Australians should be concerned about the close relationship between some shooter groups and extremist American gun organisations. Australia’s largest gun club, the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia (SSAA) and the large umbrella handgun group, Pistol Australia, are examples of this close association – both have advertised that they are affiliates of America’s NRA (National Rifle Association)

After the handgun massacre at Virginia Technical University in April last year the NRA advocated teachers being armed. The NRA also wants employees to be able to bring their guns to work, locked in their cars. Of course the NRA also wants ex-military rifles to be available for private use. All this adds up to a different, and we would argue, a more violent social world, should Australians be forced to succumb to the NRA’s policies by way of political pressure from the NRA’s Australian affiliates on our governments.

Australians should be made aware that the SSAA has recently appointed a Canberra lobbyist – apparently to try to persuade federal politicians that the group’s ideas are worth adopting. Gun Control Australia therefore calls on Pistol Australia and the SSAA to publicly disassociate themselves from the above mentioned NRA policies, that is, we ask that they clearly state their rejection of such policies for the Australian people.

In the US, aside from the NRA, there are several other (by Australian standards) extremist gun organisations. Three of these are:

• Second Amendment Foundation (SAF)
• Gun Owners of America (GOA)
• Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA)

The SAF recently advertised that you could buy an Armed Response video training series to help you not just survive but win a lethal encounter. The message is always the same it seems: in your home, in your car, at work and on the street, never be without your loaded and ready to use handgun. The Gun Control Australia committee see this scenario as a sickening prospect and we hope that all NRA affiliated groups in Australia will disassociate themselves from the NRA’s extremist style political gun beliefs.

We dont need American gun values and gun policies in Australia any more than we need America’s 20 times greater rate of gun homicide.