Ladies give it a shot

By Shaun Inguanzo
THE Springvale range of the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia (SSAA) is home to a unique initiative to promote sport shooting to women across the state.
The SSAA invited Star to its four-week Women, Give It a Shot! training program, which allows women who have never handled a firearm to learn the basics of the sport.
The program is the first public event at the Springvale range since a truck from a nearby factory lost control and smashed into the clubrooms late February, putting members out of action for a week.
The course is run by the SSAA Victorian branch in conjunction with the Sporting Shooters Women’s Group, a sub-club of the SSAA.
Course participants Narre Warren resident Erika Coates and West Brunswick resident Kearin Guziak said they both entered the course expecting the unexpected.
Ms Coates described herself as a “happily divorced” woman who was independent and not bound by stereotypes.
“I don’t like to do things that are always mainstream. I like things that are a bit out of the ordinary for women,” she said.
“I have just taken up golf, too.”
Ms Coates is a security officer for Coles Myer by day, and said she was keen on trying skydiving in the near future.
Ms Guziak said she had always wanted to handle a gun.
“I like archery and target sports, but not hunting,” she said.
An administration officer in the construction industry, the 32-year-old said she received strange looks from her friends who knew she was enrolled to learn how to shoot.
“They said ‘oh my God, why?’,” she said.
SSAA coach Allen Bingham, who is teaching the women, said a common misconception about the sport was that it was dangerous.
He said this was due to firearms’ use as a weapon by the military and criminals, and a focus as a weapon in films.
“Sport shooting requires technique and concentration to do well,” he said. “We in the sport feel that people generally don’t understand what it is we do.
“Shooting is, in fact, one of the safest sports around – if you look at a list of sports injuries, you’ll find shooting is nowhere on it.”