If there's one type of shooting that is broadly accepted across the world, it's Olympic shooting sports. They might restrict the guns so that not just anyone can take up the sport, but it's at least an option for some.
And honestly, why wouldn't they? Most guns for Olympic sports are as tame as firearms get. Shotguns might be closer to what the average gun buyer in the United States would buy for hunting or literally any other purpose, but Olympic shooting involves more than sporting clays.
However, it seems that the proposed changes to Australia's gun regulations may well kill Olympic shooting there entirely.
Australia’s participation in a popular Olympic sport would “immediately end” if NSW’s firearm reforms were implemented nationwide, Australian Olympic Committee boss Mark Arbib has warned.
The Terrorism and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025 passed the lower house late on Monday night following a marathon extraordinary session of NSW parliament, which was recalled just days before Christmas.
The Bill seeks to introduce Australia’s strictest gun laws in the wake of the Bondi Beach terror attack, including strict limits on the number of weapons a person can own, reducing licence periods, and reclassifying weapon types.
It also seeks to empower police to restrict public assembly and protest in the wake of a terror event, with anyone found guilty of knowingly displaying a terror symbol facing up to two years behind bars.
In a letter to Shooters, Fishers and Farmers party MLC Robert Borsak, Mr Arbib conveyed fears raised by two member sports – Biathlon Australia and Shooting Australia.
Under the proposed legislation, straight-pull and lever or button release firearms would be reclassified from category A to the much stricter category C, but without adding sport or target shooting as a genuine reason for firearm ownership for that class, the letter warned.
“The Australian national biathlon team is currently competing in Europe – they all have category A or A/B licence,” Mr Arbib said.
“The proposed changes will leave them stranded – they’ll immediately become unlicensed for their firearm and unable to compete on the international circuit or at the upcoming Winter Olympics and Paralympic Games.
“It is unclear how they are expected to travel with their firearm.”
Sport shooting is, again, one of those rare things where most countries try to keep around even if they restrict guns ridiculously in every other way. Why? They like the chance of winning Olympic gold or world championships, and shooting is a sport where there's a better chance for small countries to compete.
I still think it's a national failure that we don't win every shooting competition everywhere in the world because, you know, American loves guns, but the truth is that a shooter in even small nations can put in the time and training to match up with anyone on the shooting sport stage. It's an incredibly democratic sport in that way, even if there's a certain amount of relatively expensive technology being used most of the time.
But Australia is in the process of killing that as things currently stand.
I get that the average Australian won't agree with folks like you and me on gun rights and the right to self-defense. I understand that, and while I also lament it, I can at least accept that they don't agree with us.
Shooting sports like Olympic shooting sports are something else entirely.
Hopefully, this was just an oversight on the part of Australian lawmakers. Most laws are created by people who really don't know jack about what they're regulating, but I would hope that even Australian gun grabbers would think twice about ending their country's chance as Olympic medals like this.
Then again, they're gun grabbers. What they call thinking tends to elude me.
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