World Forum Supports Global Gun Rights

Heard of the World Forum on the Future of Sport Shooting Activities (WFSA)? Probably not. But this international consortium has been working to preserve the freedom to own and use sporting firearms worldwide. Steve Sanetti, President of the U.S.-based National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), explains that hunters and shooters around the world rely on WFSA to protect their rights, though they may not know it. “The average hunter or sport shooter in America, Italy or any other place . . . is only vaguely aware of what is in store for us in this new globalized environment.” According to Sanetti, the WFSA plays a vital role in monitoring international threats, such as environmental bans on traditional ammunition, which can affect shooting sports worldwide.

With politically powerful forces (including the U.N.) pushing to curtail gun ownership internationally, the WFSA helps national gun owners’ organizations respond to such threats. Over the past year, WFSA has had many successes, but the WFSA faces big challenges ahead: the Int’l Arms Trade Treaty, the U.N. Firearms Protocol, efforts to establish international small arms control standards, environmental restrictions on ammunition and reloading components, and attempts to ban ownership of firearms.

The WFSA’s annual meeting took place recently at the IWA trade show in Nuremberg, Germany. There, Sanetti called for the WFSA to become a bigger, more powerful organization so it can better represent the concerns of more than 100 million sport shooters worldwide.

WFSA Works to Halt Semi-Auto Gun Ban in Finland
“Last month . . . a government commission in Finland recommended the banning of all semi-automatic handguns — 200,000 of the 600,000 guns legally possessed by the citizens of Finland,” said Sanetti. “This was shocking . . . and it could be a portent of things to come.” He pointed out that firearms used in the Olympics, for waterfowl shooting and for target shooting all share the same basic semi-automatic action. “We cannot fall into the trap of saying that certain guns are good and certain guns are bad,” emphasized Sanetti. The WFSA’s Project on Myths works to counter this and other distortions about firearms and their use. To learn more about the WFSA, visit www.WFSA.net.

This report excerpted from the NSSF Blog.