Combined Firearms Council of Victoria

The SIFA, NFDA, ADA, SSAA, FGA and Antique Collectors have made a joint submission to the National Firearms Agreement review.

Click here to see it (PDF).

It’s a fantastic piece of work which not only deals with the challenges put up by the bureaucrats in Canberra, but offers the government an opportunity to fix a lot of problems that came out of the 96 process.

We encourage you to read the submission and share it with your shooting colleagues.

In summary, the major points made in the submission are:

• The report of the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Reference Committee confirms that there is not comprehensive, verifiable, accurate and transparent data on which to base policies related to firearms, firearms ownership and firearms usage.
• This lack of facts and data risks creating a vacuum which easily can be filled by instinct, intuition and prejudice.
• There is evidence that this risk is a reality since the implementation of the National Firearms Agreement (NFA).
• The regulation of law-abiding shooters and the firearms they own and the limitations on the ownership of those firearms is justified on the basis that it reduces the level of gun-related crime and gun-related homicides.
• Yet the fact that there is not clear evidence to demonstrate that the implementation of the NFA has not met these objectives is not widely known. In fact, conventional wisdom is the opposite because of the selective public quoting of one study which concluded that the NFA and the buyback has had a significant impact on gun-related and gun-related suicides.
• Since the implementation of the NFA, there also has been evidence of prejudice and intuition of decision makers and policy makers. For example in 2002 John Howard said: ‘I hate guns. I don’t think people should have guns unless they’re police or in the military or in the security industry.’
• It is important that the FWPWG’s review of the NFA be driven by facts and data and that politicians and bureaucrats be told that, because of past history, the fact that decisions are driven by facts and data must be demonstrable.
• For example, links implied by the Federal Government between law-abiding shooters and terrorism and community safety must be proved and not just asserted.
• It is imperative that bureaucrats and governments demonstrate that current and proposed policies related to firearms and firearms ownership have led or will lead to a reduction in the level of gun-related violence and gun-related homicides.
• In the mid 1990s Canada followed a similar path to Australia with respect to regulating firearms and firearms ownership.
• In recent years Canada has analysed the effect of its gun laws and concluded that the registration system had had a minimal impact on the fight against gun-related crime and gun-related homicides and that the cost of maintaining the system could not be justified.
• The Canadian Minister described the system as ‘a good example of red tape without any added value’. As a result Canada has discontinued the registration of longarms used by shooters and hunters.
• He also said that the Canadian government is ‘tackling the criminal use of firearms instead of focusing on those who practice traditional activities and obey the law.’
• The purpose of the FWPWG’s review of the NFA is to simplify the regulation of the legal firearms market.
• A good place to start would be to follow the Canadian Government’s example. This would not only simplify the law but free up valuable resources to be re-directed to fighting gun-related crime.
• Other ways of simplifying the regulation of the legal firearms market include:
  • full on-line management of license applications and license renewals and instant ‘real-time’ sharing of information through a National Firearms Interface,
  • enabling licensed firearms dealers to report firearm transactions in an automated and instant method.
  • recognition of firearm licences by all states and territories, and
  • not requiring the licencing and registration of pre-, and1900 manufactured handguns. It is important to understand that this submission is not a silver bullet.