J
John-Melb
Guest
From the Sporting Shooter's Association Website
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Recently, the National Coalition for Gun Controls spokesperson
Samantha Lee was on television, once again espousing her objection to
the shooting sports. Among other things, she argued that civilians do
not need self-loading handguns and that sporting shooters only require
one shot to participate in shooting competitions.
Previous experience has shown us that anti-gun groups dont always
properly research their subject matter or check facts before they
begin their frantic tirades against private firearm ownership and the
shooting sports. Indeed, these groups are often just plain wrong when
it comes to commenting on the many and varied activities involved in
our chosen sport. These groups apparently also believe that the
Olympic or Commonwealth Games are the only arenas for sports shooting.
Recognising this, I would like to use this months editorial to set
the record straight about what many of the SSAAs shooting
competitions actually involve.
The SSAA has more than a dozen shooting competitions with many
categories and matches in each one and many thousands of Australian
shooters participating in them each month. These competitions and
their related matches require the use of many different types of
firearms, from shotguns, pistols and revolvers to rimfire, centrefire,
air and black powder rifles.In Action Match, an international
competition in which the SSAA regularly competes and does extremely
well in, the competitors use both revolvers and self-loading pistols
to engage the targets. In the Falling Plates section of Action Match,
48 shots are fired at metal plate targets in timed events.
In competitions such as Single Action, competitors engage metallic
targets with revolvers and lever-action rifles. These targets are
placed at various distances and the competitors score is calculated
by the number of targets hit and the amount of time taken to engage
them.
The SSAA also competes in Target Pistol, which requires 10 shots to be
fired in as little as 40-second and 20-second strings of fire during
the course.
Furthermore, despite what Ms Lee says, even the various Commonwealth
Games shooting competitions require shooters to fire multiple shots.
Their 25m Pistol competition includes a Precision event and a Rapid
Fire event, with each consisting of six stages of five shots for a
total of 30 shots.
The SSAA rifle and shotgunning competitions also require multiple
shots. Field Rifle consists of 42 shots taken at various targets and
distances in timed events, while Lever Action is designed around fast,
accurate shots with all types of lever-action rifles utilised. In most
field shotgun competitions such as 5-Stand, a competitor requires a
shotgun that can deliver a quick second shot to obtain a score if the
target is missed on the first attempt.
Clearly, there are many competitions at club, state, national and
international levels that involve shooters taking multiple shots at
targets. We suspect that the National Coalition for Gun Controls
misinformed statements about the needs of competitive shooters and
what the shooting sports apparently involve is just another ploy by
the anti-gun groups to confuse the non-shooting public and that their
real agenda is, in fact, to ban all firearms, one at a time, handgun
to longarm, multiple-shot to single-shot, until there are no legal
firearms left. Of course, this does nothing to curb illegal firearms,
which may still be used by unlicensed shooters in criminal activities.
The only way to counteract the misinformation of the anti-gun brigade
is through public education and hands-on experience. Perhaps we should
send the National Coalition for Gun Control a copy of our new SSAAs
Comprehensive Guide to Shooting & Hunting in Australia, which details
all of the SSAAs shooting competitions? We doubt they would bother to
read it though!
-------------------------------------------------------
Recently, the National Coalition for Gun Controls spokesperson
Samantha Lee was on television, once again espousing her objection to
the shooting sports. Among other things, she argued that civilians do
not need self-loading handguns and that sporting shooters only require
one shot to participate in shooting competitions.
Previous experience has shown us that anti-gun groups dont always
properly research their subject matter or check facts before they
begin their frantic tirades against private firearm ownership and the
shooting sports. Indeed, these groups are often just plain wrong when
it comes to commenting on the many and varied activities involved in
our chosen sport. These groups apparently also believe that the
Olympic or Commonwealth Games are the only arenas for sports shooting.
Recognising this, I would like to use this months editorial to set
the record straight about what many of the SSAAs shooting
competitions actually involve.
The SSAA has more than a dozen shooting competitions with many
categories and matches in each one and many thousands of Australian
shooters participating in them each month. These competitions and
their related matches require the use of many different types of
firearms, from shotguns, pistols and revolvers to rimfire, centrefire,
air and black powder rifles.In Action Match, an international
competition in which the SSAA regularly competes and does extremely
well in, the competitors use both revolvers and self-loading pistols
to engage the targets. In the Falling Plates section of Action Match,
48 shots are fired at metal plate targets in timed events.
In competitions such as Single Action, competitors engage metallic
targets with revolvers and lever-action rifles. These targets are
placed at various distances and the competitors score is calculated
by the number of targets hit and the amount of time taken to engage
them.
The SSAA also competes in Target Pistol, which requires 10 shots to be
fired in as little as 40-second and 20-second strings of fire during
the course.
Furthermore, despite what Ms Lee says, even the various Commonwealth
Games shooting competitions require shooters to fire multiple shots.
Their 25m Pistol competition includes a Precision event and a Rapid
Fire event, with each consisting of six stages of five shots for a
total of 30 shots.
The SSAA rifle and shotgunning competitions also require multiple
shots. Field Rifle consists of 42 shots taken at various targets and
distances in timed events, while Lever Action is designed around fast,
accurate shots with all types of lever-action rifles utilised. In most
field shotgun competitions such as 5-Stand, a competitor requires a
shotgun that can deliver a quick second shot to obtain a score if the
target is missed on the first attempt.
Clearly, there are many competitions at club, state, national and
international levels that involve shooters taking multiple shots at
targets. We suspect that the National Coalition for Gun Controls
misinformed statements about the needs of competitive shooters and
what the shooting sports apparently involve is just another ploy by
the anti-gun groups to confuse the non-shooting public and that their
real agenda is, in fact, to ban all firearms, one at a time, handgun
to longarm, multiple-shot to single-shot, until there are no legal
firearms left. Of course, this does nothing to curb illegal firearms,
which may still be used by unlicensed shooters in criminal activities.
The only way to counteract the misinformation of the anti-gun brigade
is through public education and hands-on experience. Perhaps we should
send the National Coalition for Gun Control a copy of our new SSAAs
Comprehensive Guide to Shooting & Hunting in Australia, which details
all of the SSAAs shooting competitions? We doubt they would bother to
read it though!