The Federal Attorney General’s department has released a draft report titled ‘Firearms Safety Training’. This report was requested by the Australasian Police Ministers Council. It is designed to further implement the ideas laid down on the historic Council meeting of 10 May 1996 following the Port Arthur gun massacre in April 1996.

The report is available on http://law.gov.a u/publications/firesafety/safety1.html It can also be obtained by email at, firearms@ag.gov.au or by contacting the Law Enforcement Coordination Division of the Attorney-General’s Department, Robert Garran Offices, Barton ACT 2600. Their fax number is 02 6273 0914.

Your comments should be made to the above address by 4 February 2000.

Any person interested in public safety generally and in Australia having adequate gun controls should examine this report. It is a shocker. It has always been far to easy to get a gun in Australia and this draft report does not attend to that problem.

What the police ministers are proposing is a totally outdated model for a shooters licence. It is quite inadequate in the demands which it makes on shooters – thus it is barely the beginning of a proper training system for those who want to own guns. Given what we have experienced from gun misuse in the last two decades it would not be unreasonable to suggest that the proposals for safety training are two decades out of date.

One of the main proposal suggests that shooters licence applicants take only two, three hour sessions of training and testing. This is irresponsible. Gun Control Australia has argued for many years that the lack of discipline, which is characteristic of the shooting fraternity, forces any proper training regime to be at least 40 hours in length.

If the proposals are adopted it will be a most serious setback to all those interested in public safety. It seems that the proposals have been made in the interests of the gun lobby, not the community.

The Federal Attorney General’s department has released a draft report titled ‘Firearms Safety Training’. This report was requested by the Australasian Police Ministers Council. It is designed to further implement the ideas laid down on the historic Council meeting of 10 May 1996 following the Port Arthur gun massacre in April 1996.

The report is available on http://law.gov.a u/publications/firesafety/safety1.html It can also be obtained by email at, firearms@ag.gov.au or by contacting the Law Enforcement Coordination Division of the Attorney-General’s Department, Robert Garran Offices, Barton ACT 2600. Their fax number is 02 6273 0914.

Your comments should be made to the above address by 4 February 2000.

Any person interested in public safety generally and in Australia having adequate gun controls should examine this report. It is a shocker. It has always been far to easy to get a gun in Australia and this draft report does not attend to that problem.

What the police ministers are proposing is a totally outdated model for a shooters licence. It is quite inadequate in the demands which it makes on shooters – thus it is barely the beginning of a proper training system for those who want to own guns. Given what we have experienced from gun misuse in the last two decades it would not be unreasonable to suggest that the proposals for safety training are two decades out of date.

One of the main proposal suggests that shooters licence applicants take only two, three hour sessions of training and testing. This is irresponsible. Gun Control Australia has argued for many years that the lack of discipline, which is characteristic of the shooting fraternity, forces any proper training regime to be at least 40 hours in length.

If the proposals are adopted it will be a most serious setback to all those interested in public safety. It seems that the proposals have been made in the interests of the gun lobby, not the community.

TAFE colleges are capable of providing a one night or one half-day per week shooter’s licence course of 20 weeks duration. This course should become the minimum training and testing demand in each of the eight jurisdictions. A minimum of two hours per week theoretical and practical instruction should be required for the basic training. An instructo
rs course would take an additional one year’s duration.

All new shooter’s licence applicants to be required to complete the course and all existing holders of a shooter’s licence to be required to do so as their licence needs renewal. There must be no grandfather clauses. Nearly all Australian gun owners have had pitifully weak training and no serious testing. Tragically, many gun owners see no need for training and testing.

The course below is proposed. We believe that governments should not permit hunting, but since all Australian jurisdictions at present do allow hunting, we have incorporated this.

The history of gun development.
The history of cartridge and bullet development.
Ballistics, and the danger of bullets over long distances.
Practical and theoretical aspects of gun handling safe practices.
The history of gun laws.
Overseas gun laws.
A thorough knowledge of the existing gun laws in the particular jurisdiction.
Inadequacies within the gun law regime to protect the community.
Lessons from the Firearms Appeals Tribunal.
The major areas of gun misuse and the penalties for same.
Shooters’ responsibilities in regard to safe storage. The problem of theft.
The damage which gun owners have caused to the community.
The tragic consequences of shooter misbehaviour on four selected families.
The science of ethology.
The ethics of hunting and practical hunting demands.
The community’s perception of hunting and shooters generally and the causes of this.
The nature of the physical environment in which shooters operate.
The need to respect conservation values and the problems this imposes.
Studying the gun debate.
Shooting magazines, books and fraternities.

The applicants would have to show that the course was well attended and that they had taken part in serious discussion. We suggest that three exam papers, each of one hour duration, should have to be passed.The exam papers would cover knowledge of guns, the gun problem, hunting, animal welfare etc. and safe practices; knowledge of gun laws and how gun laws have developed. One paper would be set by the shooting fraternity, one by the police and one by the gun control movement with support from the medical fraternity.

The above course would:

Introduce gun licence applicants to the serious and thoughtful side of gun ownership. It would help to get rid of the yahoos and in so doing help those shooters who suffer because of their poorly behaved ‘mates’.
Promote a greater disciplined approach to gun ownership and increase awareness of the consequences of poor behaviour with guns.
Inculcate better behaviour in a group which is known for its failure to abide by gun laws and its callousness towards animal life.
Enhance public safety.