SSAA NSW

4 Sporting Shooters Association of Australia (NSW) Inc. From Diana's Desk Media focus on firearms… The past few months saw an increase in media interest regarding firearms licensing, ownership and use following shameful attempts by anti-gun advocates to leverage off the Las Vegas tragedy, as well as the use of gun laws as a topic for electioneering at the recent NSW by-elections. SSAA NSW participated in the Q&A program which aired on the ABC on Monday 16 October; the episode's focus on firearms ownership and gun laws gave us the opportunity to publicly point out the real problem of illegal firearms and career criminal use of these in gun crime, as well as the need to look at the bureaucratic overregulation of law-abiding firearms owners, who already abide by some of the strictest laws in the world. The anti-gun bias clearly shone through, with the host manipulating the ability of panel and audience members to contribute factual, non-emotive commentary. Nonetheless, the positive out of this whole exercise was the opportunity to get our message out there and particularly to the non- shooting sectors of the community. Following Q&A I've been in non-shooting environments amongst people unknown to me, who commented on the glaring bias of the media and the reluctance to address the question regarding criminals and illegal firearms. If we can get the wider community questioning the fairness of media coverage of legal firearms ownership, that is a very good outcome. Following our participation in the Q&A episode, The Conversation FactCheck looked at the question 'Did Government buybacks reduce the number of gun deaths in Australia?' SSAA NSW took the opportunity to respond and provide further comment to substantiate our assertion that the government funded buy-backs in 1996 and 2003 had no effect in reducing the number of firearms deaths. Our responses were evidence based and referenced credible scientific research. The FactCheck response, despite not being truly balanced, did acknowledge that: • firearm death rates began falling before the reforms and buybacks took place, • it's hard to tell what effect the gun buyback schemes and tighter restrictions on firearms had on this decline, and • some studies found the NFA overall had modest effects on the number of gun related deaths, other studies found that the gun buybacks and stricter regulations led to a decline in these, while other studies were inconclusive. Our full responses as well as the FactCheck response can be found on the SSAA NSW website, along with the video of the Q&A episode. As shooters, we often lament the unfairness of the media when it comes to their unbalanced coverage of firearms; we need to get shrewder, leverage off this bias and get the wider community questioning their credibility. In September, SSAA NSW challenged the Greens to focus on solving the real problem; criminals and their use of illegal firearms to commit gun crime. This followed their latest attempt to rehash the toomanyguns website under the guise of calling for limits on firearms ownership. This was nothing more than a blatant scaremongering attempt to leverage off the Las Vegas tragedy. SSAA NSW's response can be found on our website. Gun Control Australia also attempted to use the tragedy to further their anti-gun agenda with the release of a report which reviewed state and territory firearms laws since the implementation of the National Firearms Agreement. The SSAA National, State and Territory bodies collaborated and issued a rebuttal to the inaccurate and misleading GCA report. The SSAA rebuttal as well as the GCA report can be found on the SSAA National website. Outcomes of the Regulation Review… The NSW Firearms Regulation 2017 came into effect on 1 September 2017. SSAA NSW lodged a comprehensive submission to the draft Regulation that was released in early July. Part of SSAA NSW's advocacy included meetings with a number of MPs from both major and minor parties. These meetings have included a number with the Police Minister; the meeting on 23 August provided SSAA NSW with a unique preview of the Regulation which was not publicly released until the following day. SSAA NSW had success in having some of the recommendations contained in its submission adopted in the Firearms Regulation 2017. These include: • removal of the Commissioner's discretionary power to refuse licenses or permits where the applicant has not been prosecuted or convicted of an offence; • retention of the existing forms of written permission (letter or statutory declaration) to shoot on rural land rather than the proposed form; • the ability for category AB licence holders with only a recreational hunting/vermin control genuine reason to

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