The pro-gun rally that will go ahead in Perth on 8 February will be a failure for several reasons, not least being that the Western Australian Firearms Community Alliance (WAFCA), which is little more than a de facto wing of the SSAA WA, has shot it down with both barrels.
Not that it matters. It is already too late for WA shooters, who have been screwed by a Labor Government with a super-majority, an autocratic approach to governance, and a Police Minister who has sided with the WAPOL hierarchy in its inexplicable and un-evidenced paranoia about legal civilian gun ownership.
WA shooters have been failed by the SSAA WA, which has handled the past several years of impending gun-law revision in a haphazard way at best.
I’m reliably informed the WA gun lobby walked away from the negotiating table early in the piece when they weren’t getting their way, a move that seems to have played into the hands of the Police Minister and WAPOL, who didn’t want to talk to them anyway.
They later claimed they were not consulted by the police or Police Minister about the new laws, and attacked the Police Minister directly in a poorly conceived advertising campaign, but now seem to be looking for pats on the head from him by describing themselves (specifically WAFCA) as being “recognised by the Minister for Police in the WA Parliament as the mature and responsible peak body”.
They claim WAFCA “has maintained a mature and sensible approach to engagement with the State’s MP’s and WA Police throughout the course of the firearms debate” but that’s not how the TV ads made it look.
Those quotes come from a very public and rather immature statement WAFCA made, and SSAA WA proudly helped spread, which has revealed just how divisive and self-serving they are.
In condemning the rally, and imploring (their word) people not to attend, they specifically called out “Eastern state individuals” with “feeble influence” and made it clear that they wanted nothing from anyone over east.
Previously, they had stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Police Minister Paul Papalia in demonising and distancing themselves from an imaginary eastern-states gun lobby (specifically a Queensland one, in Papalia’s mind).
There is of course a national gun lobby of sorts, and which offered help that was, overall, rejected in the west.
I can tell you now that a lot of people in the east — and not only in the shooting sports — are laughing at the fiasco in the west. It’d be properly funny if it weren’t so serious.
True, the rally is being backed by the eastern-based Politics Reloaded, but it is also heavily backed by Shooters Union Western Australia — not to be confused with Shooters Union Australia which, much like SSAA National, lets its autonomous branches make their own decisions.
SSAA WA refused to allow SU WA to join WAFCA, and the SU rep was told he would be ejected if he turned up. Unity, anyone?
Of course, SU WA isn’t as big or influential as SSAA WA, and Politics Reloaded is not only small but poorly regarded in many circles, and I can’t see how they can organise a rally that will make much of an impact.
Perhaps WAFCA should have been doing this months ago, about the time that the record-breaking parliamentary petition made it clear the upcoming gun laws were incredibly unpopular. But that didn’t happen.
It’s all moot. The rally will go ahead (watch out for the neo-Nazis who’ll be recruited by our enemies to cause trouble for us), the laws will come in, the WA shooting industry and sports will be dealt a huge blow, and it will take the miracle of a pro-gun majority government after the next election to even think about setting things right. Even if that happens, it will take years — probably far longer than the term of a government.
Even if SSAA WA and WAFCA had been brilliant, it’s likely we’d be facing these same gun laws under this appalling WA Labor Government, and we should never forget who the real culprits are.
At the same time, though, SSAA WA has opened the eyes of legislators and anti-gunners in other states about how to sidestep the gun lobby and take massive steps towards banning guns completely in Australia.
SSAA WA has shown how things should not be done. It has shown that an isolationist and patch-protecting approach is self-defeating.
They could have come out of this covered in glory despite the loss but instead they’ve left us nothing to admire.
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