Gun politics in Australia
Encyclopedia
Gun politics
have only become a notable issue in Australia
since the 1980s. Low levels of violent crime
through much of the 20th century kept levels of public concern about firearms low. However, in the last two decades of the century, following several high profile multiple murders and a media campaign, the Australian Government co-ordinated more restrictive firearms legislation with all State Governments.
Currently, about 5.2% of Australian adults (765,000 people) own and use firearm
s for purposes such as hunting
, controlling feral animals
, collecting, and target shooting.
Before someone can buy a firearm, he or she must obtain a Permit To Acquire. The first permit has a mandatory 28-day delay before it is first issued. In some states (e.g. Queensland, Victoria, and New South Wales), this is waived for second and subsequent firearms of the same class. For each firearm a "Genuine Reason" must be given, relating to pest control, hunting, target shooting, or collecting. Self-defense is not accepted as a reason for issuing a licence, even though it may be legal under certain circumstances to use a legally held firearm for self-defense.
Each firearm in Australia must be registered to the owner by serial number. Some states allow an owner to store or borrow another person's registered firearm of the same category.
Certain Antique
firearms can in some states be legally held without licences. In other states they are subject to the same requirements as modern firearms.
All single-shot muzzleloading firearms manufactured before 1 January 1901 are considered antique firearms. Four states require licences for antique percussion revolvers and cartridge repeating firearms, but in Queensland and Victoria a person may possess such a firearm without a license, so long as the firearm is registered.
Australia has very tight restrictions on items which are far less controlled in comparable societies such as the UK
. Air pistols, elsewhere unrestricted, are as difficult to get as centrefire and rimfire handguns, and low-powered airguns are as difficult as cartridge arms to license. Airsoft
guns and replica firearms are banned in most states. Suppressor
s (or 'silencers') which are legal in the UK and New Zealand, are extremely restricted in Australia to a few government bodies.
).
From the beginning there were controls on firearms. The firearms issued to convicts (for meat hunting) and settlers (for hunting and protection) were stolen and misused, and this resulted in more controls. In January 1796, David Collins wrote that 'several attempts had been made to ascertain the number of arms in the possession of individuals, as many were feared to be in the hands of those who committed depredations; the crown recalled between two and three hundred stands of arms, but not 50 stands were accounted for'.
Australian colonists also used firearms in conflict with bushranger
s; in duel
s, the last in 1854; in armed rebellion
s, such as the Castle Hill convict rebellion
in 1804 and the 1854 Eureka Stockade
. The Eureka Stockade
in 1854 arose as a result of Government and police abuses against gold miners. A large force of police and soldiers assaulted a stockade set up by miners. Six soldiers and twenty-two miners were killed.
From the 1850s to the 1950s, Australians developed a strong volunteer tradition in preparing defense against possible invaders, and sent volunteer expeditionary forces to most British wars. From this arose an enthusiastic civil marksmanship movement, a form of military reserve supported under the Defence Act until as late as 1996. The movement exists to this day in the fullbore Rifle Clubs affiliated with the State and National Rifle Associations of Australia. The highest trophy shows the significance of this sport to the nation: the Queen's Prize.
During the 1920s Australia, Canada and Great Britain became concerned about the rise of communism
after the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, and imposed restrictions on handgun
s. The murders of three policemen in Western Australia and the rise of organised crime in Sydney and Melbourne, with a number of lurid underworld murders were also a factor. These restrictions have increased over the succeeding decades. In New South Wales, handguns were effectively banned after World War II
but the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games
sparked a new interest in the sport of pistol shooting and laws were changed to allow the sport to develop.
Rifle
s and shotgun
s were less restricted than handguns. State gun laws varied widely. Western Australia and the Northern Territory had severe restrictions even on sporting rifles and shotguns, but in Queensland and Tasmania they could be bought without restrictions.
Fully automatic arms were banned on the Australian mainland from the 1930s, but remained legal in Tasmania until 1996.
In the 1940s and 1950s, Cold War
concerns about ex-military rifles falling into the hands of communist radicals led New South Wales
to place restrictions on the legal ownership of rifles of a military calibre
(see: .303/25
) while members of rifle clubs and military rifle clubs could own ex-military rifles. In the 1970s these restrictions were relaxed in New South Wales and military style rifles (both bolt-action and semi-automatic) once again became widely available, except in Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
By the beginning of the 1980s, the relative popularity of shooting and the prevalence of firearms in the community began to fall as social attitudes changed and urbanisation
increased. The rise of new values including feminism, environmental awareness and media reports of American gun violence created an awareness of gun control as a potential issue. The 1981 publication of Richard Harding's book "Firearms and Violence in Australian Life" and conferences in several cities involved academics, criminologists, police representatives and gun control activists. As in other countries, public concern over violence and its possible links to media violence also gave rise to a general increase in support for gun control and increased media involvement in the issue. Gun control activism in Australia became organised with the formation in 1981 of the "Committee to Control Gun Misuse" in Victoria, later to become Gun Control Australia
.
was a major incident in a series of conflicts between various 'outlaw motorcycle gangs'. These gangs are a major component of organised crime in Australia and continue to arm themselves illegally. In 1987, the Hoddle Street massacre
and the Queen Street massacre
took place in Melbourne
. In response, several states required the registration of all guns, and restricted the availability of self-loading rifle
s and shotguns. In the Strathfield massacre
in New South Wales, 1991, two were killed with a knife, and five more with a firearm. Tasmania passed a law in 1991 for firearm purchasers to obtain a license, though enforcement was light. Firearm laws in Tasmania
and Queensland
remained relatively relaxed for longarms. In 1995, Tasmania had the second lowest rate of homicides per head of population.
Shooting massacres in Australia and other English-speaking countries often occurred close together in time. Forensic psychiatrists attribute this to copycat behaviour, which is in many cases triggered by sensational media treatment. Mass murderers study media reports and imitate the actions and equipment that are sensationalised in them.
in Scotland, this mass killing at the notorious former convict prison at Port Arthur
horrified the Australian public and had powerful political consequences.
Bryant said he obtained his firearms from a gun dealer without holding the required firearms licence.
Prime Minister John Howard
, then newly elected, immediately took the gun law proposals developed from the report of the 1988 National Committee on Violence and urged the states to adopt them under a National Firearms Agreement. This was necessary because the Australian Constitution does not give the Commonwealth power to enact gun laws. The proposals included a ban on all semi-automatic rifles and all semi-automatic and pump-action shotguns, and a tightly restrictive system of licensing and ownership controls.
Some discussion of measures to allow owners to undertake modifications to reduce the capacity of magazine-fed shotguns ('crimping') occurred, but the Government refused to permit this.
While surveys showed up to 85% of Australians supported gun control, hundreds of thousands of farmers and sporting shooters strongly opposed the new laws, calling them a 'knee-jerk' reaction by the Government and pointing out the lack of discussion of the issues.
The Government planned a series of public meetings to explain the proposed changes. In the first meeting, on the advice of his security team, Mr. Howard wore a bullet-resistant vest, which was visible under his jacket. This was perceived as a deeply offensive act by the shooters, and their outrage was interpreted by many of the media and the public to show that ordinary shooters were dangerous and contemptible.
Concern was raised within the Coalition Government that fringe groups such as the 'Ausi Freedom Scouts', the Australian League of Rights
and the Citizen Initiated Referendum Party, were exploiting voter anger to gain support. The rhetoric of such groups supported violence against 'tyranny', but there was no instance of any violent political act or any credible threat of violence. The Government and media used these small right wing groups and support from fringe Christian groups and the US National Rifle Association
to fan moral outrage against the large number of ordinary Australians who opposed the new gun laws. The decimation of membership in the National Party
in Queensland
, the subsequent rise of One Nation
and the loss of over a million Coalition votes in the 1998 Federal election have been claimed to be, in part, consequences of the marginalisation of these voters.
Some shooters applied to join the Liberal Party of Australia
in an attempt to influence the Government, but the Liberal Party barred them from membership. A court action by 500 shooters seeking admission to membership eventually failed in the Supreme Court of South Australia
.
Because the Australian Constitution prevents the taking of property without just compensation the Federal Government introduced the Medicare Levy Amendment Act 1996 to raise the predicted cost of $A500 million through a one-off increase in the Medicare levy. The gun buy-back scheme started on 1 October 1996 and concluded on 30 September 1997. The buyback purchased and destroyed more than 631,000 firearms, mostly semi-auto .22 rimfires, semi-automatic shotguns and pump-action shotguns. Only Victoria
provided a breakdown of types destroyed, and in that state less than 3% were military style semi-automatic rifles.
in Victoria with pistols he had acquired as a member of a shooting club. As in 1996, the federal government urged state governments
to review handgun laws, and, as a result, amended legislation was adopted in all states and territories. Changes included a 10-round magazine
capacity limit, a calibre limit of not more than .38 inches (9.65 mm), a barrel
length limit of not less than 120 mm (4.72 inches) for semi-automatic pistols and 100 mm (3.94 inches) for revolvers, and even stricter probation and attendance requirements for sporting target shooters. Whilst handguns for sporting shooters are nominally restricted to .38 inches as a maximum calibre, it is possible to obtain an endorsement allowing calibres up to .45 inches (11.43 mm) to be used for Metallic Silhouette
or Single Action Shooting matches. These new laws were opposed not only by sporting shooters groups but also by gun control supporters, who saw it as paying for shooters to upgrade to new guns. In the state of Victoria $A21 million compensation was paid for confiscating 18,124 target pistols, and 15,184 replacement pistols were imported. .
One government policy was to compensate shooters for giving up the sport. Approximately 25% of pistol shooters took this offer, and relinquished their licences and their right to own pistols for sport for five years.
and suicide
have remained relatively static for several decades, while the proportion of these crimes that involved firearms has consistently declined since the early 1980s. Between 1991 and 2001, the number of firearm-related deaths in Australia declined 47%.
In the year 2002–2003, over 85% of firearms used to commit murder were unregistered. In 1997–1999, more than 80% of the handguns confiscated were never legally purchased or registered in Australia. Knives are used up to three times as often as firearms in robberies. The majority of firearm-related deaths are suicides, of which many involved the use of 'hunting rifles'.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics http://www.abs.gov.au/, from 1985–2000, 78% of firearm deaths in Australia were suicides, and firearm suicides have fallen from about 22% of all suicides in 1992 to 7% of all suicides in 2005. Immediately following the Buyback there was a fall in firearm suicides which was more than offset by a 10% increase in total suicides in 1997 and 1998. There were concerted efforts in suicide prevention from this time and in subsequent years the total suicide rate resumed its decline.
The number of guns stolen has fallen dramatically from an average 4,195 per year from 1994-2000 to 1,526 in 2006–2007. This is because of a campaign by police and shooting bodies, such as the Sporting Shooters’ Association of Australia’s ‘Secure Your Gun, Secure Your Sport’ drive, to encourage secure storage of rifles and shotguns (handguns were already subject to strict storage requirements). Long guns are more often stolen opportunistically in home burglaries, but few homes have handguns and a substantial proportion of stolen handguns are taken from security firms and other businesses. Only a tiny proportion, 0.06% of licensed firearms, are stolen in a given year. Only a small proportion of those firearms are recovered. Approximately 3% of these stolen weapons are later connected to an actual crime or found in the possession of a person charged with a serious offence.
Concern has been raised about the number of smuggled pistols reaching Australia, particularly in New South Wales. However, the ‘grey market’, in which handguns that were made inoperable and then reversed to be made functional again, and longarms that have never been registered in Australia, and then made available illegally to criminals is more of a concern.
In 2000, the American National Rifle Association
claimed that violent crimes had increased in Australia since the introduction of new laws based on some highly selective statistics from newspaper articles. Federal Attorney General Daryl Williams accused the NRA of falsifying government statistics and urged the NRA to "remove any reference to Australia" from its website.
In 2003, CLASS (The Coalition of Law Abiding Sporting Shooters) stated that no benefit-cost analysis of the buyback had been published, and that scientific debate was politicised and ignored benefits of shooting and costs forced on legitimate owners. A Freedom of Information request for such benefit-cost analysis or externalised costs by the same author was rejected on the grounds that no such documents existed.
The Sporting Shooters Association of Australia
states that there is no evidence that gun control restrictions in 1987, 1996 and 2002 had any impact on the already established trends.
Some researchers have claimed a dramatic effect on firearm deaths, by counting the drop in firearm suicides and ignoring rising suicides by substitute methods. One such author was Ozanne-Smith et al. (2004) in the journal Injury Prevention.
In 2005 the head of the New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, Don Weatherburn, noted that the level of legal gun ownership in New South Wales increased in recent years, and that the 1996 legislation had had little effect on violence. Professor Simon Chapman, former convenor of the Coalition for Gun Control, complained that his words "will henceforth be cited by every gun-lusting lobby group throughout the world in their perverse efforts to stall reforms that could save thousands of lives". Weatherburn responded "The fact is that the introduction of those laws did not result in any acceleration of the downward trend in gun homicide. They may have reduced the risk of mass shootings but we cannot be sure because no one has done the rigorous statistical work required to verify this possibility. It is always unpleasant to acknowledge facts that are inconsistent with your own point of view. But I thought that was what distinguished science from popular prejudice."
In 2006, the lack of a measurable effect from the 1996 firearms legislation was reported in the British Journal of Criminology by Dr Jeanine Baker (a former state President of the SSAA(SA)) and Dr Samara McPhedran (Women in Shooting and Hunting).
De Leo, Dwyer, Firman & Neulinger, studied suicide methods in men from 1979 to 1998 and found a rise in hanging suicides that started slightly before the fall in gun suicides. As hanging suicides rose at about the same rate as gun suicides fell, it is possible that there was some substitution of suicide methods.
Dr Don Weatherburn described the Baker & McPhedran article as "reputable" and "well-conducted" and stated that the available data are insufficient to draw stronger conclusions. Weatherburn noted the importance of actively policing illegal firearm trafficking and argued that there was little evidence that the new laws had helped in this regard.
A study co-authored by Professor Simon Chapman, argued that reduction in firearm numbers had prevented mass shootings because in the 18 years prior to the Port Arthur massacre there were 13 mass shootings and in the decade since 1996 there have been none. The 2002 Monash University shooting
of seven people, two of whom died, is ignored because the usual definition requires four deaths. Data interpretation of trends in this study differs from other authors, while clearly being based on the same data. Media reports gave Professor Chapman wide publicity while failing to note his career as a leader of gun control activism. Since then, evidence to a Senate Inquiry showed that Chapman's research was fast tracked for publication by the journal Injury Prevention, which bypassed the standard peer review process.
Baker and McPhedran have also published a meta-study pointing out that differing authors' conclusions were based on the same data, but that interpretations diverged.
A 2008 study on the effects of the firearm buybacks by Dr Wang-Sheng Lee and Dr Sandy Suardi of Melbourne University’s Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research studied the data and concluded: "Despite the fact that several researchers using the same data have examined the impact of the NFA on firearm deaths, a consensus does not appear to have been reached. In this paper, we re-analyze the same data on firearm deaths used in previous research, using tests for unknown structural breaks as a means to identifying impacts of the NFA. The results of these tests suggest that the NFA did not have any large effects on reducing firearm homicide or suicide rates."
Dr Lee and Dr Suardi received criticism about their findings from anti-gun groups. However, the researchers claimed they had no vested interest in the findings and that the facts speak for themselves.
In early 2009 this was followed by a paper from research at the Australian Institute of Suicide Prevention at Griffith University which concluded:
Newspaper reports of a study of suicide have stated that the gun buyback scheme cut firearm suicides 74 per cent, thus saving 200 lives a year. The study, by Christine Neill and Dr Andrew Leigh, which is to be published in the forthcoming American Law and Economics Review also found that found that states such as Tasmania, which withdrew guns quickly, had a much bigger decline in firearm suicides than states such as New South Wales, which withdrew more slowly. The study found no evidence of substitution of method of suicide in any state. Although the Neill and Leigh study is cited by some as an independent study, it was disclosed in a submission to the Senate Inquiry into Suicide in Australia that both authors had collaborated with, provided assistance to, and sought advice from, Simon Chapman.
In response to this article however, the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia
noted
that 93% of people replaced their seized firearms with at least one, if not more, to replace their loss; that suicide by firearm has been decreasing steadily since the mid-1980s, but suicide by other methods such as hanging has not followed the same trend; that important assumptions of the work were not mentioned in media reports; and recommended instead the work of Lee & Suardi, who reviewed almost 90 years of ABS data when making their conclusions, while Leigh and Neill chose to analyse only two five-year periods either side of the 1996 buy-back.
Since 1996 all States subscribe to the National Agreement on Firearms (NAF). The NAF was instituted through the Australian Police Ministers Conference, with the cooperation of all states. It has been acknowledged by several prominent Labor party ministers that the laws enacted under the NAF went too far in some regards.
frequently referred to the USA to explain his opposition to civilian firearms ownership and use in Australia, stating that he did not want Australia to go "down the American path". In one interview on Sydney radio station 2GB
he said "we will find any means we can to further restrict them because I hate guns... ordinary citizens should not have weapons. We do not want the American disease imported into Australia". John Howard had earlier expressed a desire to introduce restrictive gun laws when he was Opposition Leader during a 1995 interview with Australian political journalist Laurie Oakes
(http://www.ssaa.org.au/research/1995/1995-06-04_john-howard-gun-control-comment.html). In his autobiography Lazarus Rising: A Personal and Political Autobiography
, John Howard expressed his support for the anti-gun cause and his desire to introduce restrictive gun laws long before he became Prime Minister. In a television interview shortly before the tenth anniversary of the Port Arthur massacre, he reaffirmed his stance: "I did not want Australia to go down the American path. There are some things about America I admire and there are some things I don't. And one of the things I don't admire about America is their... slavish love of guns. They're evil". During the same television interview, Prime Minister Howard also stated that he saw the outpouring of grief in the aftermath of the Port Arthur massacre as "an opportunity to grab the moment and think about a fundamental change to gun laws in this country".
The prime minister had strong public support in the immediate aftermath of the Port Arthur massacre, especially from those people who regularly voted against the Liberal Party. However, the gun laws have been a source of friction between the National Party
and the Liberal Party
, who together formed the coalition
Federal Government from 1996 to 2007. The National Party had strong support from rural voters, some of whom were opposed to the Federal government's moves towards gun control. The 1996 National Firearms Agreement has been blamed for the defeat of the National Party in the 1998 Queensland elections and generating much of the support for the 1997 rise of the One Nation Party
. At the next Federal election the Coalition was returned to power despite a loss of almost one million votes compared with the 1996 election.
In the November 2007 Federal election, the Australian Labor Party
took over government. Then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd
had as a local member been patron of shooting clubs in his electorate, but Labor's policy supports the National Agreement on Firearms. Before the 2010 Federal election, Labor issued a statement recognising the legitimacy of the shooting sports and asserting that our firearms legislation is to protect both "the freedom of Australia's law-abiding sporting shooters and of the wider community."
The Federal Government continues to be involved in adding or adjusting restrictions via the Attorney-General's Department, using the Customs power and consultation with States. Examples include proposed importation bans on calibres used for long range sniping such as the .50 BMG, .416 Barrett and .338 Lapua Magnum; large capacity magazines; stocks and parts for various categories of firearms; and controls affecting participants in international competitions. A Firearms and Weapons Policy Working Group (FWPWG) operates across government bodies and input of major stakeholder groups is enabled at national level via the Commonwealth Firearms Advisory Council (CFAC) and occasional public consultation on proposed changes.
and the National Coalition for Gun Control (NCGC).
The NCGC had a high profile in the public debate up to and immediately after the Port Arthur Massacre. Rebecca Peters
, Roland Browne, Simon Chapman and Reverend Tim Costello
(brother of Peter Costello the former Howard Government Federal Treasurer) appeared in media reports and authored articles to support their aims. In the aftermath of Port Arthur a number of public health bodies added their support to the NCGC.
In 1996 the NCGC received the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission
’s Community Human Rights award.
In 2003 Samantha Lee as chair of the NCGC was financed by a Churchill Fellowship to publish a paper arguing that current handgun legislation is too loose, that police officers who are shooters have a conflict of interest
, and that licensed private firearm ownership per se presents a threat to women and children. In a late 2005 press release, Roland Browne as co-chair of the NCGC, advocated further restrictions on handguns.
Gun Control Australia has published a number of booklets, maintains a website and has an office in Ross House in Flinders Lane in Melbourne. The NCGC has no website or public contact details and does not solicit public membership and may in fact not have any members at all.
, collecting and target shooting sports
, rather than keeping firearms for self-defence as in the USA. Australian shooters regard their sport as under permanent threat from increasingly restrictive legislation. They argue that they have been made scapegoats by politicians, the media, and anti-gun activists for the acts of criminals who generally use illegal firearms. Their researchers have found scant evidence that increasing restrictions have improved public safety
, despite the high costs and severe regulatory barriers imposed on shooters in Australia.
The largest organisation of firearms owners is the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia
, with over 120,000 members (2009 figures). SSAA state branches are responsible for lobbying on local issues, while SSAA National addresses Federal legislation and international issues. SSAA National has non-government organisation (NGO) status at the United Nations
and is a founding member of The World Forum on the Future of Sport Shooting Activities (WFSA), which also has NGO status.
SSAA National have a number of people working in research and lobbying roles. In 2008, they appointed journalist and media manager Tim Bannister as Federal Parliamentary lobbyist.
For handguns, the major organisation in Australia is Pistol Australia, affiliated through the National Shooting Federation AISL to the ISSF, IMSSU and WA1500 International organisations. Other than Handgun Metallic Silhouette
and Single Action Shooting all Category H (handgun) permits are dependant on these ISSF and Commonwealth Games affiliations.
In 2002 Pistol Australia won exemptions for handgun calibre restrictions above 9.65mm calibre for its Handgun Metallic Silhouette
and SSAA won exemptions for handgun calibre restrictions for its Single Action Shooting competitions.
There are several other national bodies, such as Field and Game Australia, the National Rifle Association of Australia and Target Rifle Australia which with their state counterparts concentrate on a range of sporting and political issues ranging from Olympic type competition through to conservation activities. The national bodies coordinate international competition through Australian International Shooting Ltd. AISL These associations have produced gold-medal winning performances at the Olympics in shotgun, and in the Commonwealth Games in rifle, pistol and shotgun.
Field and Game Australia undertake a number of conservation activities and are recognised as leaders in waterfowl habitat restoration.
The Combined Firearms Council of Victoria was created in late 2002 and has been very active in the debate in Victoria. The CFCV ran advertisements in the 2002 Victorian State Election. The CFCV made voting recommendations at the 2002 and 2006 Victorian state elections, supporting specific candidates rather than political parties. Four of the six ALP MPs elevated to the front bench after the 2002 Victorian election were supported by the CFCV. A Firearms Consultative Committee, established in 2005 in Victoria, led to several changes to firearms legislation that benefited handgun users and gun collectors.
The Shooters and Fishers Party is a political party in New South Wales that "represent[s] the rights of law abiding firearms owners and users". Its founder, John Tingle, served as an elected member of the upper house of New South Wales parliament, the Legislative Council
, from 1995 until he retired in late 2006. The party currently holds two seats in the Legislative Council
In the 2010 Federal election, the Shooters & Fishers Party stood Senate candidates in all states.
in 1997-98 briefly gained national prominence and had strong support from shooters. A number of minor political parties such as Liberal Democratic Party of Australia, Outdoor Recreation Party
, Country Alliance
and the newly established Katter's Australian Party
have pro-shooter/pro-firearm platforms. Some minor parties have gained momentum from the deep resentment held by many farmers and shooters.
Gun politics
Gun politics addresses safety issues and ideologies related to firearms through criminal and noncriminal use. Gun politics deals with rules, regulations, and restrictions on the use, ownership, and distribution of firearms.-National sovereignty:...
have only become a notable issue in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
since the 1980s. Low levels of violent crime
Violent crime
A violent crime or crime of violence is a crime in which the offender uses or threatens to use violent force upon the victim. This entails both crimes in which the violent act is the objective, such as murder, as well as crimes in which violence is the means to an end, such as robbery. Violent...
through much of the 20th century kept levels of public concern about firearms low. However, in the last two decades of the century, following several high profile multiple murders and a media campaign, the Australian Government co-ordinated more restrictive firearms legislation with all State Governments.
Currently, about 5.2% of Australian adults (765,000 people) own and use firearm
Firearm
A firearm is a weapon that launches one, or many, projectile at high velocity through confined burning of a propellant. This subsonic burning process is technically known as deflagration, as opposed to supersonic combustion known as a detonation. In older firearms, the propellant was typically...
s for purposes such as hunting
Hunting
Hunting is the practice of pursuing any living thing, usually wildlife, for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to applicable law...
, controlling feral animals
Feral
A feral organism is one that has changed from being domesticated to being wild or untamed. In the case of plants it is a movement from cultivated to uncultivated or controlled to volunteer. The introduction of feral animals or plants to their non-native regions, like any introduced species, may...
, collecting, and target shooting.
Current Australian firearm laws
State laws govern the possession and use of firearms in Australia. These laws were largely aligned under the 1996 National Agreement on Firearms. Anyone wishing to possess or use a firearm must have a Firearms Licence and, with some exceptions, be over the age of 18. Owners must have secure storage for their firearms.Before someone can buy a firearm, he or she must obtain a Permit To Acquire. The first permit has a mandatory 28-day delay before it is first issued. In some states (e.g. Queensland, Victoria, and New South Wales), this is waived for second and subsequent firearms of the same class. For each firearm a "Genuine Reason" must be given, relating to pest control, hunting, target shooting, or collecting. Self-defense is not accepted as a reason for issuing a licence, even though it may be legal under certain circumstances to use a legally held firearm for self-defense.
Each firearm in Australia must be registered to the owner by serial number. Some states allow an owner to store or borrow another person's registered firearm of the same category.
Firearms categories
Firearms in Australia are grouped into Categories with different levels of control. The categories are:- Category A: Rimfire rifleRifleA rifle is a firearm designed to be fired from the shoulder, with a barrel that has a helical groove or pattern of grooves cut into the barrel walls. The raised areas of the rifling are called "lands," which make contact with the projectile , imparting spin around an axis corresponding to the...
s (not semi-automaticSemi-automatic firearmA semi-automatic, or self-loading firearm is a weapon which performs all steps necessary to prepare the weapon to fire again after firing—assuming cartridges remain in the weapon's feed device or magazine...
), shotguns (not pump-actionPump-actionA pump-action rifle or shotgun is one in which the handgrip can be pumped back and forth in order to eject a spent round of ammunition and to chamber a fresh one. It is much faster than a bolt-action and somewhat faster than a lever-action, as it does not require the trigger hand to be removed from...
or semi-automatic), air rifles, and paintball markers. A "Genuine Reason" must be provided for a Category A firearm.
- Category B: Centrefire rifles (not semi-automatic), muzzleloadingMuzzleloaderA muzzleloader is any firearm into which the projectile and usually the propellant charge is loaded from the muzzle of the gun . This is distinct from the more popular modern designs of breech-loading firearms...
firearms made after 1 January 1901. A "Genuine Need" must be demonstrated, including why a Category A firearm would not be suitable.
- Category C: Semi-automatic rimfire rifles holding 10 or fewer rounds and pump-action or semi-automatic shotguns holding 5 or fewer rounds. Category C firearms are strongly restricted: only primary producers, occupational shooters, collectors and some clay target shooters can own functional Category C firearms.
- Category D: Semi-automatic centrefire rifles, pump-action or semi-automatic shotguns holding more than 5 rounds. Functional Category D firearms are restricted to government agencies and a few occupational shooters. Collectors may own deactivated Category D firearms.
- Category H: HandgunHandgunA handgun is a firearm designed to be held and operated by one hand. This characteristic differentiates handguns as a general class of firearms from long guns such as rifles and shotguns ....
s including air pistols and deactivated handguns. this class is available to target shooters and farmers. To be eligible for a Category H firearm a target shooter must serve a probationary period of six months using club handguns, and a minimum number of matches yearly to retain each category of handgun.
- Target shooters are limited to handguns of .38 or 9mm calibre or less and magazines may hold a maximum of 10 rounds. Participants in certain "approved" pistol competitions may acquire handguns up to .45", currently Single Action Shooting and Metallic SilhouetteMetallic silhouetteMetallic silhouette shooting is a group of target shooting disciplines that involves shooting at metal cutouts representing game animals at varying distances. Metallic silhouette shooting can be done with airguns, black powder firearms, modern handguns, or modern rifles...
. IPSC shooting is not "approved" for the larger calibres, for as 9mm/.38/.357 handguns meet the IPSC rules. Category H barrels must be at least 100mm (3.94") long for revolvers, and 120mm (4.72") for semi-automatic pistols unless the pistols are clearly ISSF target pistols: magazines are restricted to 10 rounds. Handguns held as part of a collection were exempted from these limits.
- Category R/E: Restricted weapons: machine gunMachine gunA machine gun is a fully automatic mounted or portable firearm, usually designed to fire rounds in quick succession from an ammunition belt or large-capacity magazine, typically at a rate of several hundred rounds per minute....
s, rocket launcherShoulder-launched missile weaponA shoulder-fired missile, shoulder-launched missile or man-portable missile is a projectile fired at a target, small enough to be carried by a single person, and fired while held on one's shoulder...
s, assault rifleAssault rifleAn assault rifle is a selective fire rifle that uses an intermediate cartridge and a detachable magazine. Assault rifles are the standard infantry weapons in most modern armies...
s, flame-throwers, anti-tank guns, HowitzerHowitzerA howitzer is a type of artillery piece characterized by a relatively short barrel and the use of comparatively small propellant charges to propel projectiles at relatively high trajectories, with a steep angle of descent...
s, artilleryArtilleryOriginally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
, etc. can be owned by collectors in some states provided that these weapons have been permanently inoperable. They are subject to the same storage and licensing requirements as fully functioning firearms.
Certain Antique
Antique guns
An antique firearm is, loosely speaking, a firearm designed and manufactured prior to the beginning of the 20th century. The Boer War is often used as a cut-off event, although the exact definition of what constitutes an "antique firearm" varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction...
firearms can in some states be legally held without licences. In other states they are subject to the same requirements as modern firearms.
All single-shot muzzleloading firearms manufactured before 1 January 1901 are considered antique firearms. Four states require licences for antique percussion revolvers and cartridge repeating firearms, but in Queensland and Victoria a person may possess such a firearm without a license, so long as the firearm is registered.
Australia has very tight restrictions on items which are far less controlled in comparable societies such as the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. Air pistols, elsewhere unrestricted, are as difficult to get as centrefire and rimfire handguns, and low-powered airguns are as difficult as cartridge arms to license. Airsoft
Airsoft
Airsoft is a sport in which participants shoot round non-metallic pellets launched via replica firearms.Gameplay varies in style and composition but often range from short-term skirmishes, organized scenarios, military simulations, historical reenactments, to competition target shooting events...
guns and replica firearms are banned in most states. Suppressor
Suppressor
A suppressor, sound suppressor, sound moderator, or silencer, is a device attached to or part of the barrel of a firearm which reduces the amount of noise and flash generated by firing the weapon....
s (or 'silencers') which are legal in the UK and New Zealand, are extremely restricted in Australia to a few government bodies.
Firearms in Australian history
Firearms were first introduced to Australia with European settlement. They were used for hunting, protection of persons and crops, in crime and fighting crime, and in many military engagements. From the landing of the First Fleet on 26 January 1788 there was conflict with aborigines over game, access to fenced land, and spearing of livestock. Firearms were used to protect explorers and settlers from Aboriginal attack. A number of punitive raids and massacres of aborigines were carried out in a series of local conflicts. The history of these conflicts is contentious (see History warsHistory wars
The history wars in Australia are an ongoing public debate over the interpretation of the history of the British colonisation of Australia and development of contemporary Australian society...
).
From the beginning there were controls on firearms. The firearms issued to convicts (for meat hunting) and settlers (for hunting and protection) were stolen and misused, and this resulted in more controls. In January 1796, David Collins wrote that 'several attempts had been made to ascertain the number of arms in the possession of individuals, as many were feared to be in the hands of those who committed depredations; the crown recalled between two and three hundred stands of arms, but not 50 stands were accounted for'.
Australian colonists also used firearms in conflict with bushranger
Bushranger
Bushrangers, or bush rangers, originally referred to runaway convicts in the early years of the British settlement of Australia who had the survival skills necessary to use the Australian bush as a refuge to hide from the authorities...
s; in duel
Duel
A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two individuals, with matched weapons in accordance with agreed-upon rules.Duels in this form were chiefly practised in Early Modern Europe, with precedents in the medieval code of chivalry, and continued into the modern period especially among...
s, the last in 1854; in armed rebellion
Rebellion
Rebellion, uprising or insurrection, is a refusal of obedience or order. It may, therefore, be seen as encompassing a range of behaviors aimed at destroying or replacing an established authority such as a government or a head of state...
s, such as the Castle Hill convict rebellion
Castle Hill convict rebellion
The Castle Hill Rebellion of 4 March 1804, also called the Second Battle of Vinegar Hill, was a large-scale rebellion by Irish convicts against British colonial authority in Australia...
in 1804 and the 1854 Eureka Stockade
Eureka Stockade
The Eureka Rebellion of 1854 was an organised rebellion by gold miners which occurred at Eureka Lead in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. The Battle of Eureka Stockade was fought on 3 December 1854 and named for the stockade structure erected by miners during the conflict...
. The Eureka Stockade
Eureka Stockade
The Eureka Rebellion of 1854 was an organised rebellion by gold miners which occurred at Eureka Lead in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. The Battle of Eureka Stockade was fought on 3 December 1854 and named for the stockade structure erected by miners during the conflict...
in 1854 arose as a result of Government and police abuses against gold miners. A large force of police and soldiers assaulted a stockade set up by miners. Six soldiers and twenty-two miners were killed.
From the 1850s to the 1950s, Australians developed a strong volunteer tradition in preparing defense against possible invaders, and sent volunteer expeditionary forces to most British wars. From this arose an enthusiastic civil marksmanship movement, a form of military reserve supported under the Defence Act until as late as 1996. The movement exists to this day in the fullbore Rifle Clubs affiliated with the State and National Rifle Associations of Australia. The highest trophy shows the significance of this sport to the nation: the Queen's Prize.
Federation and the rise of regulation in the 20th century
Gun laws were the responsibility of each colony and since Federation in 1901, of each state. The Commonwealth does not have constitutional authority over firearms, but it controls customs and military matters, and the external affairs power can be used to enforce internal control over matters agreed in external treaties.During the 1920s Australia, Canada and Great Britain became concerned about the rise of communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
after the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, and imposed restrictions on handgun
Handgun
A handgun is a firearm designed to be held and operated by one hand. This characteristic differentiates handguns as a general class of firearms from long guns such as rifles and shotguns ....
s. The murders of three policemen in Western Australia and the rise of organised crime in Sydney and Melbourne, with a number of lurid underworld murders were also a factor. These restrictions have increased over the succeeding decades. In New South Wales, handguns were effectively banned after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
but the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games
1956 Summer Olympics
The 1956 Melbourne Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVI Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was held in Melbourne, Australia, in 1956, with the exception of the equestrian events, which could not be held in Australia due to quarantine regulations...
sparked a new interest in the sport of pistol shooting and laws were changed to allow the sport to develop.
Rifle
Rifle
A rifle is a firearm designed to be fired from the shoulder, with a barrel that has a helical groove or pattern of grooves cut into the barrel walls. The raised areas of the rifling are called "lands," which make contact with the projectile , imparting spin around an axis corresponding to the...
s and shotgun
Shotgun
A shotgun is a firearm that is usually designed to be fired from the shoulder, which uses the energy of a fixed shell to fire a number of small spherical pellets called shot, or a solid projectile called a slug...
s were less restricted than handguns. State gun laws varied widely. Western Australia and the Northern Territory had severe restrictions even on sporting rifles and shotguns, but in Queensland and Tasmania they could be bought without restrictions.
Fully automatic arms were banned on the Australian mainland from the 1930s, but remained legal in Tasmania until 1996.
In the 1940s and 1950s, Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
concerns about ex-military rifles falling into the hands of communist radicals led New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
to place restrictions on the legal ownership of rifles of a military calibre
Caliber
In guns including firearms, caliber or calibre is the approximate internal diameter of the barrel in relation to the diameter of the projectile used in it....
(see: .303/25
.303/25
The .303/25, sometimes known as the .25/303 is a wildcat centrefire rifle cartridge, based on the .303 British, necked down to fire a .257 projectile, originating in Australia in the 1940s as a cartridge for sporterised rifles, particularly on the Lee Enfield action, similar versions also appeared...
) while members of rifle clubs and military rifle clubs could own ex-military rifles. In the 1970s these restrictions were relaxed in New South Wales and military style rifles (both bolt-action and semi-automatic) once again became widely available, except in Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
By the beginning of the 1980s, the relative popularity of shooting and the prevalence of firearms in the community began to fall as social attitudes changed and urbanisation
Urbanization
Urbanization, urbanisation or urban drift is the physical growth of urban areas as a result of global change. The United Nations projected that half of the world's population would live in urban areas at the end of 2008....
increased. The rise of new values including feminism, environmental awareness and media reports of American gun violence created an awareness of gun control as a potential issue. The 1981 publication of Richard Harding's book "Firearms and Violence in Australian Life" and conferences in several cities involved academics, criminologists, police representatives and gun control activists. As in other countries, public concern over violence and its possible links to media violence also gave rise to a general increase in support for gun control and increased media involvement in the issue. Gun control activism in Australia became organised with the formation in 1981 of the "Committee to Control Gun Misuse" in Victoria, later to become Gun Control Australia
Gun Control Australia
Gun Control Australia is a gun-control lobbying group in Australia. The group was formed in 1981 to press for stricter gun laws. Its President is John Crook.- History :...
.
1984 - 1996 multiple killings
From 1984 to 1996, multiple killings aroused public concern. The 1984 Milperra massacreMilperra massacre
The Milperra Massacre was a firearm battle between rival motorcycle gang members on September 2 1984, in Milperra, a south-western suburb of Sydney...
was a major incident in a series of conflicts between various 'outlaw motorcycle gangs'. These gangs are a major component of organised crime in Australia and continue to arm themselves illegally. In 1987, the Hoddle Street massacre
Hoddle Street massacre
The Hoddle Street massacre is a spree killing that occurred on the evening of Sunday, 9 August 1987 in Hoddle Street, Clifton Hill, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia.The shootings resulted in the deaths of seven people, and serious injury to 19 others...
and the Queen Street massacre
Queen Street massacre
The Queen Street massacre was a spree killing suicide that occurred on 8 December 1987 at the Australia Post offices at 191 Queen Street in Melbourne, Australia...
took place in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
. In response, several states required the registration of all guns, and restricted the availability of self-loading rifle
Semi-automatic rifle
A semi-automatic rifle is a type of rifle that fires a single bullet each time the trigger is pulled, automatically ejects the spent cartridge, chambers a fresh cartridge from its magazine, and is immediately ready to fire another shot...
s and shotguns. In the Strathfield massacre
Strathfield Massacre
The Strathfield massacre was a shooting rampage in Sydney, Australia on Saturday, 17 August 1991. The shooter was Wade Frankum, who killed himself as police arrived at the scene. The incident left eight dead and six wounded.-Perpetrator:...
in New South Wales, 1991, two were killed with a knife, and five more with a firearm. Tasmania passed a law in 1991 for firearm purchasers to obtain a license, though enforcement was light. Firearm laws in Tasmania
Tasmania
Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
and Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
remained relatively relaxed for longarms. In 1995, Tasmania had the second lowest rate of homicides per head of population.
Shooting massacres in Australia and other English-speaking countries often occurred close together in time. Forensic psychiatrists attribute this to copycat behaviour, which is in many cases triggered by sensational media treatment. Mass murderers study media reports and imitate the actions and equipment that are sensationalised in them.
The Port Arthur massacre and its consequences
The Port Arthur massacre in 1996 transformed gun control legislation in Australia. Thirty five people were killed and 21 wounded when a man opened fire on shop owners and tourists with two military style semi-automatic rifles. Six weeks after the Dunblane massacreDunblane massacre
The Dunblane massacre was a multiple murder-suicide which occurred at Dunblane Primary School in the Scottish town of Dunblane on 13 March 1996. Sixteen children and one adult were killed by Thomas Hamilton before he committed suicide.-Timeline of events:...
in Scotland, this mass killing at the notorious former convict prison at Port Arthur
Port Arthur, Tasmania
Port Arthur is a small town and former convict settlement on the Tasman Peninsula, in Tasmania, Australia. Port Arthur is one of Australia's most significant heritage areas and the open air museum is officially Tasmania's top tourist attraction. It is located approximately 60 km south east of...
horrified the Australian public and had powerful political consequences.
Bryant said he obtained his firearms from a gun dealer without holding the required firearms licence.
Prime Minister John Howard
John Howard
John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
, then newly elected, immediately took the gun law proposals developed from the report of the 1988 National Committee on Violence and urged the states to adopt them under a National Firearms Agreement. This was necessary because the Australian Constitution does not give the Commonwealth power to enact gun laws. The proposals included a ban on all semi-automatic rifles and all semi-automatic and pump-action shotguns, and a tightly restrictive system of licensing and ownership controls.
Some discussion of measures to allow owners to undertake modifications to reduce the capacity of magazine-fed shotguns ('crimping') occurred, but the Government refused to permit this.
While surveys showed up to 85% of Australians supported gun control, hundreds of thousands of farmers and sporting shooters strongly opposed the new laws, calling them a 'knee-jerk' reaction by the Government and pointing out the lack of discussion of the issues.
The Government planned a series of public meetings to explain the proposed changes. In the first meeting, on the advice of his security team, Mr. Howard wore a bullet-resistant vest, which was visible under his jacket. This was perceived as a deeply offensive act by the shooters, and their outrage was interpreted by many of the media and the public to show that ordinary shooters were dangerous and contemptible.
Concern was raised within the Coalition Government that fringe groups such as the 'Ausi Freedom Scouts', the Australian League of Rights
Australian League of Rights
The Australian League of Rights is a long-lived far right and anti-semitic political organisation in Australia founded by Eric Butler with its basis in the economic theory of Social Credit expounded by C. H. Douglas. It describes itself as upholding the virtues of freedom...
and the Citizen Initiated Referendum Party, were exploiting voter anger to gain support. The rhetoric of such groups supported violence against 'tyranny', but there was no instance of any violent political act or any credible threat of violence. The Government and media used these small right wing groups and support from fringe Christian groups and the US National Rifle Association
National Rifle Association
The National Rifle Association of America is an American non-profit 501 civil rights organization which advocates for the protection of the Second Amendment of the United States Bill of Rights and the promotion of firearm ownership rights as well as marksmanship, firearm safety, and the protection...
to fan moral outrage against the large number of ordinary Australians who opposed the new gun laws. The decimation of membership in the National Party
National Party of Australia
The National Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Traditionally representing graziers, farmers and rural voters generally, it began as the The Country Party, but adopted the name The National Country Party in 1975, changed to The National Party of Australia in 1982. The party is...
in Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
, the subsequent rise of One Nation
One Nation
One Nation may refer to:In politics:* One Nation , a nationalist party in Australia** One Nation NSW, a defunct splinter group of the above, operating exclusively in New South Wales* One Nation , a defunct party in Israel...
and the loss of over a million Coalition votes in the 1998 Federal election have been claimed to be, in part, consequences of the marginalisation of these voters.
Some shooters applied to join the Liberal Party of Australia
Liberal Party of Australia
The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...
in an attempt to influence the Government, but the Liberal Party barred them from membership. A court action by 500 shooters seeking admission to membership eventually failed in the Supreme Court of South Australia
Supreme Court of South Australia
The Supreme Court of South Australia is the superior court for the Australian State of South Australia. It has unlimited jurisdiction within the state in civil matters, and hears the most serious criminal matters. The Supreme Court is the highest South Australian court in the Australian court...
.
Because the Australian Constitution prevents the taking of property without just compensation the Federal Government introduced the Medicare Levy Amendment Act 1996 to raise the predicted cost of $A500 million through a one-off increase in the Medicare levy. The gun buy-back scheme started on 1 October 1996 and concluded on 30 September 1997. The buyback purchased and destroyed more than 631,000 firearms, mostly semi-auto .22 rimfires, semi-automatic shotguns and pump-action shotguns. Only Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
provided a breakdown of types destroyed, and in that state less than 3% were military style semi-automatic rifles.
Monash University shootings
In 2002, an international student killed two fellow students at Monash UniversityMonash University
Monash University is a public university based in Melbourne, Victoria. It was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the state. Monash is a member of Australia's Group of Eight and the ASAIHL....
in Victoria with pistols he had acquired as a member of a shooting club. As in 1996, the federal government urged state governments
Parliaments of the Australian states and territories
The Parliaments of the Australian states and territories are legislative bodies within the federal framework of the Commonwealth of Australia. Before the formation of the Commonwealth in 1901, the six Australian colonies were self-governing, with parliaments which had come into existence at various...
to review handgun laws, and, as a result, amended legislation was adopted in all states and territories. Changes included a 10-round magazine
Magazine (firearm)
A magazine is an ammunition storage and feeding device within or attached to a repeating firearm. Magazines may be integral to the firearm or removable . The magazine functions by moving the cartridges stored in the magazine into a position where they may be loaded into the chamber by the action...
capacity limit, a calibre limit of not more than .38 inches (9.65 mm), a barrel
Gun barrel
A gun barrel is the tube, usually metal, through which a controlled explosion or rapid expansion of gases are released in order to propel a projectile out of the end at a high velocity....
length limit of not less than 120 mm (4.72 inches) for semi-automatic pistols and 100 mm (3.94 inches) for revolvers, and even stricter probation and attendance requirements for sporting target shooters. Whilst handguns for sporting shooters are nominally restricted to .38 inches as a maximum calibre, it is possible to obtain an endorsement allowing calibres up to .45 inches (11.43 mm) to be used for Metallic Silhouette
Metallic silhouette
Metallic silhouette shooting is a group of target shooting disciplines that involves shooting at metal cutouts representing game animals at varying distances. Metallic silhouette shooting can be done with airguns, black powder firearms, modern handguns, or modern rifles...
or Single Action Shooting matches. These new laws were opposed not only by sporting shooters groups but also by gun control supporters, who saw it as paying for shooters to upgrade to new guns. In the state of Victoria $A21 million compensation was paid for confiscating 18,124 target pistols, and 15,184 replacement pistols were imported. .
One government policy was to compensate shooters for giving up the sport. Approximately 25% of pistol shooters took this offer, and relinquished their licences and their right to own pistols for sport for five years.
Changes in social problems related to firearms over time
Historically, Australia has had relatively low levels of violent crime. Overall levels of homicideHomicide
Homicide refers to the act of a human killing another human. Murder, for example, is a type of homicide. It can also describe a person who has committed such an act, though this use is rare in modern English...
and suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
have remained relatively static for several decades, while the proportion of these crimes that involved firearms has consistently declined since the early 1980s. Between 1991 and 2001, the number of firearm-related deaths in Australia declined 47%.
In the year 2002–2003, over 85% of firearms used to commit murder were unregistered. In 1997–1999, more than 80% of the handguns confiscated were never legally purchased or registered in Australia. Knives are used up to three times as often as firearms in robberies. The majority of firearm-related deaths are suicides, of which many involved the use of 'hunting rifles'.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics http://www.abs.gov.au/, from 1985–2000, 78% of firearm deaths in Australia were suicides, and firearm suicides have fallen from about 22% of all suicides in 1992 to 7% of all suicides in 2005. Immediately following the Buyback there was a fall in firearm suicides which was more than offset by a 10% increase in total suicides in 1997 and 1998. There were concerted efforts in suicide prevention from this time and in subsequent years the total suicide rate resumed its decline.
The number of guns stolen has fallen dramatically from an average 4,195 per year from 1994-2000 to 1,526 in 2006–2007. This is because of a campaign by police and shooting bodies, such as the Sporting Shooters’ Association of Australia’s ‘Secure Your Gun, Secure Your Sport’ drive, to encourage secure storage of rifles and shotguns (handguns were already subject to strict storage requirements). Long guns are more often stolen opportunistically in home burglaries, but few homes have handguns and a substantial proportion of stolen handguns are taken from security firms and other businesses. Only a tiny proportion, 0.06% of licensed firearms, are stolen in a given year. Only a small proportion of those firearms are recovered. Approximately 3% of these stolen weapons are later connected to an actual crime or found in the possession of a person charged with a serious offence.
Concern has been raised about the number of smuggled pistols reaching Australia, particularly in New South Wales. However, the ‘grey market’, in which handguns that were made inoperable and then reversed to be made functional again, and longarms that have never been registered in Australia, and then made available illegally to criminals is more of a concern.
Contention over effects of the laws
In 1997, the Prime Minister appointed the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) to monitor the effects of the gun buyback. The AIC have published a number of papers reporting trends and statistics around gun ownership and gun crime, which they have found to be mostly related to illegally-held firearms. In 2002 the AIC announced that they had proof of many lives saved, but their paper which was released months later demonstrated only continuing downtrends in gun deaths since many years before the buyback.In 2000, the American National Rifle Association
National Rifle Association
The National Rifle Association of America is an American non-profit 501 civil rights organization which advocates for the protection of the Second Amendment of the United States Bill of Rights and the promotion of firearm ownership rights as well as marksmanship, firearm safety, and the protection...
claimed that violent crimes had increased in Australia since the introduction of new laws based on some highly selective statistics from newspaper articles. Federal Attorney General Daryl Williams accused the NRA of falsifying government statistics and urged the NRA to "remove any reference to Australia" from its website.
In 2003, CLASS (The Coalition of Law Abiding Sporting Shooters) stated that no benefit-cost analysis of the buyback had been published, and that scientific debate was politicised and ignored benefits of shooting and costs forced on legitimate owners. A Freedom of Information request for such benefit-cost analysis or externalised costs by the same author was rejected on the grounds that no such documents existed.
The Sporting Shooters Association of Australia
Sporting Shooters Association of Australia
The Sporting Shooters' Association of Australia was established in 1948 to promote shooting sports and protect firearm owners' interests. The SSAA currently has over 120,000 members, making it the largest body representing licensed firearm owners in Australia, and covers all aspects of shooting...
states that there is no evidence that gun control restrictions in 1987, 1996 and 2002 had any impact on the already established trends.
Some researchers have claimed a dramatic effect on firearm deaths, by counting the drop in firearm suicides and ignoring rising suicides by substitute methods. One such author was Ozanne-Smith et al. (2004) in the journal Injury Prevention.
In 2005 the head of the New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, Don Weatherburn, noted that the level of legal gun ownership in New South Wales increased in recent years, and that the 1996 legislation had had little effect on violence. Professor Simon Chapman, former convenor of the Coalition for Gun Control, complained that his words "will henceforth be cited by every gun-lusting lobby group throughout the world in their perverse efforts to stall reforms that could save thousands of lives". Weatherburn responded "The fact is that the introduction of those laws did not result in any acceleration of the downward trend in gun homicide. They may have reduced the risk of mass shootings but we cannot be sure because no one has done the rigorous statistical work required to verify this possibility. It is always unpleasant to acknowledge facts that are inconsistent with your own point of view. But I thought that was what distinguished science from popular prejudice."
In 2006, the lack of a measurable effect from the 1996 firearms legislation was reported in the British Journal of Criminology by Dr Jeanine Baker (a former state President of the SSAA(SA)) and Dr Samara McPhedran (Women in Shooting and Hunting).
De Leo, Dwyer, Firman & Neulinger, studied suicide methods in men from 1979 to 1998 and found a rise in hanging suicides that started slightly before the fall in gun suicides. As hanging suicides rose at about the same rate as gun suicides fell, it is possible that there was some substitution of suicide methods.
Dr Don Weatherburn described the Baker & McPhedran article as "reputable" and "well-conducted" and stated that the available data are insufficient to draw stronger conclusions. Weatherburn noted the importance of actively policing illegal firearm trafficking and argued that there was little evidence that the new laws had helped in this regard.
A study co-authored by Professor Simon Chapman, argued that reduction in firearm numbers had prevented mass shootings because in the 18 years prior to the Port Arthur massacre there were 13 mass shootings and in the decade since 1996 there have been none. The 2002 Monash University shooting
Monash University shooting
The Monash University shooting refers to a shooting in which a student shot his classmates and teacher, killing two and injuring five. It took place at Monash University in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia on 21 October 2002. The gunman, Huan Yun Xiang, was acquitted of crimes related to the...
of seven people, two of whom died, is ignored because the usual definition requires four deaths. Data interpretation of trends in this study differs from other authors, while clearly being based on the same data. Media reports gave Professor Chapman wide publicity while failing to note his career as a leader of gun control activism. Since then, evidence to a Senate Inquiry showed that Chapman's research was fast tracked for publication by the journal Injury Prevention, which bypassed the standard peer review process.
Baker and McPhedran have also published a meta-study pointing out that differing authors' conclusions were based on the same data, but that interpretations diverged.
A 2008 study on the effects of the firearm buybacks by Dr Wang-Sheng Lee and Dr Sandy Suardi of Melbourne University’s Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research studied the data and concluded: "Despite the fact that several researchers using the same data have examined the impact of the NFA on firearm deaths, a consensus does not appear to have been reached. In this paper, we re-analyze the same data on firearm deaths used in previous research, using tests for unknown structural breaks as a means to identifying impacts of the NFA. The results of these tests suggest that the NFA did not have any large effects on reducing firearm homicide or suicide rates."
Dr Lee and Dr Suardi received criticism about their findings from anti-gun groups. However, the researchers claimed they had no vested interest in the findings and that the facts speak for themselves.
In early 2009 this was followed by a paper from research at the Australian Institute of Suicide Prevention at Griffith University which concluded:
-
- "The implemented restrictions may not be responsible for the observed reductions in firearms suicide. Data suggest that a change in social and cultural attitudes could have contributed to the shift in method preference.
Newspaper reports of a study of suicide have stated that the gun buyback scheme cut firearm suicides 74 per cent, thus saving 200 lives a year. The study, by Christine Neill and Dr Andrew Leigh, which is to be published in the forthcoming American Law and Economics Review also found that found that states such as Tasmania, which withdrew guns quickly, had a much bigger decline in firearm suicides than states such as New South Wales, which withdrew more slowly. The study found no evidence of substitution of method of suicide in any state. Although the Neill and Leigh study is cited by some as an independent study, it was disclosed in a submission to the Senate Inquiry into Suicide in Australia that both authors had collaborated with, provided assistance to, and sought advice from, Simon Chapman.
In response to this article however, the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia
Sporting Shooters Association of Australia
The Sporting Shooters' Association of Australia was established in 1948 to promote shooting sports and protect firearm owners' interests. The SSAA currently has over 120,000 members, making it the largest body representing licensed firearm owners in Australia, and covers all aspects of shooting...
noted
that 93% of people replaced their seized firearms with at least one, if not more, to replace their loss; that suicide by firearm has been decreasing steadily since the mid-1980s, but suicide by other methods such as hanging has not followed the same trend; that important assumptions of the work were not mentioned in media reports; and recommended instead the work of Lee & Suardi, who reviewed almost 90 years of ABS data when making their conclusions, while Leigh and Neill chose to analyse only two five-year periods either side of the 1996 buy-back.
State governments and state police
Firearms laws are the responsibility of state governments, and usually these Governments act on the recommendations of their Police services in firearms matters. Before 1996, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia all had different laws, in Queensland long guns were not licenced; however, the owners of firearms were required to be licenced from 1988, and licences were only introduced for long guns in Tasmania in 1991. Western Australia and the Northern Territory had tight restrictions, especially on centrefire semi-automatic firearms.Since 1996 all States subscribe to the National Agreement on Firearms (NAF). The NAF was instituted through the Australian Police Ministers Conference, with the cooperation of all states. It has been acknowledged by several prominent Labor party ministers that the laws enacted under the NAF went too far in some regards.
The Federal Government
Until 1996, the Federal Government had little role in firearms law. Following the Port Arthur massacre, the Howard Government (1996–2007), with strong media and public support, introduced uniform gun laws with the cooperation of all the states. The then Prime Minister John HowardJohn Howard
John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
frequently referred to the USA to explain his opposition to civilian firearms ownership and use in Australia, stating that he did not want Australia to go "down the American path". In one interview on Sydney radio station 2GB
2GB
2GB is a commercial radio station in Sydney, Australia broadcasting on 873 kHz, AM. It is one of Australia's most popular talk-back radio stations, and is the number one station in Sydney.-History:The station commenced broadcasting in August 1926...
he said "we will find any means we can to further restrict them because I hate guns... ordinary citizens should not have weapons. We do not want the American disease imported into Australia". John Howard had earlier expressed a desire to introduce restrictive gun laws when he was Opposition Leader during a 1995 interview with Australian political journalist Laurie Oakes
Laurie Oakes
Laurie Oakes is an Australian political journalist, commentator, and media personality. Since 1966, he has worked in the Canberra Press Gallery, covering the Parliament of Australia and federal elections....
(http://www.ssaa.org.au/research/1995/1995-06-04_john-howard-gun-control-comment.html). In his autobiography Lazarus Rising: A Personal and Political Autobiography
Lazarus Rising: A Personal and Political Autobiography
Lazarus Rising: A Personal and Political Autobiography is the autobiography of former Australian Prime Minister and Liberal Party of Australia leader, John Howard...
, John Howard expressed his support for the anti-gun cause and his desire to introduce restrictive gun laws long before he became Prime Minister. In a television interview shortly before the tenth anniversary of the Port Arthur massacre, he reaffirmed his stance: "I did not want Australia to go down the American path. There are some things about America I admire and there are some things I don't. And one of the things I don't admire about America is their... slavish love of guns. They're evil". During the same television interview, Prime Minister Howard also stated that he saw the outpouring of grief in the aftermath of the Port Arthur massacre as "an opportunity to grab the moment and think about a fundamental change to gun laws in this country".
The prime minister had strong public support in the immediate aftermath of the Port Arthur massacre, especially from those people who regularly voted against the Liberal Party. However, the gun laws have been a source of friction between the National Party
National Party of Australia
The National Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Traditionally representing graziers, farmers and rural voters generally, it began as the The Country Party, but adopted the name The National Country Party in 1975, changed to The National Party of Australia in 1982. The party is...
and the Liberal Party
Liberal Party of Australia
The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...
, who together formed the coalition
Coalition (Australia)
The Coalition in Australian politics refers to a group of centre-right parties that has existed in the form of a coalition agreement since 1922...
Federal Government from 1996 to 2007. The National Party had strong support from rural voters, some of whom were opposed to the Federal government's moves towards gun control. The 1996 National Firearms Agreement has been blamed for the defeat of the National Party in the 1998 Queensland elections and generating much of the support for the 1997 rise of the One Nation Party
One Nation Party
One Nation is a far-right and nationalist political party in Australia. It gained 22% of the vote translating to 11 of 89 seats in Queensland's unicameral legislative assembly at the 1998 state election and made major inroads into the vote of the existing parties...
. At the next Federal election the Coalition was returned to power despite a loss of almost one million votes compared with the 1996 election.
In the November 2007 Federal election, the Australian Labor Party
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
took over government. Then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd
Kevin Rudd
Kevin Michael Rudd is an Australian politician who was the 26th Prime Minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010. He has been Minister for Foreign Affairs since 2010...
had as a local member been patron of shooting clubs in his electorate, but Labor's policy supports the National Agreement on Firearms. Before the 2010 Federal election, Labor issued a statement recognising the legitimacy of the shooting sports and asserting that our firearms legislation is to protect both "the freedom of Australia's law-abiding sporting shooters and of the wider community."
The Federal Government continues to be involved in adding or adjusting restrictions via the Attorney-General's Department, using the Customs power and consultation with States. Examples include proposed importation bans on calibres used for long range sniping such as the .50 BMG, .416 Barrett and .338 Lapua Magnum; large capacity magazines; stocks and parts for various categories of firearms; and controls affecting participants in international competitions. A Firearms and Weapons Policy Working Group (FWPWG) operates across government bodies and input of major stakeholder groups is enabled at national level via the Commonwealth Firearms Advisory Council (CFAC) and occasional public consultation on proposed changes.
Gun control organisations
Gun control groups in Australia have very few members but a high media profile. The main focus of these groups is on tightening firearm controls on ordinary people, reducing legal gun ownership rather than reducing misuse or illegal guns. Active lobbying in Australia is conducted by two main groups: Gun Control AustraliaGun Control Australia
Gun Control Australia is a gun-control lobbying group in Australia. The group was formed in 1981 to press for stricter gun laws. Its President is John Crook.- History :...
and the National Coalition for Gun Control (NCGC).
The NCGC had a high profile in the public debate up to and immediately after the Port Arthur Massacre. Rebecca Peters
Rebecca Peters
Rebecca Peters is the former Director of the International Action Network on Small Arms .As chair of the National Coalition for Gun Control at the time of the Port Arthur massacre in 1996, Peters played a key role in the introduction of stricter gun control and gun confiscation, in Australia, an...
, Roland Browne, Simon Chapman and Reverend Tim Costello
Tim Costello
Timothy Ewen Costello AO is a prominent Baptist minister and current CEO of World Vision Australia.He is an "Australian Living Treasure". He is the brother of former treasurer of Australia and Federal Member for Higgins Peter Costello....
(brother of Peter Costello the former Howard Government Federal Treasurer) appeared in media reports and authored articles to support their aims. In the aftermath of Port Arthur a number of public health bodies added their support to the NCGC.
In 1996 the NCGC received the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission
Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission
The Australian Human Rights Commission is a national human rights institution, a statutory body funded by, but operating independently of, the Australian Government. It has the responsibility for investigating alleged infringements under Australia’s anti-discrimination legislation...
’s Community Human Rights award.
In 2003 Samantha Lee as chair of the NCGC was financed by a Churchill Fellowship to publish a paper arguing that current handgun legislation is too loose, that police officers who are shooters have a conflict of interest
Conflict of interest
A conflict of interest occurs when an individual or organization is involved in multiple interests, one of which could possibly corrupt the motivation for an act in the other....
, and that licensed private firearm ownership per se presents a threat to women and children. In a late 2005 press release, Roland Browne as co-chair of the NCGC, advocated further restrictions on handguns.
Gun Control Australia has published a number of booklets, maintains a website and has an office in Ross House in Flinders Lane in Melbourne. The NCGC has no website or public contact details and does not solicit public membership and may in fact not have any members at all.
Media organisations
The public debate on gun control is essentially conducted via the media. Newspaper and broadcast media usually support gun control, publishing editorials in favour of strong restrictions on firearms. Firearms advocates write 'letters to the editor' to put their positions.Pro-gun organisations
Shooting clubs have existed in Australia since the mid-19th century. They are mainly concerned with protecting the viability of huntingHunting
Hunting is the practice of pursuing any living thing, usually wildlife, for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to applicable law...
, collecting and target shooting sports
Shooting sports
A shooting sport is a competitive sport involving tests of proficiency using various types of guns such as firearms and airguns . Hunting is also a shooting sport, and indeed shooting live pigeons was an Olympic event...
, rather than keeping firearms for self-defence as in the USA. Australian shooters regard their sport as under permanent threat from increasingly restrictive legislation. They argue that they have been made scapegoats by politicians, the media, and anti-gun activists for the acts of criminals who generally use illegal firearms. Their researchers have found scant evidence that increasing restrictions have improved public safety
Public Safety
Public safety involves the prevention of and protection from events that could endanger the safety of the general public from significant danger, injury/harm, or damage, such as crimes or disasters .-See also:* By nation...
, despite the high costs and severe regulatory barriers imposed on shooters in Australia.
The largest organisation of firearms owners is the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia
Sporting Shooters Association of Australia
The Sporting Shooters' Association of Australia was established in 1948 to promote shooting sports and protect firearm owners' interests. The SSAA currently has over 120,000 members, making it the largest body representing licensed firearm owners in Australia, and covers all aspects of shooting...
, with over 120,000 members (2009 figures). SSAA state branches are responsible for lobbying on local issues, while SSAA National addresses Federal legislation and international issues. SSAA National has non-government organisation (NGO) status at the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
and is a founding member of The World Forum on the Future of Sport Shooting Activities (WFSA), which also has NGO status.
SSAA National have a number of people working in research and lobbying roles. In 2008, they appointed journalist and media manager Tim Bannister as Federal Parliamentary lobbyist.
For handguns, the major organisation in Australia is Pistol Australia, affiliated through the National Shooting Federation AISL to the ISSF, IMSSU and WA1500 International organisations. Other than Handgun Metallic Silhouette
Metallic silhouette
Metallic silhouette shooting is a group of target shooting disciplines that involves shooting at metal cutouts representing game animals at varying distances. Metallic silhouette shooting can be done with airguns, black powder firearms, modern handguns, or modern rifles...
and Single Action Shooting all Category H (handgun) permits are dependant on these ISSF and Commonwealth Games affiliations.
In 2002 Pistol Australia won exemptions for handgun calibre restrictions above 9.65mm calibre for its Handgun Metallic Silhouette
Metallic silhouette
Metallic silhouette shooting is a group of target shooting disciplines that involves shooting at metal cutouts representing game animals at varying distances. Metallic silhouette shooting can be done with airguns, black powder firearms, modern handguns, or modern rifles...
and SSAA won exemptions for handgun calibre restrictions for its Single Action Shooting competitions.
There are several other national bodies, such as Field and Game Australia, the National Rifle Association of Australia and Target Rifle Australia which with their state counterparts concentrate on a range of sporting and political issues ranging from Olympic type competition through to conservation activities. The national bodies coordinate international competition through Australian International Shooting Ltd. AISL These associations have produced gold-medal winning performances at the Olympics in shotgun, and in the Commonwealth Games in rifle, pistol and shotgun.
Field and Game Australia undertake a number of conservation activities and are recognised as leaders in waterfowl habitat restoration.
The Combined Firearms Council of Victoria was created in late 2002 and has been very active in the debate in Victoria. The CFCV ran advertisements in the 2002 Victorian State Election. The CFCV made voting recommendations at the 2002 and 2006 Victorian state elections, supporting specific candidates rather than political parties. Four of the six ALP MPs elevated to the front bench after the 2002 Victorian election were supported by the CFCV. A Firearms Consultative Committee, established in 2005 in Victoria, led to several changes to firearms legislation that benefited handgun users and gun collectors.
The Shooters and Fishers Party is a political party in New South Wales that "represent[s] the rights of law abiding firearms owners and users". Its founder, John Tingle, served as an elected member of the upper house of New South Wales parliament, the Legislative Council
New South Wales Legislative Council
The New South Wales Legislative Council, or upper house, is one of the two chambers of the parliament of New South Wales in Australia. The other is the Legislative Assembly. Both sit at Parliament House in the state capital, Sydney. The Assembly is referred to as the lower house and the Council as...
, from 1995 until he retired in late 2006. The party currently holds two seats in the Legislative Council
In the 2010 Federal election, the Shooters & Fishers Party stood Senate candidates in all states.
Other parties
The One Nation PartyOne Nation Party
One Nation is a far-right and nationalist political party in Australia. It gained 22% of the vote translating to 11 of 89 seats in Queensland's unicameral legislative assembly at the 1998 state election and made major inroads into the vote of the existing parties...
in 1997-98 briefly gained national prominence and had strong support from shooters. A number of minor political parties such as Liberal Democratic Party of Australia, Outdoor Recreation Party
Outdoor Recreation Party
The Outdoor Recreation Party is a minor political party in Australia. It largely represents the outdoor community and such interests as cycling, mountain biking, bushwalking, camping, kayaking, 4WDing, skiing, fishing lobbies, as well as similar recreational groups with an interest in the outdoors...
, Country Alliance
Country Alliance
The Country Alliance is a minor political party in the state of Victoria, Australia with a focus on "anti-green but pro-environment" policies.-Founding:...
and the newly established Katter's Australian Party
Katter's Australian Party
Katter's Australian Party is a registered political party in Australia. It was formed by the independent Federal Member of Parliament Bob Katter with a registration application lodged to the Australian Electoral Commission on 3 June 2011...
have pro-shooter/pro-firearm platforms. Some minor parties have gained momentum from the deep resentment held by many farmers and shooters.
External links
- Gun Control Australia
- Sporting Shooters Association of Australia
- The Combined Firearms Council of Victoria "A political voice for shooters"
- Australian Institute of Criminology report, 1999 Firearm-related violence: the impact of the Nationwide Agreement on Firearms
- International Coalition for Women in Shooting and Hunting
- Coalition of Law-Abiding Sporting Shooters
- Coalition of Law-Abiding Sporting Shooters' article alleging media and government bias in the gun debate
- Obtaining A Weapons Licence Details from the Queensland Police Service about obtaining a Weapons Licence in Queensland
- Shooters Party