President message - June 2007
In this issue of Australian Shooter you’ll notice a story about the 2007 World Police & Fire Games - an international event that draws together competitors of all sports from across the world. Australia, and Adelaide in particular, was lucky enough to host the event, and many of my fire-fighting colleagues made their way to the City of Churches to compete. While many competitors are at the elite level of their chosen sport, many just compete on a grade basis to enjoy their activity and enjoy the social aspect of catching up with colleagues from around the world with a similar interest. Unlike swimming, tennis, basketball and weightlifting, the shooting sports, as a SSAA member well knows, come with a bundle of laws, regulations and limitations. At the Games there were 11 shooting and shooting-related events including Air Rifle, Biathlon, Centrefire Pistol, Paintball, Police Action, Police Combat, Large and Small Bore Rifle, Skeet, Sporting Clays and Trap. Of course, many of the international competitors are used to shooting their clays with a self-loading shotgun, their Police Action with a barrel 4mm shorter than what is allowed in Australia, a magazine that can hold 15 cartridges or a calibre larger than what is permissible on our shores. To a non-shooter, this may not seem like such a problem, but to a shooter who has tuned, adjusted and built their pistol from frame up it is a problem. The reality was that many of the international competitors could not compete in the shooting events with their preferred equipment and several made mention that their confidence and, at worst, their scores, were affected. Sadly, comment was also made that more than 150 international shooting competitors withdrew their applications from the Games because of what they saw as ludicrous firearm legislation. According to my colleagues who competed, despite the problems with conducting an international shooting competition in Australia, the visitors had a terrific time. But that is not the point. If we want to be taken seriously on the international sporting playing field then the Australian Government must consider whether cumbersome and ill-founded legislation will affect our competitiveness and reputation. SSAA National warned the Government at the time that the new handgun regulations will affect our sport and competitiveness and that is exactly what the outcome has been. We now also see the evidence of overseas competitors not even bothering to try to jump the hurdles and crawl through the hoops that have been created to compete in Australia in the shooting sports. As I write, SSAA National has sent an Australian SSAA team to the United States of America to compete at the NRA Bianchi Cup National Action Pistol Championships. I look forward to hearing how they competed, but I also look forward to the positive and welcoming attitude that both the NRA and Americans have towards our team and passing that information on to our legislators. Bob Green
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