Interestingly, in Victoria the SIFA campaign will run solely against Labor. By default, this helps the conservative Opposition’s election campaign. Anyone who knows about or is affected by domestic violence will hope that Opposition Leader Matthew Guy, and all other Liberal and National Party members, will recognise the gains that have been made and will reject any notion of loosening gun laws. We are reminded that the Tasmanian Liberals went to an election with a last-minute promise to liberalise the gun laws, which would allow freer access to pump-action shotguns and double the gun licence period from five to 10 years. This prompted a backlash from shocked state governments concerned it would undermine the National Firearms Agreement – an agreement on which the Liberal Party has provided proud leadership. Loading My concerns are not with the Liberal/Labor/independent electoral battles. I am, however, galvanised by fears that loosening Australia’s gun laws will directly impact the rate of domestic violence murders.

The World Health Organisation reveals that the US has the Western world’s worst homicide rate – 5.3 persons per 100,000 compared with just over one person per 100,000 in Australia. Many people experience these tragedies directly through the loss of neighbours, friends or family. Fifty per cent of murders in the US involve guns. The chilling factor for women is that they are six times more likely to be killed in a domestic violence incident if a gun is present at the time. Currently in Australia, only 11 per cent of domestic violence homicides involve guns. In the US, where gun laws are more liberal, this figure is 50 per cent. We have a domestic violence problem in Australia and our inroads are not encouraging. Despite increased resources addressing the prevention and response to domestic violence, we haven’t seen a marked decrease in the numbers of women (and some men) experiencing abuse, violence and control. In addition, we need to remember that half of the victims living with family violence are children. There is a huge effort being made by governments on all sides to address this issue, but there are many children and adults who continue to live in fear. SIFA would have us believe that regulated sports shooting is a "family friendly activity". Their advertising promotes this notion of families "playing" together with guns. This may be the case for some families, but domestic violence is widespread and not all families are "friendly".