In late 1997 the Sporting Shooters Association examined the difficulties which the shooting fraternity found with the UN. They said that they fully endorsed the UN’s efforts to prevent large scale firearms abuse in remote nations torn by civil strife but related that general trend to disarmament in nuclear weapons, land mines and rocket launchers to the micro-disarmament which they say included low-power rifles used in Australia to shoot rabbits. They also infer that the banning of handguns in Britain following the Dunblane school massacre is in some way related to the UN’s actions. Thus the shooters complain that UN efforts to prevent and contain civil and trans-national armed conflict, violence and crime have either been inadvertently, strategically or deliberately linked to millions of those sportsmen and women world-wide who use their firearms in recreational activities.

The United Nations has recognised that there are serious crime problems in some nations which are primarily due to the ready availability of privately owned guns and nowhere is more so than in the United States, but Australia also has a dismal record on gun misuse and Hanson’s One Nation Party and the Sporting Shooters Association should act responsibly and recognise that fact.

Gun Control Australia praises the UN’s Economic and Social Council special committee known as the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice. This group realises that crime prevention should be promoted at both the national and international levels if misbehaviour with guns is to be minimised.