Those against private firearms ownership and recreational shooting, particularly handgun shooting, argue that certain types of firearms are not necessary for shooters to participate on an equal footing on the international stage. However, ironically, it was our pistol shooters Daniel Repacholi, David Chapman and Lalita Yauhleuskaya who won the most medals for the Australian Shooting Team at the Commonwealth Games in Scotland last month and because of this effort, it was the Australians who topped the Games shooting medal tally overall.
Speaking about great Aussie shooters, it was fantastic to see SSAA shooters do so well with their self-loading pistols at the World Action Pistol Championships and Bianchi Cup in the United States in May, and our Benchrest rifle shooters take out first place in the individual and team categories of the inaugural World Rimfire Championships in France in July.
At the time of writing, it has been more than a month since the Greens with the assistance of Labor kick-started a Senate Inquiry into private firearms ownership and specifically ‘The ability of Australian law enforcement authorities to eliminate gun-related violence in the community’. SSAA National was quick to draft a submission and we have received literally hundreds of replies from members offering comment, which we are now taking on board to finalise our submission before sending it to the Senate’s Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee for consideration.
We know other SSAA states and clubs, gunshops and like-minded organisations have put in their own Senate submissions and that many SSAA members have been writing to their local MPs too about their firearms ownership and shooting activities. We’ve met with key politicians in Canberra on this matter and will continue to keep you informed about any developments via our website, Facebook page, E-newsletter and of course, this magazine.
Our motto, as always, remains ‘SSAA – Protecting shooters since 1948’.