President's Message - SSAA Queensland

March 2025

Promotion and advocacy of the shooting sports comes in a variety of forms but there is nothing like promotion at the local club level to introduce newcomers to our recreation. Our Mackay branch at the Brightly Shooting Complex and Townsville branch at the Hervey Range Shooting Complex are doing just that, hosting come and try days this month.

The Mackay event will host rifle, shotgun and handgun shoots for the whole family where Townsville is focusing its try shooting for women and girls. Experienced club members and volunteers will be on site to assist with the smooth running of the events and ensure a safe and fun day at the ranges.

I congratulate the members for their initiative and wish them all the best. If your club has considered hosting a try shooting day but are unsure as to how to set it up why not get in touch with clubs like Townsville or Mackay to get some insight into how they put on the event?

At the national advocacy end of things, we have been busy discussing the construction of the National Firearms Register through our management of the Australian Shooters Alliance (ASA). As we have previously talked about, we established the ASA so that we can independently lobby and liaise with the Federal Government and even participate at the international level with likeminded overseas shooting organisations.

This week we met with Canberra’s Federal Attorney-General’s Department and its firearms policy bureaucrats to discuss how the four-year construction phase will be implemented and what it means to states’ firearm databases and of course, you, the licensed shooter. More than $160 million has been allocated to the project and almost $30 million to enhance a universal firearm identification scheme. We raised our concerns about ensuring privacy of licensed shooters and also that policing should be just as concerned about unregistered and illegally manufactured firearms. We will continue to liaise with the Federal Government on the National Firearms Register and write about our discussions in future editions of The Report magazine.

While other wannabe shooting organisations, often little more than grumpy Facebook sites spread rumours, such as the now disproven large firearm calibre ban, we will focus on the real issues.

At the club level and at the national level, we continue to advocate for the shooting sports.

Safe shooting.

Hellen Gill

SSAA Queensland President