Gun Control Australia

Is ‘Combat’ practical?

In the Australian Sports Commission's 1992/93 Annual Report it is noted with pride that the Australian Bianchi cup Pistol Team had defeated the United States team for the first time. Many people are not aware that the Bianchi Cup is a quick draw combat form of pistol shooting. It is a thinly veiled attempt to make practising to shoot human beings into a sport. The Australian Shooters Journal of some years ago revealed how the name "practical" came about. The term "practical" went into the nam...

Gun Massacres

Since the start of 1987 it could be said that Australia is in a gun massacre phase. The book by Crook & Harding titled Gun Massacres in Australia presents the view that Australia has only obtained stricter gun laws following a serious gun massacre. We quote from the foreword of this book: Gun Massacre is not a neutral term, but it is impersonal. Killing is a very personal action and the 32 killings examined in this book are as much about killers as anything else. Each killer was a male be...

Gun Politics

We have seen the entire Australian gun lobby move towards the American gun ideology since the stricter gun laws of 1988. In 1990/91 the Sporting Shooters Association virtually became the NRA in Australia and in early 1993 started a purely political lobbying arm called the Institute of Legislative Action (ILA). Following NRA practice, the idea of the ILA was to place pressures on politicians, and not to run political candidates or form a political party. At that stage the New South Wales Shoot...

A Beginners Guide to Australian Gun Laws

1. The matter of gun laws was not included in the Australian Constitution when it became operative at the start of the 20th Century, hence gun laws remain within the jurisdiction of the six states (New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania) and the two territories (Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory). The Commonwealth (Australian) government does not have the power to make gun laws but it can control imports. Since 1991 ex-military ri...

Can the Australian Organised Shooting Fraternity Help to Reduce Gun Crime?

In February 2005 president of GCA, John Crook, gave an address to the Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology meeting in Wellington, New Zealand. With minor changes and some updating the essay below is the substance of his address. Can the Australian Organised Shooting Fraternity Help to Reduce Gun Crime? It could be argued that the organised shooting fraternity (OSF) has no obligation to help in the fight against crime. This view was put by Osha Davidson1 in his excellent 1998 boo...