SSAA NSW

Sporting Shooters Association of Australia (NSW) Inc. 5 In this edition there's an article on the successful Ladies Try Shooting Day organised by Sydney Branch as part of their Ladies Try Shooting Program. Over the years SSAA NSW has hosted two charity try shooting events; first was 'Our Girls Night In' in October 2014 where 104 ladies participated in try shooting and raised over $9,000 for the Cancer Council and then our Try Shooting Charity Day in April 2016 saw over 140 men, women and children try shooting whilst raising over $14,000 for the National Breast Cancer Foundation. Not only do we all have an important role to play in promoting our sport and educating members of our community, it is vital that we take whatever opportunities we can to do this. Imagine if every firearms licence holder took a mate or family member to the range to 'try shooting', or talked to family, friends and colleagues to educate them on the facts around legal ownership of firearms and the safe, fun and inclusiveness of our sport; if we all did that with just one person 4 times a year there'd be an extra one million people within NSW that were armed with the truth and less likely to believe the anti-gun hype aired through the media. Farewell… It is with mixed emotions that I write this, my last NSW Shooter report. Over the last 8 ½ years I'm proud to have been part of the team that has delivered many significant achievements, overcome various challenges and positioned SSAA NSW as the leading voice for the shooting sports, recreational hunting and firearms ownership. Being part of the SSAA NSW team has been an extremely rewarding experience and I will always be grateful for the opportunity to have worked within the sport I have enjoyed since my early teens. My interest in firearms was first sparked at 14 when dad took me on my first hunting trip out west; this was to be the first of many annual trips to properties in and around the Fords Bridge area, not that far from Tilterweira. It was on one of these trips that dad bought me my first firearm, an early model Winchester 94 in 30-30, for the princely sum of a carton of VB; back in the days before PTAs. The rifle had seen better days, but dad spent time restoring it and to this day it still holds pride of place in my gun safe. I, like many of our junior members who are introduced to firearms and the shooting sports by family, had a limited exposure to the different types of firearms and activities. For a major part of my life I only knew lever action rifles. Working for SSAA NSW opened up a whole new world and the number of firearms I now own as well as the competitions I participate in has grown considerably. Many of our current juniors are in the same situation, having exposure only to those firearms and activities of their parents/grandparents or whoever it is that has introduced them to the shooting sports. Our SSAA NSW Junior Camp, which has been running for three years now, provides an excellent opportunity for our junior members to try different disciplines and firearms as well as giving them a chance to meet and make friends with other juniors. The Junior Camp has been one of the highlights of my time with SSAA NSW; those four days are incredibly full-on and demanding, but at the same time extremely rewarding. In the last edition of the NSW Shooter, we published an article by Aliza Purvis and in this edition, we hear from Cameron Smith; both participants in this year's Junior Camp. There are literally hundreds of fantastic and dedicated volunteers that make SSAA NSW what it is – the many volunteers that work at every level of our Association are the reason it's able to offer the many and varied opportunities to our members. These include the SSAA NSW Board, Branch and Affiliate Club committees, Safe Shooting Instructors, Range Officers, Discipline Chairmen, mentors and trainers and those of you that help out at the various SSAA NSW and local events. SSAA NSW could not function without the support of these dedicated people who give so generously of their time. In closing I would like to thank the staff at SSAA NSW and St Marys Indoor Shooting Centre; both of these organisations are extremely fortunate to have such hard-working dedicated teams. I would also like to thank the Board, past and present, for their support, comradery and leadership. Finally, thank you to the members for their support and assistance throughout my time with SSAA NSW, and a special shout out to those of you that have become friends over the years. I look forward to seeing you on the range sometime soon… Diana Melham Executive Director - SSAA (NSW) Inc.

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