Dear Zaine,

Thank you for your email, my apologies for not replying earlier. As you are aware I have been busy campaigning and have spent most of the last week in the Goldfields, meeting with great Australian shooters, miners, farmers and pastoralists.

As you are aware, the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party (“the SFFP”) is the only political party in Australia that is dedicated to protecting private firearms ownership as one of its core values.

While other parties may make promises about supporting various issues surrounding firearms, the SFFP are the real deal and will always be in the front-line when it comes to protecting shooters rights.

I will address the points you have provided in turn.

Most licensed shooters in Australia accept that ownership of a firearm in Australia comes with the responsibility to register/licence that firearm.

I think most of us don’t have a problem with that, although without a doubt the red-tape, bureaucracy and hassles surrounding the licensing process need to be streamlined and improved.

Law Abiding Firearms Owners are, as a group, some of the most law abiding members of Australian society and it is about time State governments stop vilifying shooters and start to actively work with us, rather than against us.

While the extreme Greens have a policy of eventually banning all private gun ownership, our core values are to oppose that and to ensure that Australian shooters will enjoy recreational shooting, be it hunting, target shooting, clay targets, rimfire, big-bore of just a farmer eliminating feral animals on his property. It’s a part of the Australian way of life and should remain that way.

We believe that lawful firearm ownership should not be denied to law abiding citizens and should be available to all appropriate citizens without undue hassle from the regulatory authorities.

Unlawful possession of firearms in Australia is a thorn in the side or those who follow the rules, as the left-wing media seem to be unable to understand that harassing law abiding firearms owners has little to do with criminals who wish to illegally possess firearms.

Making it harder for a law abiding citizen to obtain a firearm has zero impact on criminals, as criminals by definition do not obey the law.

The ‘black market’ for illegal firearms has little correlation to licensed shooters, and obviously one of our policies is to work with government at both State and Federal level to attempt to re-orientate the focus on unlawful possession of firearms on the criminals and away from law abiding shooters.

Making it harder for a law abiding person to licence a firearm simply won’t stop drug dealers and bikies from unlawfully possessing firearms, one of our missions is to get this across to government.

There has been a general trend towards raising penalties for unlawful firearm use, and as a party we support that approach. Responsible shooters appreciate, better than many, the seriousness of unlawful use of firearms.

There can be no doubt that there is an international socialist trend towards eliminating private firearm ownership. You just have to pay scant attention to the Greens to see that and I am aware that the Greens agenda is to eventually ban private, non-occupational firearm ownership. When the NFA was introduced in 1996, many groups of target shooters really didn’t object to the loss of rimfire semi-autos or shotguns. Those bodies and individuals should be aware that there is a very real movement to take away all private firearm ownership.

Unlawful possession of firearms comes with the risk of prosecution, quite rightly, and as a party we don’t oppose that.

Current firearms legislation in Western Australia is in need of an overhaul. The Law Reform Commission is looking into this and has received over 1100 submissions from members of the public, the vast majority of which have come from shooters and pro-gun bodies. Given the underground international socialist agenda in government, even from the traditionally conservative parties such as the Liberal Party and the National Party, there is a real risk that the reform of the current legislation could make things more difficult for licensed shooters. It is a real risk that cannot be ignored.

There can be little doubt that the current laws are effective in preventing undesirable people from obtaining firearms licences. The current Firearms Act 1973 gives the Police Commissioner quite wide discretionary powers to deny a person a firearms licence.

One of the greatest problems with the Act is that there are many provisions which perhaps allow the WA Police too much discretion and do not provide sufficient guidelines or limits to the exercise of that discretion, such as Regulation 26B of the Firearms Regs 1974. This provision has, essentially, led to the Police banning certain types of firearms because the Police deem the firearms to have a military appearance. As most shooters realise, what a firearm looks like is of little importance, it’s the projectile coming out of the barrel and the person behind the trigger that are the ultimate issues.

The other problem with the current legislation lies not in the legislation, but in the lack of knowledge of firearms within the people administering the legislation. To use an analogy, imagine if the Department of Transport was staffed with people whom had never held a drivers licence, owned a car, or driven a car.

Some agricultural regions in WA are becoming over-run with feral animals. Pigs, Goats, Horses, wild-dogs, rabbits, foxes. A further problem is that the inability to hunt on State land provides a safe haven for these animals.

It is not in debate that these feral animals are extremely damaging to both the natural environment and to agricultural industry.

One of the SFFP’s representatives in the State Parliament, The Hon. Rick Mazza MLC, has been very active in relation to securing WA shooters the right to hunt on State land, and there are strong prospects that this will occur in the near future.

One of the core values of the SFFP is to secure the right of WA shooters to continue to hunt feral animals and to secure the right to hunt ferals on State lands.

As a party focussed on shooting and outdoor pursuits, protecting target shooters rights is also one of our core values.

As noted above, part of the socialist Greens agenda is to ban private firearms ownership. In the current climate it is not unrealistic to consider this a risk.

All target / competitive shooters should be aware that the SFFP are dedicated to , as one of our core values, protecting private firearms ownership and to allow target shooters the rights to continue enjoying their chosen sport without undue hassle.

We are the only party that has as one of its core values the protection of Australian Shooters rights.

The Australian firearms community is stricken by division and firearms owners in WA need to get behind the one party that has their interests at heart.

Everyone involved in shooting, be it a hunter, target shooter or firearms dealer, should remember that at the stroke of a pen your rights can be taken away if you are not politically represented. It has happened before, it could happen again.

We need unity.

Every licensed firearm owner in Western Australia should vote for the SFFP, as we are the only party dedicated to making sure that Western Australian Shooters get a fair go.

If you have any queries in relation to the above, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely,