Pistol Min. shoot rules

[Blackpete]

Hi guys,
just woundered if you could help me a bit re the pistol minimum required shoot rules.

First of all I need to tell you that I reside in Qld and to keep our pistol licences we must attend a minimum number of shoots each year.

I would like to ask if this is a state rule or a fedral rule as I want to try and have this rule abolished. I can not think of any other sport where you MUST compete a minimum number of times to be a part of it, IE are they (the gov.) going to take my tennis racket away if i don't use it.

I am on a disability pension and find it hard to get to the pistol range all the time. I also shoot long range bench rest and compete regulary, with this type of shooting i can sit down to shoot and when you have two titanium cages in you spine it helps.

I do enjoy my pistol shooting (when i can get there) although this year i have not been able to get out. This now leaves me with big problem in that i have to now go eight times before June, this will cost a heap in fuel as the range is some 30 kilometers away, thats a 60 k round trip X 8 not to mention the time that i have to find and hope i am well enough.

If this is a fedral law / rule, this may be the year to do something about it, either way, any help you can give would be great.
Pete.

[Jeanine]

BlackPete,

the minimum number of shoots in a prescribed event for different calibres was a recommendation of the APMC in 1996 and agreed to by COAG in May 1996. No legislation is set in stone, but winding back the APMC 11 point recommendations made in 1996 will not be easy.

I would suggest that you speak to your local State and Federal politician on two main topics to start with and find out how they feel. The first topic being about easing the requirements for disabled shooters who own handguns (shooting is one of the sports that is ideally suited to disabled shooters. Not only because it can be adapted to address difficulties experienced by most disabled shooters, but also because it provides instant feedback as to progress via personal scores on a paper target) .

The second topic being diplomatically pointing out that official AIC statistics show that handgun owners are responsible owners who do try to comply with legislation. Recent events have shown that although handguns are the prefered firearm for use in crime in Syndey the source of these handguns has been from reactivated handguns dropped off the registry (all legally removed from the records at the time), security and now, we find, the military. There is little evidence to show handguns used in crime have been sourced from legal private owners apart from the low numbers of opportunistic theft. These recent findings have not even addressed smuggling operations, because, of course, how do you measure the level of smuggling. The case of drug and people smuggling indicates just how difficult it is to get a handle on the level of organised smuggling into Australia.

[Blackpete]

Thanks for your reply Jeanine, can you tell me what APMC & COAG stand for and if they are still active. Also, can you shed any light on how the APMC came up with these recomendations.

Pete.

[GriMo]

Australasian Police Ministers' Council, i think is APMC

Council of Australian Governments, is COAG.


ill post links to them in a sec.

http://www.ag.gov.au/www/agd/agd.nsf/Pa ... ncil(APMC)
http://www.coag.gov.au

[Blackpete]

Thanks mate.
Pete.

[Kenny]

Blackfeet,

You are not alone being dismayed by this stupid rule. It's as zany as the cooling off period for purchase of subsequent firearms, y'now like wtf are they saying here......'if you own a pistol and don't use it the number of times we think you should a year you are obviously unfit to own it, or are more likely to commit a crime with it' ...and especially if it's a new gun.....yeah right....


I would love to shoot pistol occasionally and used to as a junior but with work, family commitments and trying to shoot benchrest there is no way I could attend enough to keep the license as there are only so many weekends in a year and the pistol dates often clash with rifle dates.......arrrg ...impossible... unless you want to do nothing else except travel to places to simply keep your license....madness yes I guess that was just the general idea of it though...

I hate the minimum attendance rules but if one MUST exist perhaps it should be a combined attendance for shooting sports in general over the year...not discipline specific....I think I will have a yarn to Roy about this on the next live chat.......who knows


KY

[Blackpete]

Hi Kenny,
thanks for your support mate, I am in the process of drafting a letter to my state and fedral members re this issue.

It really pisses me off when some bunch of .....(people) sit in an office and dream up rules that have nothing to do with gun control, crime or any negitive aspect of the weapon world. These types of rules serve no purpose except to "red tape" us out of existance, I really want someone to explain why i MUST shoot my guns so many time per year and how this benifits the general public.

In fact, the general public are paying good money for someone to sit in an office and check hundreds of records to make sure we are all using our hand guns. After all if we don't use them they may run off and commit a crime due to their boardness!

Pete.