Sporting Shooters Association of Australia
Encyclopedia
The Sporting Shooters' Association of Australia (SSAA) was established in 1948 to promote shooting sports
Shooting sports
A shooting sport is a competitive sport involving tests of proficiency using various types of guns such as firearms and airguns . Hunting is also a shooting sport, and indeed shooting live pigeons was an Olympic event...
and protect firearm
Firearm
A firearm is a weapon that launches one, or many, projectile at high velocity through confined burning of a propellant. This subsonic burning process is technically known as deflagration, as opposed to supersonic combustion known as a detonation. In older firearms, the propellant was typically...
owners' interests. The SSAA currently has over 120,000 members, making it the largest body representing licensed firearm owners in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, and covers all aspects of shooting and hunting, including firearms collecting and youth education. The SSAA also participates in the ongoing debates on government firearms policies
Gun politics in Australia
Gun politics have only become a notable issue in Australia since the 1980s. Low levels of violent crime through much of the 20th century kept levels of public concern about firearms low...
.
The SSAA conducts regular safety seminars and practical instruction on firearm safety, and works closely with the firearm industry to promote responsible firearms handling among all shooters in Australia. It manages more than a dozen handgun, rifle and shotgun shooting competitions at the local, state, national and international levels, as well as having several branches devoted to historic and collectible firearms. The SSAA also provides general insurance for the majority of major shooting organisations within Australia, as well as public liability insurance for SSAA members whilst shooting or hunting, and manages the SSAA National Firearms Museum, located in St Marys, New South Wales
St Marys, New South Wales
St Marys is a suburb in western Sydney, in the state of New South Wales Australia. St Marys is located 45 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Penrith....
The SSAA is closely involved with the firearms industry, both at a national and international level. In 1999 the SSAA sponsored an international workshop that focused on the marking and identification of firearms for the international law enforcement community, in conjunction with firearm manufacturers and dealers, which was attended by the FBI
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
, Interpol
Interpol
Interpol, whose full name is the International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL, is an organization facilitating international police cooperation...
and the US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Within Australia, they have also worked closely with the National Firearm Dealers and Traders Council and the office of the federal Minister for Justice and Customs in the formulation of workable regulations regarding the importation of firearms into Australia.
The SSAA also publishes a range of publications, including Australian Shooter
Australian Shooter
Australian Shooter is the official publication for the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia , specifically dealing with sport shooting and hunting in Australia. It is published monthly.- History :...
magazine, the Australian Shooters Journal, Hunter (magazine) and Australian & New Zealand Handgun
Australian & New Zealand Handgun
Australian & New Zealand Handgun is a publication of the Sporting Shooters' Association of Australia, specifically dealing with the sport shooting, professional use, and historic study of handguns in Australia....
. The SSAA has won national recognition for controlling feral pests in National Parks and farmland throughout Australia, and for presenting the facts about various firearms and shooting related issues in an objective and scientific way.