Gun clubs target child members
Peter Munro
September 2, 2007
CHILDREN as young as 12 are increasingly taking up shooting in their spare time in response to a push by gun clubs to attract teenagers.
The Sporting Shooters Association of Australia (SSAA), which already promotes "come and try" days at rifle ranges to families with young children, will this month launch its "sign up a junior" campaign.
Members of the group, the largest of its kind in Australia, have been urged to enrol their "son or daughter, grandchild, nephew or niece". The peak body has discounted its annual fees to children and will give away a $3500 quad bike to one new junior member.
Association national president Bob Green last month wrote to the group's 104,000 members saying new members were needed to "save the sport you love and wipe the smile off the anti-gun lobby's face".
Essential to that cause was introducing children "into the world of shooting at an early age". He wrote: "[It] really doesn't matter if they are five or 15."
Figures obtained by The Sun-Herald show there is already a surge of interest in shooting among children. Nationally, the SSAA's junior stocks have risen by more than 7 per cent this year. In NSW the number of new members aged 12 to 17 has soared from 15 in 2000 to an estimated 400 last year.
SSAA Victoria runs up to 50 junior programs a year that invite first-time shooters to try firing rifles at targets, which can include hunting images such as elephants and rhinoceros.
The number of junior gun licences approved by Victorian police has risen from 4750 to 5063 in five years. Applicants must first pass a safety exam and are restricted to using prescribed firearms and only under the direct supervision of an adult licence holder.
The Melbourne Gun Club has experienced a five-fold increase in the number of new juniors since 2002, taking its tally to about 500 young members, including many children who elect to take shooting as a school sport.
Gun Control Australia's president John Crook said that the surge in young shooters could lead to a rise in violent crime. "Guns and puberty are a dangerous mix," he said. "Targeting juniors increases the likelihood of gun addiction.
"The trouble with kids is that they may think that violence is a way of solving problems."
But Rod Drew, the chief executive of Field and Game Australia, which markets trial shooting days to young families, including single mothers, said there was strict supervision on young licence holders to prevent mishaps.
"It goes right down to someone else loading their gun for them," Mr Drew said.