On Feb. 28, the World Forum on Shooting Activities (WFSA) held its annual Plenary Session in Nuremberg at the IWA Outdoor Classics show. Just like the Second Amendment Foundation, the show is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2024, and was open to all members, sector stakeholders and the press. IWA is the European version of SHOT and is the world’s leading exhibition for the hunting and target sports industry.
SAF joined WFSA in 2007, and together with 50 international members, fights the war against the anti-gun rights activists that is unceasingly being fought against the United Nations, European Union and other coalitions. We hunkered down in the halls at the United Nations in New York, Geneva, Vienna, Brussels, conferred with our country delegations and literally stood outside in the cold when a “neutral” meeting chair decided to close an open meeting. And we always stand up to the very well-funded, and sometimes personally hostile, NGOs that call us terrorists and murderers.
One of SAF’s fellow members of WFSA is FACE. Since 1977, FACE has represented the interests of Europe’s 7 million hunters from 37 different countries. In 2008, FACE’s work was included in SAF’s Shooting Sports Survey. FACE actively lobbies and promotes the rights of hunters and sports shooters at the EU in Brussels. They travel across Europe presenting the true facts and research about the environmental, social and economic benefits of hunting and sport shooting. When the Firearms Directive was revised in 2015, then-president Michl Ebner stated: “Our legitimate fight against terrorism must not unduly affect the freedom of law-abiding citizens to lawfully acquire, use, transport and store hunting firearms, guaranteed by the Firearms Directive.”