Gun Control Australia (GCA) is a gun-control lobbying group in Australia. The group was formed in 1981 to press for stricter gun laws. Its President is John Crook.
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Gun Control Australia was formed by activist John Crook, who from the late 1970s wrote articles and made presentations challenging the basis of private ownership of firearms. In 1981, Mr Crook used the public concern from the killing of two girls in separate crimes in 1981, and with the support of the victims' parents formed "The Council to Control Gun Misuse". The group was strengthened after the spree killings in Hoddle Street and Queen Street in Melbourne, Australia, 1987.
The organisation was renamed to "Gun Control Australia" (GCA) in 1988.
The President of the organisation, John Crook, has written or edited many articles and books, published under the banner of Gun Control Australia. GCA maintains a website and occasionally features in media reports on gun law issues.
Gun Control Australia produces books on the social, ethical and legal aspects of gun misuse. It claims to be a fully independent body with no connections to political parties, unions or professional organisations. It lobbies parliamentarians and actively opposes the "Gun Lobby" in Australia.
Only two members, President John Crook and Vice President Randy Marshall, have appeared in the media in recent years. Membership numbers are not known. At the height of its popularity in 1997, there were branches in other states but these have not been active for some years.
GCA has asserted that:
Our logic is that shooters are the most ill-disciplined group… That’s what attracts them to guns. It’s a state of mind… They are usually poorly educated, they have never had success at school and were never very good at sport… Guns to them represent something they have never been able to achieve.[1]
GCA has claimed that the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia (SSAA), a federated group of sporting clubs with over 100,000 members, is 'extremist' and 'pro-violence'. In 1995 GCA were taken to court for this comment. GCA's lawyers defended the case successfully on the then-new basis that they were engaging in constitutionally-protected free speech.[2] The judge found that:
In his opening for the plaintiff, Mr Wilson described Crook as a zealot - a description I regard as being only slightly exaggerated. In the considerable time he spent in the witness box, Crook gave the impression of being particularly dedicated to, and almost obsessed with the subject of gun control.[3]
In a media release on 8 April 2002, titled "Hail Carr, Hail the Great Pretender" John Crook made a claim that the SSAA had "produced" a person convicted of a firearm-related manslaughter in Victoria. Mr Crook subsequently apologised unreservedly and agreed to meet the SSAA legal costs. Mr Crook also agreed to forward a copy of his apology to everyone who received the original media release [4]