Following an interview with GCA Spokesperson Randy Marshall on ABC Radio’s3LO during Derek Guille’s popular afternoon talkback show on Thursday, July 20th, the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia (SSAA) received airtime on the same show the following day.

The SSAA’s Keith Tidswell tried to impress listeners with a social responsibility message stressing the SSAA’s recent participation as a “Non-Government Organisation” or NGO within United Nations gun control forums.

GCA must remind members that the SSAA is not a warm, fuzzy community-minded organisation. It is not participating in these forums to further community safety at home or abroad – it is there to protect its own interests, in collaboration with like-minded pro-gun groups such as the USA’s National Rifle Association. Nor does it seek to reduce the number of dangerous weapons in either populations or its members.

Quite the opposite, in fact – the SSAA’s agenda is (along with its gun-lobby colleagues and collaborators):

to undermine Australia’s new gun laws
to make gun ownership as easy as possible
to maintain today’s low minimum standard of shooter training
to discredit emerging statistics which reveal that stricter gun laws such as Australia’s actually do enhance community safety.

Be aware that the SSAA’s tactics are to deflect criticism by simply arranging the complex statistics; to play the role of the “good citizen” (locally, nationally and now, internationally); and to protest at all times the law-abiding nature of their membership.

Quite a dangerous program.