Australian legislators must recognise that the 1996 gun laws have not been responsible for the ongoing reduction in gun death rates, and it is up to firearm users to be clear about the fact.
That’s the message given by Shooters Union representative David Brown at the recent National Gun Conference, where he spoke about how shooters might gain greater influence in politics.
Firearms deaths had been trending downwards for a long time before Port Arthur and it continued afterwards at about the same rate — not only in Australia, but overseas.
Mr Brown said there was no proof the National Firearms Agreement had done anything to affect it.
“The rhetoric that we’ve been given from our political leaders is that the National Firearms Agreement post Port Arthur did a wonderful thing for firearm deaths in this country, and John Howard gets held up on this pedestal — you know, the gold standard of gun laws globally,” he said.
“John Howard to this day is held in such high regard with his implementation of the National Firearms Agreement that the political parties — Labor, Liberal National, anyone — are reluctant to do anything that might go anywhere near breaking down little elements of the agreement.”
The implication of all this is that the anti-gun narrative has become dominant without justification, and it was supported by all the major parties.
Mr Brown said it was not feasible for gun owners to remain apolitical, and he pointed out that even if they weren’t interested in politics, politics was interested in them.
“You need to be involved; we as the shooting community need to step up [and] the only way we’re going to improve our lot is interact with the political parties with the political process,” he said.
“We need to stand up and be accounted for.”
Having clear, professional messaging was important, he said, pointing out implementing that had lifted the profile of not only Shooters Union, but shooting organisations generally.
“The best way to measure your influence in the public arena is how you’re portrayed in the media, so this was something that we worked very, very hard on,” he said.
“By about 2019, we employed a media director [which] brought us the ability to be able to react [to situations] when we as volunteers might be off doing other things; he had his finger on the pulse of what was going on around the countryside in the media politically or otherwise.
“[Our media director] being someone that was able to craft a good delivery or craft a press release in such a way that we didn’t embarrass ourselves or say something stupid meant that we had a consistent, persistent professional front.
“Well, all of a sudden our acceptance in the political sphere, both state and federally, ratcheted up at a great rate. We were given far more air time as it were in the political arena and we were treated more seriously.”
The full video of the National Gun Conference is available on Youtube.
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