A LEADING SHOOTING GROUP says WA's major political parties are 'duty bound' to updating the states gun laws to follow the National Firearms Agreement 'to the letter', through badly needed reforms to the state's gun laws.
The call comes just three weeks before the state election in a bid to fix problems that the National Shooting Council says are unnecessarily bureaucratic, dangerous for the broader community and puts the state out of step with the rest of the country.
The Council says WA's laws are well out of step with the National Firearms Agreement, struck by the Howard Government that the Western Australian Government signed up to in 1996.
Among the non-compliances are:
- WA does not automatically recognise under the 'mutual recognition' provisions while other states do;
- WA Police do not issue permits to acquire firearm and main a register which allows firearm purchases to occur on a 'one off' basis as happens in other states, instead licensing them for a year at a time;
- Licences issued by WA Police – for individuals and firearms – last only one year while other states issue them for up to five years. WA's costs are also well above those of other states
The Council said WA was also in danger of having several gun laws thrown out of court after WA Police lost recent challenges over its power to control which firearms shooters can own under the 'appearance' laws
Council spokesman, Peter Zabrdac, said it will be launching more legal challenges to prove to law makers that the decisions being made by WA police are both unlawful and outside the national agreement
"We have developed legal arguments we are keen to test, so will be running the cases to get the clarification that the WA community needs over its gun laws"
Mr Zabrdac said the NSC is calling on the WA major parties need to commit to bring the states gun laws up to date by fixing the problems that it has identified.
He said the March election was instead an opportunity for both sides to develop constructive policies with the shooting community to bring its own laws up to date and that the Council was best placed for that given its independence from commercial, sporting and political interests.
"WA's current firearms legislation has not been updated for nearly a quarter of a century. We would like both sides to at least make the changes we have suggested so they are at least compliant with the NFA," he said.
"We do not need more gun laws, we need better ones and ones we need are already set out on paper. We definitely do not want the parties to promise reviews, but commitments to show up front what changes they will make if they win government"
