What are the current firearms regulations and how do they work?
The massacre of 15 people by two armed terrorists at a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach on Sunday night has cast a harsh light on Australia’s firearms licensing laws.
I’ve had a Victorian firearms license for three years, but I don’t own a gun and have never applied for a permit to buy one. Authorities can and do spot checks on gun owners, but this is not possible for those who have a license but do not have a gun. Every legal gun must be registered to an address, and police make sure the gun is legally locked away from the ammunition.
Wanting to learn how to hunt for dinner in 2022 and write about it, I applied for a Victorian firearms licence.
For several years, I have been interested in eating animals that promote environmentally and ethically.
And I wanted to write about my journey From becoming a vegetarian to facing the reality of being hunted for the meat I consume.
It was a complex work that took me several months. The app seemed to ask me for more information each time. It was a harsh feeling and I was grateful for it. IT should do It’s not an easy job.
The licensing process is a prerequisite for purchasing a firearm, but I have never been interested in owning a gun. I do not want the responsibility of having a firearm in my home.
In addition to obtaining a license to purchase a firearm, you also need a “permit to purchase.” Yes 960,693 registered guns owned by 236,609 licensees in Victoria. Having never purchased a new or second-hand gun, I have no experience of how often police perform spot checks on owners to ensure firearms are locked up as legally required. So I asked someone who did this.
Australian Sport Shooters Association chief executive Tom Kenyon said police could randomly check gun owners at any time to ensure guns were stored as legally required and the number of firearms matched registered purchases.
“The police come to your house without notice,” he said. “They don’t say they’re coming.”
But Kenyon, who owns about half a dozen guns, said his home in South Australia had only been randomly checked twice in the past 30 years.
He said it usually takes at least 28 days for police to issue a permit for the first firearm.
Reports of domestic violence, arrest warrants, criminal charges and mental health issues can lead police to check on gun owners or confiscate their firearms, Kenyon said. The public can also report concerns about owning a firearm to the police.
In order to obtain a license for category A and B long guns, which includes rifles and shotguns, I had to receive practical training at the rifle range under the supervision of expert instructors. I also had to complete online training and testing.
A thorough police check was then carried out. The police check document consisted of more than a dozen pages. Identity documents, including passport and driver’s license, required 100 points. The survey asked whether I had any medical or psychiatric conditions or disorders that could affect my ability to obtain licensing registration or approval.
They were also asked about mental health conditions, alcohol or drug-related problems, and physical disabilities. I also had to explain whether I had been convicted of any offenses in Australia or overseas, whether there were any pending charges and whether I had faced any direction in court, among a host of other questions.
In addition to all these conditions, I had to get a statement from a referee who could declare that he had known me for at least 12 months. He asked me why I turned to firearms for hunting and target shooting.
The only firearm I have used since I got my license was a .22 rifle. It is a rifle generally used for hunting rabbits. While it is strong enough to horribly injure or even kill a person, it is not considered strong enough to hunt large animals, including deer.
Even though I had successfully completed the category A and B processes, I was still ineligible to use automatic or semi-automatic firearms, or even handguns. I’m no expert on firearms or gun ownership, but I’m grateful to former prime minister John Howard for banning automatic and semi-automatic weapons. I can’t see how they rank among recreational hunters or shooters in Australia.
Howard said the laws he introduced had probably saved lives on Bondi Beach. “I have thought many times since this terrible incident how many more people would have died if the guns we outlawed were still available to bad people,” he told Sky News.
But the former prime minister added: “I do not want this debate to be used after this terrible incident; the focus on weapons is used as an excuse to avoid a wider debate about the spread of hatred of Jewish people and antisemitism.”
As we witnessed in the horrific events in Bondi on Sunday, current firearms that are legally available in Australia can cause devastation in our society when in the hands of people filled with hatred and homicidal intent.
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Benjamin Preiss is regional editor of The Age. He was previously a state tour correspondent and also covered education for The Age.Connect with: excitement or email.
