- Station Owners/Pastoralists in WA can apply for a side arm, or pistol as a tool (and largely a safety device) of their every day work. A large and even medium calibre pistol can be a life saver with rogue animals at close quarters. Seems logical and sensible so far. It is.
It is until that pastoralist decides he or she would like to compete at a pistol club. Only have to go minimum 6 times a year, but the upside is, they pick up skills of handling, maintaining and firing the firearm in a good social environment. Meeting more people and mixing with others is always a good thing for people who live in remote locations especially when safety and adhering to the law is the priority.
Where it gets nonsensical is the pastoralist cannot take and use his/her sidearm off the station, it cannot be used at the range. They have to actually apply for another firearm, identical perhaps to compete. If their station firearm is damaged, even then they cannot use the range approved side arm on the station, its only at approved pistol club ranges & events. - Co-Ownership. If you have a husband & wife situation or parents & offspring, they cannot share a gun safe. Both people have to co-own all firearms in the safe or have separate safes. If you have a visitor from a northern station owner stay with you and you're both competing the next day it gets funny again. The pastoralist is required to keep their gun secure at all times, but strangely they technically can't put their firearm in your safe. Even a non gun owning wife cannot have the keys to her husband's gun safe. There has been a problem already where police checked a gun safe, the husband was away and the well meaning wife got the safe keys and unlocked for the police officers to check its mounting nuts, washers & bolts. She had no gun licence, the guns were seized.
- Appearance Clause - In some cases, there are firearms that are prohibited with good reason. Others get you wondering. Cat D which are primarily self loading centrefire rifles & pump action shot guns that hold more than 5 rounds are completely prohibited. Go to Firearms Regulations 1974, look up Scehedule 3 & find the listing for Category D firearms.
"A self loading centrefire rifle designed or adapted for military purposes or a firearm that substantially duplicates such a firearm in design, function or appearance"So based solely on appearance, firearms have been knocked back, that is declared as being military like in appearance and have been seized or denied permission to own.
Step further, some farmers can get a Ruger 10/22 which is a .22 calibre semi automatic rifle. In factory trim with normal every day wooden stock fitted, no worries at all. Now once you own it and you decide to make it safer and easier to handle you replace the stock with a lawfully bought after market stock you need to be careful. Some of the after market ones have a pistol grip. You have just rendered your rifle a "prohibited firearm", you're now breaking the law and getting caught with it you'll be in big trouble, have your firearms seized and probably not be able to own a firearm again. Strangely, if there's a section that connects the bottom of the pistol grip to the end of the stock, its no longer a pistol grip, its a "thumbhole" stock and quite legal. If it has a shroud over the barrel or magazine its prohibited even if the shroud is for mounting accessories like a scope or a torch. It gets worse, there is no objective standard for the police to go by, so its their discretion. If they think its scary & army looking, its getting seized, you're probably getting charged and you'll have to go and have your day in court to maintain your unblemished firearms licence. - Semi Automatic Centrefire. Legal in Queensland with an Ag Permit for the purposes of destroying vermin/ferals. In fact there's a couple of firms that operate in Qld that control pigs etc from a helicopter using semi autos. All good. Some WA Pastoralists sought these contractors to control vermin numbers, Ag Dept approved then the paperwork got to the WA Police who then declared if the contractors crossed the WA Border their firearms would be seized and they would be charged. All Cat D firearms are banned in WA unless its for military or police use. One of the better centrefire rifles is the Mini 14 Ruger Ranch Rifle. A good sturdy .223 semi auto rifle. Great for good follow up shots at ferals. Its banned. Its basically the big brother of the Ruger 10/22. Duplicates it in function & appearance. In Queensland a primary producer just has to apply for a Ag Permit and its 100% legal.
- Lever Action Shotgun - Currently 100% legal in WA. They were first produced by Winchester 129 years ago. They can legally be imported as long as they have a maximum magazine capacity or 5 rounds. Ironically though, they're still Cat A in WA so you can go by one and extend the magazine legally to 7 rounds which is currently only banned from importation not ownership. Many 7+ round lever actions were here prior to the "Adler". Its a very bizarre political football that's being booted all over the place and after 12+months, common sense is having little success at creeping into the debate which appears completely closed off to the public. The actual threat of 7 rounds over 5 has never actually been set out in the sunlight for proper inspection and testing. Most of the fight to keep 7 rounds comes from shooters who are up for the fight to maintain the status quo on a firearm most won't buy. They're looking to combat their rights that are under threat from a ban with no defendable cause. Serious strange set up.
Funny thing about the Adler, or any lever action shotgun, never ever been used in a mass shooting and no records of one being used in a gun crime to date. If a criminal were to cut it down into a sawn off shotgun, because of the tube magazine it becomes a single shot. Probably why its only used by hunters who "brush hunt" or hunt on foot. - Not so much another oddity but a statement that people should read, learn, know & remember regarding lawful guns that end up in criminals hands.
"Senator McKenzie said a senate inquiry report found that only four hundredths of one per cent of all registered guns in Australia were stolen and only five per cent of those were used to commit a crime.
Further, recreational shooting contributes $1 billion to the national economy not including the many social and environmental benefits."
Thursday 20 October 2016
WA's Firearms Regulation Oddities
Yes these are pretty odd, worse still is they're no secret, they're widely known and complaints about them have been loud and lingering now for many years with no corrections. Some have turned into political footballs, well one has, but common sense and facts evade many of the federal MPs over it. Yes its a state based regulation not Federal, but the Sovereign Over Reach by the federal Liberal Government made it a federal football.
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