewing his firearms licence application that said: “I effectively told you to ‘go and get f#%$ed’ …”

He also emailed a Victoria Police lawyer saying his conduct would be “met with hostility”.

The police committee which refused Draper’s firearms license application said it was “not satisfied that (he) possesses the necessary self-control to be entrusted with a firearms licence”.

Victoria Police’s barrister, Suganya Pathan, said Draper struggled to control his emotions and “readily resorts to subtly threatening language when he is unhappy with something and he wants the recipient of his email to change their position in some way.”

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A psychological report said Draper had a brief history of mental health struggles, but had since recovered, and had not thought of killing anyone in years.

Tribunal member Simon Cohen said it was not in the public interest for Draper to own guns, even though he only planned to use them for pest control and farming.

“His conduct is … short of that expected for the good order of society and the wellbeing of its members,” Mr Cohen said.