Shooters Party

The Shooters Party is an Australian state political party. It is registered for state elections in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.

The Shooters Party came into existence on May 2, 1992 when the New South Wales Government proposed laws preventing citizens from owning self-loading firearms or firearms for personal protection. It was founded by John Tingle, who was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Council in March 1995 as the party representative. Tingle resigned in May 2006, and was succeeded by businessman Robert Brown.

The party's policies are not entirely focused around firearms. It asserts that every law-abiding citizen should have the right to own and use a firearm for legitimate purposes, including self-defence. It strongly supports recreational hunting, and laws giving shooters access to land for hunting. It also has policies relating to personal freedom, and reduction of governmental interference in citizens' lives; as well as the need for five-year reviews of all legislation. The party's motto is "Reclaim Freedom". It actively supports recreational fishers, four-wheel drivers and other outdoor users.

The Party counts among its achievements, a number of successful Bills, including those giving rights of self defence to any citizen, anywhere, with immunity from civil or criminal liability; providing extra penalties for attacks on vulnerable people; giving families of homicide victims the right to be heard in court; establishment of the NSW Game Council, and legislation allowing specifically licensed hunters to hunt on public land; government funding of shooting clubs, and establishment of regional shooting complexes; recognition of membership of a hunting club as "genuine reason" for obtaining a firearms licence; extension of minor permits from ages 18 to 12, etc. The Shooters Party also assists firearms organizations.

The similarly named Australian Shooters Party is a party registered for federal elections.Before the federal election of 2004, the Australian Shooters Party was deregistered by the Australian Electoral Commission for failing to contest a federal election for four years. It was re-registered after the 2004 federal election but was [http://www.aec.gov.au/Parties_and_Representatives/Party_Registration/Deregistered_P/asp.htm deregistered] again on 27 December 2006, along with a number of minor parties which did not have a representative sitting in Federal Parliament. Re-registration, after this event, was achieved in August 2007. The Australian Shooters Party contested the 2007 federal elections and received 0.28% of the national vote. [http://results.aec.gov.au/13745/website/SenateStateFirstPrefsByGroup-13745-NAT.htm]

The South Australian 2006 state election saw the Shooters Party run two candidates for the Legislative Council, Robert Low and Michael T Hudson, preferencing the Family First Party as well as the One Nation Party. The Shooters Party received 5991 votes out of 1,055,347 voters enrolled, which is 0.6% of the vote, with a 0.08 quota. Neither candidate was elected.

In the 2007 New South Wales state election, the Shooters Party received 2.8% of the primary vote for the Legislative Council (↑0.8%) to elect lead candidate Roy Smith to the Upper House. As a result, the party now holds 2 seats in the NSW Upper House. [http://vtr.elections.nsw.gov.au/statewide.aspx]

MPs

* Robert Brown (New South Wales Legislative Council, 2006-present)
* Roy Smith (New South Wales Legislative Council, 2007-present)
* John Tingle (New South Wales Legislative Council, 1995-2006)

External links

* [http://www.shootersparty.org.au Official site]

Further reading

* Swain, Marie.(1996) "Gun control : historical perspective and contemporary overview" Sydney, NSW Parliamentary Library Research Service, 1996. ISBN 0731059514. Series: Briefing paper (New South Wales. Parliamentary Library Research Service) ; no. 11/96. Contents include: Appendix B. Executive summary and recommendations from Violence : directions for Australia -- Appendix C. Recommendations from the NSW Parliamentary Joint Select Committee upon Gun Law Reform, Report, 1991, pp. 8-19 -- Appendix D. Shooters’ Party vote by electorate tables from Antony Green’s forthcoming publication ... NSW Legislative Council election results 1995.