By the time you are reading this we will be deep into our second day of the annual SSAA WA exhibition at the Dowerin Machinery Field Days.
With the only custom-built mobile ten metre air rifle range in Western Australia, our dedicated shooting gallery provides a unique platform for field day patrons, politicians and the general public to experience shooting a firearm in a controlled, safe and educational environment.
In a watermark moment, the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia WA are pleased to announce that we have successfully secured official representatives from WA Police Licensing Services to be on site at Dowerin and respectfully engage with landowners, hunters and primary producers.
Licensing staff will be available to provide direct assistance in navigating the firearm licensing and renewal process, answer questions on the firearms regulations and clarify the steps of the digital transition process.
In another first and in conjunction with the principal partners of the WA Firearms Community Alliance, we are pleased to release the first glimpse of the official table below outlining the property size versus calibre matrix soon to be released in full.
The construction of the official draft document has been months in the making and has involved all the respected WA shooting bodies, individual firearm owners, professional shooters, landowners and the regulator, to ensure that safe shooting practices can be maintained and provide a practical framework for hunting and vermin control on properties of all sizes.
The detail around the myriad of calibres and the allocations into the “final five buckets” is currently under review by the members of the WA Police Firearms Working Group and will be released officially in the coming weeks.
It must be recognised that the combined weight of all West Australian firearm owners, along with the multi-faceted approach to the issues encountered with the introduction of the New Firearms Act, has significantly contributed to the changing approach by the WA Government.
With that in mind it must be said that SSAA WA will never adopt strategies to “appear to be doing something” and instead the organisation’s principles will be retained whilst we remain invested with the Government and the Regulator. Insults, lies, and accusations from ill-informed individuals drowning in their own misinformation as they struggle to appear relevant are entertaining for some, but achieve absolutely nothing.
On a positive front and recognising that we still have a long way to go, all WA firearm owners should draw confidence from the recent announcements by the Standing Committee on Legislation that they will plough on with the review of the new laws and have now issued invitations to the recognised representative groups to attend committee hearings throughout September 2025.
The Sporting Shooters Association of Australia WA and the foundation partners of the WA Firearms Community Alliance have all been invited to attend the upcoming hearings and will continue to provide their concerns to the decision makers in the Parliament.