On April 1st, there was a Firearms Symposium held in Perth by the “Western Australian Firearms Community Alliance (WAFCA)” and facilitated by SSAA WA.
The event was spruiked as an assembly of the “major firearms user group representatives in WA”, with an e-mail update after the event describing it as “monumental ‘gathering of clans’”.
A number of people have noted that this “monumental ‘gathering of clans’” at the meeting did not include Shooters Union – a fact which isn’t lost on us.
We’d like to make it very clear that we DID want to attend the meeting, we DID know about it, and our absence was NOT due to any refusal to participate on our end.
In fact, we even contacted the organisers on more than one occasion to ask about attending, and received no reply from them. Shooters Union was NOT invited to attend the event, and our requests to the organisers for an invitation were ignored.
We know we were not the only shooting organisation whose requests to attend the event were ignored or rebuffed, too.
To say we are disappointed by the event organiser’s attitude to our extended hand of friendship and offer of support would be a massive understatement, and we question how it represents a good way to achieve a better deal for shooters.
We WANT to work with all shooting organisations across Australia, and we hope WAFCA re-think their approach towards this situation.
They know how to get hold of us if they’d like to talk, and we are happy to take their calls and discuss how we can work together for the benefit of all shooters.
