Any negotiations with the Shooters and Fishers Party around the relaxation of gun laws must be "categorically" ruled out by Premier Barry O'Farrell, the opposition says.
Former Premier and acting opposition spokesman for education Nathan Rees said reports that the NSW government was in negotiations with the minority party to allow shooting in more NSW schools and relax gun registration was "deeply concerning".
"If Barry O'Farrell engages with the Shooters Party on these it will mean that NSW becomes the gun capital of Australia," Mr Rees told reporters in Sydney on Sunday.
The comments follow a report in the Sun-Herald newspaper that the O'Farrell government is supporting calls by the minority party to increase shooting as a school sport.
A handful of schools, mainly in country areas, as well as some Sydney private schools already teach children to shoot.
But the newspaper reported that the party wish to reduce red tape so the state's 650 public and independent high schools are also able to introduce the sport.
The party also wishes to relax the registration of firearms and end the ban on hunting in national parks.
The government's negotiations with the minor party's wish list are seen as a bid to gain the support of two Shooters MPs, who are needed to get its legislation through a hostile upper house, the newspaper reported.
Opposition spokesman for the environment Luke Foley said Mr O'Farrell should not be cutting deals with "fringe groups".
"What I see in the upper house is the book-burners and the elephant-hunters running riot, courtesy of Mr O'Farrell," Mr Foley told reporters.
"I want Mr O'Farrell to stick to his promise and not to do deals with small fringe groups."
But the NSW government has denied the reports.
"The NSW government has no plans to change the current arrangements for sports shooting in schools," a government statement said.
"The rigorous safety, registration and permit provisions will remain in place."
The Police Minister Michael Gallacher has also said there had been no discussion with the sports and education ministers to change the status quo.
Although he admitted that the Shooters party had lobbied the government for changes to gun laws, he said it was not something the government supported.
"The Shooters party have always pushed this with both the previous government and ourselves," Mr Gallacher told Sky News.
"But we have made it very clear that we will not be supporting anything that's a reduction in firearm laws."
Mr Rees challenged the premier to "knock this on the head".
"Barry O'Farrell can knock this over today with a single phone call to the Shooters and I challenge him to do so."
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