SSAA NSW ON Q&A: GUNS – CRIMINALS THE PROBLEM

SSAA NSW participated in the Q&A program which aired on the ABC Monday night.  The anti-gun bias of the host Tony Jones was evident and panel member Tim Fischer seemed affronted when the validity of the Howard gun laws was questioned by SSAA NSW.  Senator Bridget Mackenzie, a long-time supporter of firearms owners, was the lone pro-firearm panel member.

Prior to the show, all audience members are asked to submit questions, producers then select a limited number of questions (6 -10) and the host decides if the person posing the question has any right of reply during discussions.  Given the agenda and that Tim Fischer was on the panel, the context and content of our question was intended to be controversial; our aim was to have our question selected.

SSAA NSW’s objective was to get our messages across in a public forum watched by many viewers within the community.  On this occasion our messages were:

• The problem is illegal firearms and criminal use of these in the commission of gun crime, and
• The need to look at the bureaucratic overregulation of law-abiding firearms owners.

We achieved this, despite the panel avoiding our question and diverting the conversation to emotive issues including American gun culture, gun massacres and threat of loosening Howard’s firearms laws.