THE mother of a youngster pictured on The Bulletin's front page has come to the defence of the paper after criticism the shot and accompanying headline were in poor taste.

Tucker Boulton was photographed (see left) at the helm of a military weapon at the Talisman Saber open day.

His picture and the headline, Which way do I point it mum?, has generated reader comment.

Here Tucker's mum, Felecity Walker, provides her view.

"Where do I point it Mum?" was the question our son asked me last Sunday when his photo was being taken.

He asked because he didn't want to aim it at people, and there was people everywhere.

I am both surprised and amused at the uproar of the photo of the little boy on the front page, that little boy happens to be our son.

Our family are not advocates of or for war, nor do we enjoy the notion of human suffering, we also have great empathy for soldiers who serve and witness great human atrocities. The sad reality is, war does happen, humans do fight; and we are both grateful and proud that we have a defence force trained and ready to defend us and our way of life. Freedom of speech is a wonderful thing and those of you who have used this freedom to poo poo The Morning Bulletin over Monday's front page, owe your thanks to our countrymen and women who fought for and continue to fight for such freedoms.

In an ideal world, we would not need to have an Army, Navy, Air force or Police force for that matter. Sadly we do not live in an ideal world.

Our son was doing nothing other than using his imagination. He didn't come home and tell me he wanted to kill people or be in a war, he merely enjoyed his day out and was pleased to see real army men as apposed to his plastic play men.

If this is the only thing in your lives that you people have to be upset and outraged over, think yourselves lucky and thank our defence force for giving you so little to be concerned about in life!