It has come to our attention that the New South Wales Firearms Registry has decided of their own volition to attempt to revoke the NSW Club approvals of all interstate shooting clubs.
In years past because of the nature of border communities many people live near shooting clubs that happen to be interstate, and without any nearby clubs in NSW, NSW FAR has approved interstate clubs as NSW clubs for the purposes of the NSW Firearms Act. This has allowed those in border communities to engage in the shooting sports in a practical manner.
Sadly however it seems that FAR has decided that in this increasingly geographically divided Australia that this is no longer acceptable. FAR has expressed their new position that there are now enough clubs within NSW to provide facilities for NSW license holders, and that there is no reason for interstate clubs to hold approval.
Citing a concern over some clubs non-compliance with administrative requirements, they are using that as a tenuous justification to issue a show cause notice to ALL interstate clubs. Whilst they seem to leave open the possibility of clubs that have complied with their requirements maintaining that approval, as relayed to us FAR is proceeding with the intent of revoking all of these approvals.
The major flaw with FAR’s policy however is that it ignores geographical realities. An affected club member informed us that as they reside in Michelago, their nearest interstate approved club is 50km away, but the nearest NSW range is over 180km requiring a four hour 360km round trip.
If you are a member of an impacted club we strongly suggest you make a phone call and send an email to your local State parliament member. You can find the contact details for your local member here: https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/members/pages/all-members.aspx?house=la&tab=browse
Tags: NSW
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