When this site was originally constructed it was intended to be a resource for club members and other firearms users only. It was not intended to hold any Political content. Unfortunately as the result of the occasional unfortunate firearms incident, we as a sport keep finding ourselves under attack from a very vocal group of anti gun fanatics who have no conscience about lying to the public and misrepresenting the facts to the media with distorted, emotional arguments in an attempt to have our sport banned.

It is the responsibility of every firearms owner to protect the sport by not only being a responsible firearms owner, but to take some positive step towards protecting the sport as well.

Right now, as a result of the Monash Uni shootings the Prime Minister John Howard has decided once again to try and make some political capital out of firearms owners by pretending he can make Australia safer by bringing in tougher laws on handguns. Mind you, no one has stopped to find out if the existing laws were deficient or even given consideration as to what the new laws will prevent. But perhaps I should realise that you can not bring common sense and logic into a discussion when politicians are on a righteous crusade.

All firearms owners should write to their local Members of Parliament and insist that the only new laws we need, if any, are those that punish the criminal use of a firearm. Make your letter no more than one page, it needs to be brief and to the point. Politicians receive a lot of mail and don't read the long ones. Make your letter polite. Politicians get enough angry threatening letters on other issues and such letters alienate them immediately.

Get involved with your local Member. Join a political party, either Labour or the Liberals, do it for your sport.

Write letters to the editor of you local newspapers. Again make them short, polite and to the point.

If you are not a member of a club, join one. Have a look on the links page and find one on your area. If you are a field shooter and club competition is not attractive to you then join the SSAA. Membership of a club or Shooting organisation is cheap insurance to protect your sport.

The Links below will provide you with information from various sources that may be useful as background information for debate, for writing to your local MP or Newspaper.

Click on document name to access it. The files are in .pdf format. You will need Adobe Acrobat. Print the files if you wish (make sure that you set your page to A4 in "Page Setup"). Use the "Back" button to return to here from each document.

Pistol Australia response to PM Statement 27 Oct 02

Urgent open letter to all Associations & Clubs, Combined Shooters & Firearms Owners Council of SA, October 31, 2002

Article by John Whitley appeared in the Melbourne "Age", October 31, 2002

Article by Neil Jenkins appeared in the Melbourne "Age", November 1, 2002

Letter to the Editor from Terry Sotos appeared in the Melbourne "Age", November 4, 2002

Proposed list of banned handguns, November 4, 2002

Article by Lisa Oldfield appeared in the "Sydney Morning Herald", November 11, 2002

Newsletter from the office of John Tingle MLC (NSW), November 11, 2002


  Adobe Acrobat Reader is available to download for free from here!