Gun lobby representatives often speak about ‘Law Abiding Shooters’ as though 99.9% of gun owners could be placed in that category. Police checks in several of Melbourne’s Eastern suburbs have recently shown that about half the number of gun owners do not store their guns legally. The police are to be praised for their efforts, but what can one say about shooters. Surely the answer is that half of them are careless and not law abiding. This raises the question of how to make gun owners more law abiding – surely the answer is in stricter training.

About three years ago we recall being in the Melbourne Supreme Court during the Hearing of a case against a young deer shooter who had carelessly shot dead a young man while walking his dog. The Trial revealed that the deer shooter had had just one hour’s training. The shooter was convicted of manslaughter and jailed for a year.The Victorian Government did not improve its shooter training regime – a regime which has allowed 99.9% of Shooters Licence applicants to pass the exam to qualify to get a high powered gun. If only one in a thousand fail the test then it is not a true test.

The Federal government was to introduce a better safety training regime two years ago but the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia obtained the help of some pro-gun parliamentarians and managed to stop it. This Australian gun club has connections with the America’s, National Rifle Association (NRA). The Sporting Shooters Association likens itself to the NRA, has received financial grants form the American group and is involved with the NRA in the international gun lobbying group, the ‘ World Forum on the Future of Sport Shooting Activities ‘.

Given the complaints which ex-NRA lawyer Robert Ricker (see our previous News Report) has made about the unfortunate influence exerted by the NRA on American gun industry practices it seems reasonable to call on the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia to disassociate itself from the NRA. Only then, as we see it, could gun owners in Australia have respect for the Australian group.

Australians concerned with gun safety and the training of shooters should contact us in case the Federal Government decides to allow non-gun owners to comment on the need for stricter gun safety training practices. This is an area where, up till now, John Howard has failed to show leadership in the gun debate.