Will the Greens turn a new leaf?
News broke this month of the resignation of long-time Greens leader Bob Brown. The Tasmanian Senator is retiring after 16 years with the party. His successor and fellow Tasmanian Senator Christine Milne will take the leadership reins from June. It will be interesting to see her attitude towards firearm ownership and hunting in Australia, considering her former leader’s attitude over the years. In his time as Greens leader, Bob Brown has made his disdain for firearm ownership and hunting in Australia widely known. Also during this time, he has shown how little he knows and is willing to understand about firearm ownership and hunting in this country.

One of his most infamous quotes claimed there were 300,000 handguns in Australia. As he called for a dramatic reduction in this number, he made the following blunder: “The people who require a (hand) machine gun be carried around available to them, in the glove box or whatever, is very, very limited in a peaceful society like our own...There is no reason for so many hundreds of thousands of handguns, including effectively hand machine guns, to be available in Australia.” I have never come across one of these ‘hand machine guns’; have you?

Bob Brown has also shown a great deal of confusion between legal firearms in the hands of licensed firearm owners and illegal firearms in the hands of criminals. He has often called for a ban on semi-automatic handguns following unrelated criminal events overseas or criminal or gang-related activities in Australia. He has also claimed on numerous occasions that Australia has “very lax gun laws”.

SSAA National has hit back at these claims on many occasions due to the simple fact that handgun ownership is in fact highly restricted, with licensed shooters having to jump through many hoops to gain and keep their handgun licences for competition purposes.

As Bob Brown is farewelled, we wait with bated breath to see whether Christine Milne, a politician raised under Brown’s guidance, mirrors his ignorance and takes the attitude of fellow anti-gun Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon. Rest assured, despite the outcome, SSAA National maintains a Federal representation in the interests of members and will continue to correct the mistruths reported in the media.

The Greens are but one of many individuals, groups and organisations who are against private firearms ownership, sport shooting and recreational hunting. SSAA National maintains an archive of informative articles on these groups as a reference point for our members. Visit the ‘Know Your Opponent’ section of the SSAA National website to learn more.

Canada scraps longarm registry
In international news, we were pleased to hear that the Canadian longarm firearms registry has now been scrapped. The Senate of Canada passed the third reading of Bill C-19 on April 4, which no longer requires Canadian firearms owners to register their longarms.

Tony Bernardo of the Canadian Shooting Sports Association and Canadian Institute for Legislative Action said the registry was messy and unfair legislation and that the decision to remove it was long overdue. He said this milestone can be credited to the hard work, dedication and coordinated efforts of shooting, hunting and wildlife enthusiasts and associations across the country.

We congratulate Canada on their sound decision and wish them luck in their future legislation reforms.