It must worry the average Australian to know that the gun trade has become a dominant influence on the so called ‘shooting sports’. Its our belief that gun and ammunition manufacturers and traders are primarily interested in profit and that means that they are committed to seeing that more guns and ammunition are sold. We suggest that this infers that they want little or no restrictions on gun and ammunition purchases, i.e. little or no gun laws.
To Gun Control Australia this represents a slow but dangerous change to the aims of the so called ‘sport’ of shooting. We say ‘so called’ because a true sport demands superb physical fitness, a contest amongst equals, and an activity which promotes respect for life itself. Does the most common reason to own guns, hunting, promote a contest amongst equals and respect for life? Of course not, that’s a joke to hunters – they just like killing. But then guns are designed to kill anyway, so perhaps we shouldn’t make a fuss. As for the SSAA’s Australian Shooter magazine or Yaffa Publishing’s Sporting Shooter magazine starting to give even a quarter of their pages to the physical education and fitness training of shooters; well, we suspect it will be a long wait till we see that.
It seems to us that shooting is now largely controlled by the interests of the trade. The SSAA’s Australian Shooter magazine has almost 50% of its pages devoted to trade based advertising and promotions. One suspects that this means that the SSAA is dependent on the trade’s financial support. At the moment a major gun importing group has top position on the SSAA’s Australian Shooter magazine website, while an Italian based international arms manufacturer seems to us to have a major interest in SSAA Victoria by the way it has been publicised in ssaavic activities. We believe that the interests of the gun trade have come to dominate the attitudes and values of some of our major shooting groups.
We believe that the increasing opposition to improved shooter safety training by groups like the SSAA probably reflects the increasing influence the trade is having on them. We know that the existing shooter safety training courses are a joke because they are so undemanding and they ensure you pass. We will not embarrass decent shooters by reminding them of the horrific consequences of recent shooter incompetence in outer suburban Melbourne. We will, however, remind the public and Australia’s shameful police ministers that as few as one in a thousand applicants who take the shooters safety training test actually fail.
The public must remember that passing the shooters safety test will almost certainly entitle you to own many guns legally. Thus the ‘give away’ shooters safety test is really a massive legal gun give away: and we wonder why shooters are so careless? And, further, we wonder why so many legal guns come onto the black market? The fact is that, in the matter of shooter safety training, the public are being duped by the eight state and territory police ministers as well as the responsible federal minister, Bob Debus.
This trade influence to maximise profit by higher gun sales and to work toward weaker gun laws seems to have encapsulated some shooting organisations. One large gun club talks about getting kids interested in shooting to help maintain the sport: we suspect it’s really about helping the international gun trade prosper in the future.
Australia’s largest gun group, the SSAA is a proud member of the trade dominated, World Forum on the Future of Sport Shooting Activities (WFSA). Just examine, if you will, the composition of the WFSA shown below and assure us that this body is all about ‘sport’. It helps to know that the current WFSA president has been associated with the American gun trade and the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers Institute, USA.
World Forum on the Future of Sport Shooting Activities – membership as shown on WFSA website 18 January 2009
- Asociacion Armera, Spain
- Association of European Manufacturers of Sporting Ammunition
- Association of Maltese Arms Collectors and Shooters
- Associazione Nazionalae Produtti Armi e Munizioni
- British Shooting Sports Council
- Bund der Militar – und Polizeischitzen e.V.
- Canadian Institute for Legislative Action
- Consorzio Armaioli Bresciani
- Council of Licensed Firearm Owners, NZ
- Danish Sport Shooters Association
- European Association of Civil Commerce of Weapons
- Federacao Portuguesa de Tiro com Armasde Caca, Portugal
- Federation Internationale de Tir aux Armes Sportives de Chase
- Federation of associations for Hunting and Conservation of the EU
- Federazione Italiana della Caccia, Italy
- Finnish Arms trade Association
- Federazione Tiro a Volo, Italy
- Federazione Italiana Tiro Dinamico Sportivo, Italy
- Firearms Importers Roundtable Trade Group
- Forum Waffenrecht – Deutschland
- Hunting and Fishing Association of Turkey
- Institut European des Armes de Chasse et de Sport
- Interessengemeinschaft Liberales Wafenrecht in Osterreich
- National Firearms Association Canada
- National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association, USA
- National Rifle Association, USA
- National Rifle Association of Norway
- National Shooting Sports Foundation, USA
- Pro TELL Switzerland
- Safari Club International
- Second Amendment Foundation, USA
- Shooting Sports Association of Ireland
- Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers Institute, USA
- South African Gunowners’ Association
- Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers’ Association of Japan
- Sporting Shooters Association of Australia
- Union Nationale de l’Armurerie, de la Chasse et du Tir, Belgium
- Verband der Hersteller von Jagd Sportwaffen und Munition, Germany
Its also worth noting that the registered office of the WFSA has the same address in Belgium as the Association of European Manufacturers of Sporting Ammunition (AFEMS) registered office. This is the massive (about 50 corporate members) European ammunition trade organisations association. Both AFEMS and WFSA have their Secretariats in Rome.