Police ministers agree on tighter gun laws to stop drive-by shootings
The federal government has obtained the agreement of all states and territories to ban firearms with magazines and more than one barrel ahead of next month’s police minister’s meeting.
In a half hour telephone conference with state and territory police ministers last night, the new national plan will limit gun owners to air rifles, single shot rifles and single barrel shotguns. Double barrel shotguns will only be allowed for existing international competitors who will be able to qualify for a new “Category A2” licence.
The new laws will come into effect on 1 July and be backed with a buyback of prohibited firearms capped at $500 per firearm.
Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, said territorial ministers were keen to adopt the new laws in a desperate attempt to stop the number of shootings in major cities.
“Their main concern was that guns such as hunting rifles which have enormous firepower were easy to steal and falling into the wrong hands. They were unanimous in their views that removing these from the community will eradicate shootings and help save lives” he said.
OK YOU CAN STOP PANICKING NOW.
THERE WAS NO PHONE CONFERENCE.
THE GOVERNMENTS HAVE NOT AGREED TO ANY SUCH BAN.
Not yet anyway….
Instead I wound the clock forward to discussions on the NFA at next month’s police minister’s conference to desperately get your attention. I hope it worked!
You will recall last year shooters put in extensive efforts through letter and email writing to stop the Adler ban, and other changes to the NFA. That had the effect of stopping the ban at the time, but the issue was simply deferred to next month’s police minister’s conference, so we’re not out of the woods yet.
The above scenario is also an exaggeration of what is being proposed, but as you know, there are many people who want us to be on that slippery slope, so help us stop that now!
What you can do
If you don’t want the above nightmare from happening then we need you to send just one more email. It’ll take you just two minutes to do!
This we need you to tell Premier of Victoria, Daniel Andrews, what we want his government to do.
Click here to send an email to Premier Andrews through your email client (or if that doesn’t work, send an email daniel.andrews@parliament.vic.gov.au)
Here is the suggested content of an email:
Dear Premier
I refer to the debate over the past year on the appropriate classification of the Adler lever action shotgun, and other matters relating to the National Firearms Agreement.
You will recall the last police ministers’ conference considered and rejected a call to move the shotgun (and similar action firearms) from Category A to Category C, which would have put it beyond the reach of most shooters. The conference instead referred the matter back to the states for reconsideration at the next month’s police ministers conference.
As a licensed shooter, I do not support the reclassification of that type of firearm. Specifically:
• It is not new technology;
• There is no demonstrated problem with any Category A firearm; and
• There is no clearly articulated justification in reclassifying any Category A firearm
I respectfully request you instruct the Acting Minister for Police to adopt a position that Victoria supports “no change” to firearm categories.
I also request you consider ways shooting groups can be more effectively involved in policy discussions than has previously been the case. The Victorian Firearms Consultative Committee is a purpose built forum which is suitable for that purpose.
Yours sincerely
(YOU)
We’ll keep you up to date on how things go…