Bruce in West Oz
New member
Quick background ....
Point 1:
After the 1996 introduction of the Australia-wide "Uniform Firearms Legislation", Police Ministers (politicians) were given carte blanche to declare any other type of firearm "prohibited" without the messy need for referring it to Parliament or any of that exasperating legal stuff.
Point 2:
With Police Ministers' meeting coming up tgis week, the antis were in full swing; this time it was handguns (already controlled like you wouldn't believe). Here's a sample of what we had to endure:
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>
John Crook: Head of Gun Control Australia, on radio:
Crook:
Well first of all we don't want what's called practical shooting to take place with handguns, and there is a strong tendency in recent years for pistol shooters to swing from what I'll simply call bullseye, you know
bulls-eye shooting, in to laundered, well laundered [sic] targets of human beings...
...That perhaps not as obvious as that because the pistol fraternity know that that would be so blatant, but there is a group which has become quite large called IPSC... Now a significant proportion of those
people shoot high-powered fast shooting handguns in what is really is combat type of action. In other words police shooting urban guerillas, if you like. Now, there's a laundered version of that called the Bianchi Cup. Indeed, amazingly, enough our Federal Government puts money into the Australian Bianchi Cup Team.....
...Well our group is strongly anti-violence. We hate the glamorisation of killing weapons. Our group doesn't even believe that there should be gun events in the Olympics Games. but we would compromise and we've approached the SOCOG, we've approached the Olympic International Committee in Lausanne and we've said,"For heaven's sake, recognise what...that you are glamorising the most dangerous weapon of today, the handgun,".. and also we've made that appeal to the Commonwealth Games people, but they haven't done much as yet.
---------------------------------------------
The Coalition for Gun Control:
The country's police ministers, meeting in Sydney during the next two days, are being urged to further restrict gun ownership by banning semi-automatic and self-loading handguns.
Under the national gun laws, members of gun clubs who have been cleared by authorities are able to own semi-automatic and self-loading handguns.
The National Coalition for Gun Control will hold a protest outside the ministerial meeting today.
The Coalition's New South Wales convenor, Sam Lee, says handguns have
replaced rifles and shotguns as the weapon of choice for criminals.
"Since the new gun laws, what we have seen is that handgun laws are lagging behind and they need to be updated," he said.
"...what we would like to see is the same updating of handgun laws that have been applied to semi-automatic rifles and shotguns - and that is a total banning of this weapon in Australian society." [/quote]
--------------------------------------------
OK, you get the idea???
The Ministers had their meeting -- and:
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>
SPORTING SHOOTERS ASSOCIATION OF AUSTRALIA INC.
For immediate release ****MEDIA RELEASE**** 10th June 1999
CURRENT FIREARM LAWS HOLD FIRM
Police Ministers meeting in Sydney have confirmed that recently introduced firearms legislation is deemed adequate to control the type of firearms available to both the recreational and target shooter. The Sporting Shooters Association of Australia supports that opinion.
Association spokesman Keith Tidswell said "Today's events in Sydney indicate that at last we are coming towards reaching a set of national firearm laws that can be understood by both firearm owners and the bureaucrats that enforce them. We are pleased to see that the issue of handguns was set aside as being irrelevant in light of the strict new protocols that have tightened even further the existing system."
"The emotive bleating of cultural gun prohibitionists has fallen on deaf ears - mainly because of their transparent distortion of facts and use of emotive theatre to influence the Australian public." Mr Tidswell said. "This Association has calmly and efficiently lobbied to ensure the facts about the ownership and controls on firearms has been bought to policy makers and advisors." Mr Tidswell said. "That softly, softly process has paid dividends for responsible gun owners today."
The Sporting Shooters Association of Australia shall continue to foster dialogue with politicians to ensure that an adequate balance of control and access to firearms is maintained. [/quote]
---------------------------------------------
Considering the laws we still have -- a hollow victory, maybe, but a victory nevertheless.
B
Point 1:
After the 1996 introduction of the Australia-wide "Uniform Firearms Legislation", Police Ministers (politicians) were given carte blanche to declare any other type of firearm "prohibited" without the messy need for referring it to Parliament or any of that exasperating legal stuff.
Point 2:
With Police Ministers' meeting coming up tgis week, the antis were in full swing; this time it was handguns (already controlled like you wouldn't believe). Here's a sample of what we had to endure:
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>
John Crook: Head of Gun Control Australia, on radio:
Crook:
Well first of all we don't want what's called practical shooting to take place with handguns, and there is a strong tendency in recent years for pistol shooters to swing from what I'll simply call bullseye, you know
bulls-eye shooting, in to laundered, well laundered [sic] targets of human beings...
...That perhaps not as obvious as that because the pistol fraternity know that that would be so blatant, but there is a group which has become quite large called IPSC... Now a significant proportion of those
people shoot high-powered fast shooting handguns in what is really is combat type of action. In other words police shooting urban guerillas, if you like. Now, there's a laundered version of that called the Bianchi Cup. Indeed, amazingly, enough our Federal Government puts money into the Australian Bianchi Cup Team.....
...Well our group is strongly anti-violence. We hate the glamorisation of killing weapons. Our group doesn't even believe that there should be gun events in the Olympics Games. but we would compromise and we've approached the SOCOG, we've approached the Olympic International Committee in Lausanne and we've said,"For heaven's sake, recognise what...that you are glamorising the most dangerous weapon of today, the handgun,".. and also we've made that appeal to the Commonwealth Games people, but they haven't done much as yet.
---------------------------------------------
The Coalition for Gun Control:
The country's police ministers, meeting in Sydney during the next two days, are being urged to further restrict gun ownership by banning semi-automatic and self-loading handguns.
Under the national gun laws, members of gun clubs who have been cleared by authorities are able to own semi-automatic and self-loading handguns.
The National Coalition for Gun Control will hold a protest outside the ministerial meeting today.
The Coalition's New South Wales convenor, Sam Lee, says handguns have
replaced rifles and shotguns as the weapon of choice for criminals.
"Since the new gun laws, what we have seen is that handgun laws are lagging behind and they need to be updated," he said.
"...what we would like to see is the same updating of handgun laws that have been applied to semi-automatic rifles and shotguns - and that is a total banning of this weapon in Australian society." [/quote]
--------------------------------------------
OK, you get the idea???
The Ministers had their meeting -- and:
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>
SPORTING SHOOTERS ASSOCIATION OF AUSTRALIA INC.
For immediate release ****MEDIA RELEASE**** 10th June 1999
CURRENT FIREARM LAWS HOLD FIRM
Police Ministers meeting in Sydney have confirmed that recently introduced firearms legislation is deemed adequate to control the type of firearms available to both the recreational and target shooter. The Sporting Shooters Association of Australia supports that opinion.
Association spokesman Keith Tidswell said "Today's events in Sydney indicate that at last we are coming towards reaching a set of national firearm laws that can be understood by both firearm owners and the bureaucrats that enforce them. We are pleased to see that the issue of handguns was set aside as being irrelevant in light of the strict new protocols that have tightened even further the existing system."
"The emotive bleating of cultural gun prohibitionists has fallen on deaf ears - mainly because of their transparent distortion of facts and use of emotive theatre to influence the Australian public." Mr Tidswell said. "This Association has calmly and efficiently lobbied to ensure the facts about the ownership and controls on firearms has been bought to policy makers and advisors." Mr Tidswell said. "That softly, softly process has paid dividends for responsible gun owners today."
The Sporting Shooters Association of Australia shall continue to foster dialogue with politicians to ensure that an adequate balance of control and access to firearms is maintained. [/quote]
---------------------------------------------
Considering the laws we still have -- a hollow victory, maybe, but a victory nevertheless.
B
