John Edwards was arrogant, pushy with gun club staff: inquest
Killer dad John Edwards showed strange behaviour at a gun club while trying to get a firearm licence - immediately leaving a bad feeling with one member.
John Edwards followed a gun club president in his car, wildly flashing his lights and tooting his horn to flag him down so he could berate him after he was declined membership.
It was one of a number of red flag moments exhibited by Edwards as he courted rifle and pistol clubs in early 2017, seeking a gun licence the year before he murdered his two children.
The club president saved his number so he knew not to pick up the calls.
A secretary labelled him a “right PITA” — pain in the arse — in an email to the club committee.
And a senior official at a rifle club got a “bad feeling” from him from the start.
But the gun clubs didn’t share their reservations with the NSW Firearms Registry, as they didn’t think Edwards met the high bar of a threat to public safety, an inquest heard on Monday.
Edwards gunned down his 15-year-old son Jack and 13-year-old daughter Jennifer on July 5, 2018 at the West Pennant Hills home where the teens lived with mother Olga.
After shooting them dead, Edwards drove home and killed himself.
Their mother, Olga, took her own life five months later.
Among the questions state coroner Teresa O’Sullivan is seeking to answer is how Edwards was approved for a gun licence despite his long history of domestic violence and his red flag behaviour at various gun clubs.
Kur-Ring-Gai Pistol Club (KPC) president Neville “Drew” Thornton told the inquest Edwards was “pushy” and the first person the club had ever written to to advise they would never become a member.
David Dean, the club secretary, said Edwards seemed totally uninterested in the club.
“Usually with a new member they’re quite excited to find out about the sport, what they have to do, the processes they have to go through,” Mr Dean said. “This was not the case with Mr Edwards.”
Realising he had rubbed people at KPC the wrong way, Edwards wrote to Mr Thornton in December 2016 asking that “in the spirit of Christmas” he at least process his P650 form, which would allow him to shoot unlicensed while under supervision.
The club committee decided not to admit Edwards as a member in an internal email chain in which Mr Dean described him as “a right pain in the arse”.
On the day he found out, Edwards chased down Mr Thornton as he left the shooting range in his car, flashing his lights and beeping his horn.
“He was extremely aggressive, ‘why have you not allowed me to join your club’ and so on. It was just ridiculously stupid the way he carried on,” Mr Thornton told the inquest.
“My final statement to him I believe was ‘Think about your actions now, your behaviour now: if you were in my shoes, would you allow me to become a member of your club?’
“I said ‘I don’t want to see you again’, got in the car and left.”
Clubs are obliged under the law to notify the Firearms Registry if they believe someone presents a risk to public safety, the inquest heard.
But, Mr Thornton said, “at the time we did not believe he posed a threat to himself or any other person. He just exhibited an aggressive nature.”
He agreed a requirement for clubs to notify the registry if a person was refused membership would be useful.
After knocking back Edwards, KPC contacted the Hornsby RSL Rifle Club (HRRC) to let them know, knowing he had been doing some shooting there.
This was not done out of obligation but because the clubs shared a range and were friendly, the inquest heard.
HRRC captain Heather Smith told the inquest her first impression of Edwards was that he wouldn’t fit in at the club and had a problem with her gender.
“Often I find being a female is unusual in our sport,” she said. “And often men who come along don’t really want women to tell them what to do and what the rules are.
“My feeling was he was a little bit arrogant and a little bit pushy. I didn’t feel comfortable with him.”
She agreed she had a “bad feeling” about Edwards, but added that was just her view.
On December 10, 2016, Edwards was allowed to shoot at HRRC when he should not have been.
Then-president Douglass Caple missed Edwards had answered “yes” to a question on a P650 form if he had ever been refused a licence, which he had back in 2010.
This should have precluded him from shooting until the NSW Firearms Registry had confirmed otherwise.
Ms Smith described it as an “inexplicable” mistake.
Both Smith and Caple said Edwards was a lone wolf during his few times at the HRRC range, standing at the back and not trying to make friends.
“I saw him hanging around the back of other shooters,” Mr Caple said.
“Most new people would mingle in better than what he did. He just sort of stood back and observed.”
Edwards completed his rifle safety training at HRRC but then stopped attending and dropped his application to become a full member.
Edwards ultimately became a member of the St Marys Pistol Club, where he stored the five guns he obtained before shooting his children.
The inquest continues.