The Sporting Shooters Association of Australia (SSAA Inc.) is highlighting how little the NSW gun buyback will do for community safety.
Over the weekend, the Prime Minister and NSW Premier announced that NSW will be the first state to begin a gun buyback scheme following the Bondi terrorist incident, despite little evidence it will prevent a similar event.
“In the eight months since the Bondi terrorist incident, a number of government deficiencies have come to light, including a lack of deradicalisation funding to target contemporary risks faced by the nation,” stated SSAA CEO, Tom Kenyon.
“The Government themselves are publicly saying they’re concerned about the increasing threat of radicalisation of all types, yet their greatest urgency this year has been to try and copy 90s-era Howard policy in the hope it would make them look like they were keeping Australians safe.
“Since the Federal Government announced they wanted to undertake firearm reforms in December, all they have managed to achieve is taking a nationally consistent approach to firearm regulation and turning it into a patchwork of inconsistencies right across Australia.
“At the end of July, we watched on as the New Zealand Government implemented new firearm laws that they invested significant time and effort into fundamentally assessing what will make their country safer in relation to firearms, while Australian are left with political PR stunts and window dressing.
“The Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion Interim Report stated that nothing is the pre-existing legislative framework prevented intelligence or law enforcement agencies from taking action that may have prevented the Bondi attack.
“This is an extremely sensitive issue and it’s critical that we focus on what will limit terrorism now, and into the future.
“We must focus the most urgent matters such as what leads to someone committing such abhorrent violent acts, and how our governments are truly protecting us.” Mr Kenyon concluded.