“The Shot Expo is Australia’s largest event for the Sports Shooting Industry and showcases shooting, hunting and outdoor trades to enthusiasts, those wishing to participate in the sport and the general public with the view of improving public awareness, professionalism and safety. It is held in Melbourne every two years.”
So describes the website for the Shot Expo, which I attended on Saturday 25th May 2013.
It was held at the Melbourne Show Grounds, at the same time as the Melbourne International Coffee Expo. Two expos that couldn’t be further apart, well, actually there could have been but not so further apart and still remaining neutral.
Rifles are heavy things. I don’t have a shooter’s licence, I don’t even really have any interest in attaining one. It’s something I’ve investigated in the past but not something I’ve ever seriously thought about getting. It’s something I think I’ve got the skills and learning ability to do but not something I really have a huge interest in getting.
But I do like learning and going to expos like this broadens my knowledge, and when do you actually have a chance to wander around and have a look at various weapons and pick them up, feel the weight and look down the scope of one of them?
Not often in Australia unless you know someone with a shooter’s licence and a gun or happen to live near a gun shop, and then I’m still not sure on the legalities of things.
Rifles are heavy. That’s something I learned on Saturday. They’re all tied down with steel cables or locked to their display stand. But there’s enough of a gap to lift them up to feel the weight, just about.
They’re surprisingly heavy. I understand that they would be, but actually picking one up and holding it was something of a revelation of the weight of these things.
There’s also a lot of choice.
This seems like an odd observation, from what I know of the US and their gun culture there would logically be a lot of choice, whenever footage from the US from within a gun shop (or camping shop or wherever else guns are sold, Walmart probably) is broadcast there always seems like there’s a lot of guns, but they’re either black or made out of wood and they all just seem to blend together visually into a black/brown morass.
But the Shot Expo was an expo, so the rifles were displayed by make, like a car expo. Or they’re displayed by the various shops/businesses that are selling these weapons.
This is possibly the only situation in Australia where everyone is so casual about firearms. This was an expo like any other expo be if cars, coffee or patchwork quilting. People going around checking out what’s on offer and being able to touch and see the merchandise.
Walking around the Shot Expo today it made me really glad that I live in Australia and we have the laws concerning weapons and firearms that we do.
Looking around there were a few interesting choices of business name present there that raised an eyebrow in me and amused me slightly. There was a stall for “Acme Firearms”, which is where I suppose you purchase your firearms for hunting roadrunners.
Also, “Potter Firearms”; ‘was that what Harry Potter did after leaving Hogwarts?’ I mused upon seeing the name.
It wasn’t just rifles display at the expo though, although these were the majority of firearms that were on display. These firearms you could pick up and feel and try the...whatever it is you try when you pick them up. I saw people checking the scope and maybe how it sat against their shoulders.
There were also handguns on display, these unlike the rifles were in cabinets. You could even have a look / hold of these, although with these, at least from the two interactions I saw required you to show your shooter’s licence.
Which from what I saw just looks like a driver’s licence with a brown-grey heading instead of the the blue on Victorian driver’s licences.
Rifles I understand why they had more of a presence. They’re the weapons for hunting and there’s many an animal that can be hunted in Australia. That’s understandable, we have many species both invasive and native that can be hunted in Australia.
But handguns, they’re something else. I understand these are used for target shooting, competition shooting and, I’m not sure what else.
Handguns are something that have a different meaning attached to them, just through their appearance in the media, American media both fictional and real is responsible for the different reading I have of handguns.
Seeing these weapons up close, I am glad that Australia has tighter gun control laws than the United States of America, I am not sure I would feel as comfortable as I do, as safe as I do if I knew that almost anyone could have one of these weapons in a holster.
Another thing I found odd, interesting and somewhat incongruous (although not, given where I was) was the banners / advertising for the firearms that were there. Something that, unless you subscribe to a shooter’s or hunter’s magazine is something that would not be seen.
There were banners describing the “warm feel of the high-grade walnut stock” and gear banners proclaiming “ “Walk Further, Climb Higher, Hunt Longer”.
There were other things taking place at the expo, a test for one thing that I saw whilst wandering around. Asking one of the guys who was standing watch about it he said it was a test to get a licence to hunt in national parks and other areas in New South Wales. It was an open book test. Saying that they wanted anyone taking the test to read the material. I have some concerns on this, as an open book test makes you scan and read for the relevant piece of information to answer the questions in the test. You can show you’ve read it but I’m not so sure about demonstrating understanding of it. Retention of information after an open book test is surely going to be lower than if you’ve studied for it. Maybe the information isn’t so complicated that you can retain the information from an open book test.
It wasn’t all weapons, there were ATVs, clothing and also taxidermy supplies; for when you’ve shot your deer or whatever and are then going to taxidermy it. There’s moulds for the inside of it, eyes, teeth and mouth bits for the inside.
I do have something of an interest in this, a lot of taxidermied animals I think look pretty marvellous, most birds, deer and dingoes all look good. I’ve seen a few taxidermied rabbits (not at the Shot Expo but at Wunderkammer a shop in Melbourne’s CBD) and I’ve yet to see one that really convinces me, rabbits seem to look a little under-stuffed or they were quite malnourished when they were killed.
Of everyone I saw at the expo everyone seemed calm, reasonable people, who were from what I could gather knowledgeable about what they were doing.
I only had one point of unease and that was whilst wandering around I saw one guy looking through the scope of a rifle, which was pointed vaguely in my direction. I knew that the firearm wasn’t loaded, none of the weapons on display at the expo could even be loaded (they all had things in place to prevent this).
But at that point I felt a little bit of unease, just a brief feeling of it, even though intellectually I knew that where I was I was completely safe.
I was safe, all the people I saw, both the people promoting their products and those attending the expo who were knowledgeable about the items they were looking at were mature responsible people.
I did feel uneasy about someone pointing a weapon in my direction, I’m not sure if you should ever be at east with a weapon being pointed at you.
It made me glad that the various state laws and the National Firearms Agreement (1996) exist. I think it’s good that the majority of firearms in Australia are used by primary producers, recreational shooters and hunters, and that ‘personal protection’ is not a reason to be able to own a firearm.
So describes the website for the Shot Expo, which I attended on Saturday 25th May 2013.
It was held at the Melbourne Show Grounds, at the same time as the Melbourne International Coffee Expo. Two expos that couldn’t be further apart, well, actually there could have been but not so further apart and still remaining neutral.
Rifles are heavy things. I don’t have a shooter’s licence, I don’t even really have any interest in attaining one. It’s something I’ve investigated in the past but not something I’ve ever seriously thought about getting. It’s something I think I’ve got the skills and learning ability to do but not something I really have a huge interest in getting.
But I do like learning and going to expos like this broadens my knowledge, and when do you actually have a chance to wander around and have a look at various weapons and pick them up, feel the weight and look down the scope of one of them?
Not often in Australia unless you know someone with a shooter’s licence and a gun or happen to live near a gun shop, and then I’m still not sure on the legalities of things.
Rifles are heavy. That’s something I learned on Saturday. They’re all tied down with steel cables or locked to their display stand. But there’s enough of a gap to lift them up to feel the weight, just about.
They’re surprisingly heavy. I understand that they would be, but actually picking one up and holding it was something of a revelation of the weight of these things.
There’s also a lot of choice.
This seems like an odd observation, from what I know of the US and their gun culture there would logically be a lot of choice, whenever footage from the US from within a gun shop (or camping shop or wherever else guns are sold, Walmart probably) is broadcast there always seems like there’s a lot of guns, but they’re either black or made out of wood and they all just seem to blend together visually into a black/brown morass.
But the Shot Expo was an expo, so the rifles were displayed by make, like a car expo. Or they’re displayed by the various shops/businesses that are selling these weapons.
This is possibly the only situation in Australia where everyone is so casual about firearms. This was an expo like any other expo be if cars, coffee or patchwork quilting. People going around checking out what’s on offer and being able to touch and see the merchandise.
Walking around the Shot Expo today it made me really glad that I live in Australia and we have the laws concerning weapons and firearms that we do.
Looking around there were a few interesting choices of business name present there that raised an eyebrow in me and amused me slightly. There was a stall for “Acme Firearms”, which is where I suppose you purchase your firearms for hunting roadrunners.
Also, “Potter Firearms”; ‘was that what Harry Potter did after leaving Hogwarts?’ I mused upon seeing the name.
It wasn’t just rifles display at the expo though, although these were the majority of firearms that were on display. These firearms you could pick up and feel and try the...whatever it is you try when you pick them up. I saw people checking the scope and maybe how it sat against their shoulders.
There were also handguns on display, these unlike the rifles were in cabinets. You could even have a look / hold of these, although with these, at least from the two interactions I saw required you to show your shooter’s licence.
Which from what I saw just looks like a driver’s licence with a brown-grey heading instead of the the blue on Victorian driver’s licences.
Rifles I understand why they had more of a presence. They’re the weapons for hunting and there’s many an animal that can be hunted in Australia. That’s understandable, we have many species both invasive and native that can be hunted in Australia.
But handguns, they’re something else. I understand these are used for target shooting, competition shooting and, I’m not sure what else.
Handguns are something that have a different meaning attached to them, just through their appearance in the media, American media both fictional and real is responsible for the different reading I have of handguns.
Seeing these weapons up close, I am glad that Australia has tighter gun control laws than the United States of America, I am not sure I would feel as comfortable as I do, as safe as I do if I knew that almost anyone could have one of these weapons in a holster.
Another thing I found odd, interesting and somewhat incongruous (although not, given where I was) was the banners / advertising for the firearms that were there. Something that, unless you subscribe to a shooter’s or hunter’s magazine is something that would not be seen.
There were banners describing the “warm feel of the high-grade walnut stock” and gear banners proclaiming “ “Walk Further, Climb Higher, Hunt Longer”.
There were other things taking place at the expo, a test for one thing that I saw whilst wandering around. Asking one of the guys who was standing watch about it he said it was a test to get a licence to hunt in national parks and other areas in New South Wales. It was an open book test. Saying that they wanted anyone taking the test to read the material. I have some concerns on this, as an open book test makes you scan and read for the relevant piece of information to answer the questions in the test. You can show you’ve read it but I’m not so sure about demonstrating understanding of it. Retention of information after an open book test is surely going to be lower than if you’ve studied for it. Maybe the information isn’t so complicated that you can retain the information from an open book test.
It wasn’t all weapons, there were ATVs, clothing and also taxidermy supplies; for when you’ve shot your deer or whatever and are then going to taxidermy it. There’s moulds for the inside of it, eyes, teeth and mouth bits for the inside.
I do have something of an interest in this, a lot of taxidermied animals I think look pretty marvellous, most birds, deer and dingoes all look good. I’ve seen a few taxidermied rabbits (not at the Shot Expo but at Wunderkammer a shop in Melbourne’s CBD) and I’ve yet to see one that really convinces me, rabbits seem to look a little under-stuffed or they were quite malnourished when they were killed.
Of everyone I saw at the expo everyone seemed calm, reasonable people, who were from what I could gather knowledgeable about what they were doing.
I only had one point of unease and that was whilst wandering around I saw one guy looking through the scope of a rifle, which was pointed vaguely in my direction. I knew that the firearm wasn’t loaded, none of the weapons on display at the expo could even be loaded (they all had things in place to prevent this).
But at that point I felt a little bit of unease, just a brief feeling of it, even though intellectually I knew that where I was I was completely safe.
I was safe, all the people I saw, both the people promoting their products and those attending the expo who were knowledgeable about the items they were looking at were mature responsible people.
I did feel uneasy about someone pointing a weapon in my direction, I’m not sure if you should ever be at east with a weapon being pointed at you.
It made me glad that the various state laws and the National Firearms Agreement (1996) exist. I think it’s good that the majority of firearms in Australia are used by primary producers, recreational shooters and hunters, and that ‘personal protection’ is not a reason to be able to own a firearm.