How safe is the sport of target shooting?
It comes as a surprise to many people when they learn that target shooting is one of the safest sports of all. The NSW Shooting Association, peak body for shooting in NSW, is a member of the NSW Sporting Injuries Insurance Scheme, which was established in 1978. There has never been a claim for any injury in the sport of target shooting in NSW in the history of the scheme. By contrast, over $12 million dollars in claims have been made since the inception of the scheme. Since 1996 more than $1.5 million in claims have been made each year for injuries sustained in other sports. In the “NSW Sports Shooting Injuries Report” Aug 2000 the authors found that “competitive sports shooting is a remarkably safe sport compared to sports generally and that competition sports shooting is significantly safer than the general use of firearms.” Only one minor injury was reported in this study and that was caused by a flagstaff hitting a competitor on the nose. It was not caused by a firearm. The ATSC is
