Combined Firearms Council of Victoria

The CFCV has had a win on the NFA front – of sorts.

You will recall we led an industry submission to the Federal Justice Minister, Michael Keenan, earlier this year pointing out changes made to the NFA which had not been previously announced and were clearly detrimental to the interests of the shooting sports.

Some of these changes included the imposition of ammo purchase limits, longer waiting periods for subsequent PTAs and potentially banning juniors from getting involved in the shooting sports.  Click here if you’d like to see our previous blog on this.

Most of those changes now look like they are dead in the water – at least for the time being.

Advice from Minister Neville

Some shooting organisations have now received written advice from the Victorian Police Minister, Lisa Neville, in which she states:

…the only material impact of the updated Agreement is the classification of lever action shotguns and the removal of addresses from printed firearms licences. Outside of this, the Government does not propose additional changes to firearms regulations that may flow from the updated Agreement.

From our perspective, that’s a win.

While there may have been some doubt as to whether some of the changes to the NFA would ever see the light of day, this outcome means we have some certainty through to next year’s Victorian State Election.  It means your industry has been able to limit the damage our bureaucrats and regulator wanted to inflict.

This has been the result of an effort led by the CFCV with significant financial contributions from these organisations who deserve to have their name up in lights:

• Antique and Historical Arms Collectors Guild of Victoria;
• Field and Game Australia;
• International Practical Shooting Confederation;
• Victorian Amateur Pistol Association;
• Sporting Shooters Association of Australia (NSW);
• Sporting Shooters Association of Australia (Victoria); and
• Vintagers: Order of Edwardian Gunners

This commitment won’t last forever, so there is a clear need for ongoing vigilance and more coordinated efforts in the future, hopefully with more shooting organisations.

If you ever wanted to know where your membership fees go, then that’s where!

Lever action shotguns

While this is good news, the fact remains our lever action shotguns are likely to be reclassified – which is a loss no matter how you try to look at it.  We’ll do what we can to fight it but it looks like the opposition and Greens will support the change.

Since at least 2005 bureaucrats and police have thought it desirable to re-classify lever action and pump action rifles. They will see the re-classification of lever actions shotguns as strengthening their argument to go after the latter.’  While they’ve lost this battle, there’s no doubt they will have another go after next year’s state election.

In the meantime we’ll do what we can to fight the reclassification but it looks like it’s going to parliament soon with the support of the Greens and probably the opposition.

While the possibility of a further reclassification has been dismissed by Minister Keenan, you might recall the Australian Medical Association’s call to expand the ban to pump action rifles – so don’t change channels just yet!

FCC is being briefed on the remaking of Victorian Firearms Regulations

On the regulations front, we understand the Victorian Firearms Consultative Committee, of which a number of shooting organisations and the firearms industry are members, will now be involved in the consultation process.

You might recall from one of our earlier posts advice that we wrote to the Office of the Commissioner for Better Regulation about what was an unsatisfactory process, complaining that the FCC had sidelined.  The OCBR has now become involved and will be attending a meeting of a sub-committee of the FCC in the next few days to ensure proper consultation occurs.

The earlier the shooting community is involved in this process, the less likely it is that the bureaucrats will try to spring something we don’t like on us – and the OCBR is the watchdog which help us.

Want us to update your club?

If you’d like us to give a presentation to your club on how this issue came about and what it means for them, drop us a line. We’re happy to come along and let your members know exactly what’s happening in the political world affecting their sport.