AUSTRALIA-OLYMPICS: Shooters’ Gold Medals Fire Up Gun Lobby

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Kalinga Seneviratne

SYDNEY, Jul 25 1996 (IPS) - Australia won its first Olympic gold medals in shooting events in Atlanta this week, but the celebrations were shot down by a pro-gun lobby that argues the feat has little chance of being repeated with the government’s decision to restrict gun ownership.

The first gold medal in shooting came on Monday, ironically on the same day the pro-gun lobby lost a three-month-old battle to stop Prime Minister John Howard from introducing national laws restricting gun ownership.

The federal government proposed tough gun laws in the wake of the massacre by a lone gunman of 35 people at Port Arthur in Tasmania in April and the ensuing public outcry against easy access to gun ownership in Australia.

But the powerful gun lobby — which is closely aligned with the National Party, junior coalition partner in the Liberal-National government — has campaigned vigorously around the country to stop the proposed legislation from being introduced.

Over the last three months, the group had lobbied federal government backbenchers and state governments heavily, taken the issue to court, and staged big demonstrations in cities and rural towns that oppose stricter gun laws.

Queensland, Western Australian and Northern Territory governments, heavily influenced by the lobby, have tried blocking Howard’s push for uniform gun laws in Australia.

But after Howard threatened to call a national referendum last week to take legislative powers away from the states on gun laws, the three recalcitrant states finally caved in this week, to the dismay of the gun lobby.

An issue the three states fought was Howard’s plan to prohibit the ownership of semi-automatic weapons. Pressured by the gun- lobby, they argued that existing gun owners must be given the chance to re-manufacture the magazines of the semi-automatic weapons, so only two shots could be fired at a time.

Howard refused to budge and the states have now finally accepted the inevitability of a huge loss of face should the prime minister had been forced to call a referendum on the issue.

But the gun lobby was not one to take the defeat lying down, and the two gold medals in trap shooting events this week — the first on Monday, the second Tuesday — have proved to be timely shots in the arm.

Since the Australian swimmers have so far failed to win the swag of gold medals they were tipped to grab in the pool, the marksmen Michael Diamond and Russel Mark have become instant heroes in this sports-crazy nation.

Within hours of Diamond making his mark, Sporting Shooters Association President Ted Drane went on a Melbourne radio station and proclaimed that Olympic gold medal would be one of the country’s last as a result of the federal government’s proposed new gun laws.

Drane even went as far as to suggest that many of the shooting events now being held in Atlanta, would have to be scrapped from the 2000 Sydney Olympics, because competitors would not be able to bring their guns to Australia under the proposed new laws.

New South Wales (NSW) Shooters Party’s parliamentarian John Tingle, a member of the state’s upper house, also claimed that the new laws could rob Australia of future gold medals by outlawing the types of weapons Diamond and Mark used in Atlanta.

Diamond himself fuelled such speculation when he told a post- event press conference that he was not sure whether he will be shooting in the next Olympics his country will host in four years time.

“The way things are going, it’s not looking too good. It (new law) will definitely make things harder,” he said. But at the same time he had expressed reluctance to get involved in the controversy back home. “I really want nothing to do with all that,” he said.

Immediately after hearing of the victory, Howard sent a congratulatory telegram to Diamond telling him that “all Australians are proud of you and your success”.

Diamond’s father, Con Diamond, who has coached the Olympic champion since he was eight years old, said that he invited Drane to come to his home on his son’s return to discuss the new gun laws. “The gold medal couldn’t come at a better time for gun lobby and gun owners” he said.

“It’s come at the right time for our sport. I reckon the laws are unfair for sporting shooters. If they’d taken his licence away he would never have won the gold medal” observed the elder Diamond.

But he expressed the wish that his son will not be dragged into the debate and explained that Australian Olympic shooters have been instructed by their association not to comment on the gun laws.

The federal government has moved quickly to dismiss the claims that the proposed gun laws could rob Australia of future Olympic medals. It branded as false Tingle’s claim that the guns used by Diamond and Mark in Atlanta would be banned under the new laws. A spokesman for the NSW Firearms Registry said these guns were not semi-automatic and would not fall under the banned category.

Federal Attorney-General Daryl Williams also dismissed the gun lobby claims. He said none of the Australian competitors in Atlanta were using guns which would be banned under the new laws. “All competitors in the shotgun events use double-barrel shotguns and would be able to keep them under the new laws.”

Australia’s representative on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Kevan Gosper has meanwhile appealed to the gun lobby to keep the Olympic gold medal victory out of the domestic gun debate. “I think we must be proud of our Australian and not involve him in any controversy.”

The gun lobby is however not satisfied with such assurances.

NSW Sporting Shooters Association president Bill Shelton said many young shooters would not be able to learn the sport on cheap semi-automatics under the government’s crackdown on gun ownership.

But even as the gun lobby attempts to capitalise on Diamond’s victory to pressure state governments to water down the new legislation, the new anti-gun bills are due to be tabled in the Queensland and West Australian parliaments on Friday.

The South Australian parliament debated the new bill on Wednesday and adjourned after both government and opposition MP’s moved more than 100 amendments.

All states are expected to pass the new legislation within the next two to four weeks. If any states attempts to block the bill, Howard has made clear he will to take the issue to the people in a national referendum, where the proposed legislation is expected to win a landslide verdict.