“The use of two handguns in yesterday’s Atlanta shooting reminds us of the weaknesses in our own handgun legislation” said Randy Marshall, spokesperson for Gun Control Australia.

“After a series of handgun incidents earlier this year and prior to the 9 June Police Ministers Council GCA wrote to all police ministers and Commissioners of Police asking for the formation of a special handgun subcommittee” said Mr Marshall. “We wanted the Council to examine the weaknesses in our handgun controls which unlike long gun laws, have not been tightened in the aftermath of the Port Arthur shooting”.

“Sad to say, all but one of the Police Commissioners (Mr Comrie) or any Police Ministers were not prepared to put our request to the Council Meeting” said Mr Marshall, and this included Federal Minister for Justice Senator Amanda Vanstone”.

“All argued that our handgun laws were strict enough – this is nonsense” said Mr Marshall. “Pistol collections are often burgled and hundreds of handguns then come on to the illegal market”. “Victoria and Queensland recently weakened the storage demands on handgun collections up to 15 guns – these are now sitting ducks”, said Mr Marshall.

“Furthermore, in Victoria it is clear that, in the run up to the coming state election, the ALP have been won over to the gun lobby – they will not discuss improvements to our gun laws”, said Mr Marshall. “Mr Bracks is so scared of the gun lobby that he will not even reply to our letters”.

“Pistol shooters have increasingly tended towards combat shooting, said Mr Marshall. “Nothing could be more against the spirit of sport than to play a laundered version of shooting people – yet the Federal government is using public money to support this activity through the Australian Sports Commission”.

“We think that Australian politicians want to rest on their post-Port Arthur laurels – they have become callous about the public need to improve our gun laws” said Mr Marshall.