First things first. Any handgun made in the
world, excluding full auto's or burst autos, are legal
in Australia and there are no magazine size
restrictions.<br>Re the training pistols used at TAFE. All training
is done with air pistols but all students are
encouraged to come along to other competitions and try out
whatever guns they fancy. Often we'll arrange a
school/scout/guide/corporate day and at this most are shown the airpistol
first, then to .22s then .38s then .357s then 9mm/.45
Autos. Depending on who's there with what they may even
get things like 454 Casulls/Hand cannon TCs
etc.<br><br>In general terms in Australia it takes a person
about 3 months of attending a once weekly class to gety
a permit to purchase a handgun then it takes
between 30 and 90 days to get your first gun. Its a bit
of a hassle but it sure does cut out the rambos.
Once you've got a licence you can buy whatever you
want and virtually as many of them as you want. Self
protection is no longer a valid rerason for owning a gun in
Australia although we hear on the grapevine that State
governments are re considering this issue. If you want some
up to date info on the gun sports in Oz go to
www.ssaa.org.au Its the web site for our NRA equivalent.
Otherwise please feel free to get in touch either direct or
through these sites. Regards Dave.