SSAA NSW

Sporting Shooters Association of Australia (NSW) Inc. 15 Something we take very seriously at SSAA NSW is the importance of engaging with elected representatives and educating them about our sport. Too often politicians can be misled by emotive, irrational fearmongering and this can lead to burdensome unnecessary fi rearms laws, which we all know so much about. It was with this in mind that we extended an invitation to NSW MPs, on a non-partisan basis, to attend St Marys Indoor Shooting Centre for our fi rst ever Pollie Try Shooting event. We unfortunately had a few late withdrawals due to unforeseen circumstances which can occur with politics and government, but we were still delighted to welcome Stephen Bromhead (Myall Lakes – Nationals), Steph Cooke (Cootamundra – Nationals), Phil Donato (Orange – SFFP), Austin Evans (Murray - Nationals), Andrew Fraser (Coffs Harbour – Nationals), Michael Johnsen (Upper Hunter – Nationals) and Bronnie Taylor (MLC – Nationals). After a brief tour of St Marys Indoor Shooting Centre, our MPs and MLCs sat down and were given a brief rundown of fi rearms laws over lunch along with some background on recreational hunting and some useful bits of trivia concerning fi rearms ownership and the shooting sports in Australia, with most taking a great interest that, of Australia's three most successful Commonwealth Games athletes heading into 2018, two were shooters in Phillip Adams and Bruce Quick. After lunch, our representatives headed down to the range and took the opportunity to use a variety of different fi rearms, including a lever action shotgun, and participate in a couple of light-hearted challenges. Results ranged from excellent to… well, let's say one target was recycled due to its' still-pristine condition after use! Congratulations to Stephen Bromhead Austin Evans and Phil Donato on fi nishing as the most accomplished competitors on the day, which we're reliably informed was of great relief to Phil, who was terrifi ed of being a Shooters MP who was outshot by someone else! The unanimous verdict from all the MPs and MLCs present was that the event was a great exercise in education and provided plenty of fun for those in attendance. As a memento of their visit, each pollie was given a small number of items as a thank you with plenty of reading for them in order to gain an even better understanding of our sport. SSAA NSW will look to hold another event later in the year, with invitations to be extended to all our visitors to come back, as well as more MPs and MLCs across the NSW Parliament, and we are also hoping to extend the event to our state's Federal representatives in future as well. Pollie Try Shooting Event

• Cover