The federal government is examining the requirements needed to give shooters adequate safety training. Other improvements were made to our gun laws soon after the Port Arthur gun massacre in 1996, but it has taken eight years to start to come to terms with shooter safety training.

The fact is that most shooters receive only minimal safety training. Many courses demand only one hour’s training. The testing of that training has also been minimal. As a result we have seen that, in Victoria for instance, 99.9% of those who take the safety course actually pass.When 999 out of every 1000 applicants pass a test then we know that something must be wrong. It’s time the demands were greatly enhanced. The graph below shows that in Australia unintentional gun death continues to be high. More demanding safety training is a likely way to reduce these tragically high figures.