Firearms Policy

Principles

The Greens NSW believe:

1. The community must be protected against violence;

2. Public policy therefore should be concerned with the prevention of firearm violence and be directed towards the removal of objects that cause injury and death;

3. Public policy should be underpinned by World Health Organisation standards and the resolutions outlined Australasian Police Ministers Council Agreement on Firearms;

4. The availability of firearms and the reluctance of governments to introduce effective controls to reduce the number of weapons (firearms) in circulation (particularly high-powered firearms) contribute to the firearm menace and violence in our society;

5. This issue particularly affects women and children, (as they are the main victims in situations of domestic violence), and young men (as they are most likely to be killed or injured by firearm violence generally); and

6. A holistic approach to preventing gun violence should be support by governments, including tough legislation to reduce firearm ownership, education on the dangers of firearms, long term funding for programs that help to reduce gun violence, support for intelligence based policing to prevent firearm crime and ongoing funding for research into preventing gun violence.

Goals

The Greens NSW will work to:

7. Protect the community against gun violence;

8. Ensure that the NSW government honours the Australasian Police Ministers Agreement on firearms 1996 and is held accountable for any watering-down of this Agreement;

9. Ban all semi-automatic handguns and improve the system of registration of guns in NSW;

10. Hold the government to its commitment to implementing a properly coordinated strategy to strengthen nationally uniform gun laws;

11. Work with individuals and organisations that democratically pursue these changes at all levels; and

12. Publicly expose the aims and tactics of the gun lobby.

Detail

Uniform Gun Laws

The Greens NSW support:

13. Cooperation with the federal government and other state governments and territories to strengthen uniform gun laws and the national register of fire-arms; and

14. The resolutions of the Australasian Police Ministers' Council meetings in 1996 being implemented in full.

A National Licensing System

The Greens NSW support:

15. The development (with the appropriate rights of appeal and protection of privacy) of the most stringent mechanisms to ensure that those who are not fit and proper to possess a licence to own a gun do not get a licence; and

16. That jurisdictions set out in legislation circumstances in which licence applications are to be refused or licences are to be cancelled with the following minimum standards:

• 16.1 General reasons - not of good character, conviction for an offence involving violence within the past five years, contravene firearm law; unsafe storage, no longer genuine reason, not in public interest due to (defined) circumstances, not notifying of change of address, licence obtained by deception;
• 16.2 Specific reasons - where applicant/licence holder has been the subject of an Apprehended Violence Order, Domestic Violence Order, restraining order or conviction for assault with a weapon/aggravated assault within the past five years; and
• 16.3 Mental or physical fitness - reliable evidence of a mental or physical condition which would render the applicant unsuitable for owning, possessing or using a firearm;

17. The abolition of existing minors' permits;

18. Implementation of a national standardised safety firearms training system for all license categories;

19. All persons seeking a licence being required to:

• 19.1 Have no criminal record involving violence, have a character reference from an authorised member of the community and the right of veto by household (immediate relatives or partners) members;
• 19.2 Undergo a 28 day waiting period to enable check for a criminal record (including applications for a second or subsequent firearm);
• 19.3 Demonstrate safety knowledge;
• 19.4 Establish good and genuine reasons for possessing a licence (e.g. persons with an occupational requirement, eg primary producers, other rural purposes, security employees and professional shooters for nominated purposes or a member of an approved sports shooting association);
• 19.5 Undergo tests for licences conducted by the police, or an independent government body, rather than by members of the NSW Shooters' Association; and
• 19.6 Be required to renew licences at regular intervals with the payment of a fee to cover government costs, with licences to be issued for a period of no more than 5 years;

20. That personal protection should never be regarded as a genuine reason for owning, possessing or using a firearm.

Restrictions on the Sale of Firearms

The Greens NSW support:

21. Ammunition being sold only through a licensed firearm dealer;

22. Legislation that allows the sale of ammunition only for those firearms for which the purchaser is licensed, with a limitation on the amount of ammunition that can be purchased at any given time;

23. Sale and purchase of firearms only through a licensed firearm dealer;

24. Registration of firearms at the time of purchase with details to be sent immediately to police for registration;

25. A ban on mail-order sales of firearms and ammunition;

26. A ban on all military assault-style firearms, semi-automatic handguns and other automatic and semi-automatic firearms;

27. A ban on the importation of all semi-automatic firearms; and

28. A register of all ammunition bought and sold is kept by all outlets.

Storage of Firearms

The Greens NSW support:

29. A prohibition on guns being stored:

• 29.1 In rural homes without good reason; and
• 29.2 In urban homes, except where a licence is granted for antique gun collectors (defined as manufactured prior to 1920) and the guns have been disabled;

30. All ammunition must be stored in locked containers separate from any firearms;

31. Guns in urban areas are to be stored at gun clubs under lock and key, with firing mechanisms kept at designated police stations;

32. Regular unannounced checks by police or another enforcement body to ensure that individuals and clubs are abiding with firearm storage regulations;

33. Enforcement of regulations requiring guns in homes in rural communities to be kept in a metal box with a combination lock securely bolted to wall or floor, with firing mechanisms and ammunition locked in a similar box in a separate room; and

34. A review of Defence Force safeguards in place to prevent the theft of firearms, and enhanced mechanisms to recover any firearms that have been stolen.

General Requirements

The Greens NSW support:

35. The immediate and mandatory police confiscation of all firearms from people who show themselves to be unfit to hold a licence, and where a license has been revoked - this is to apply to both interim domestic violence order and those who are subject to a domestic violence order;

36. A permanent amnesty for the surrender of unauthorised firearms and strict penalties for those people found possessing unauthorised firearms;

37. The development of a strict new set of training and testing procedures for all security guards with all existing security services being required to meet the new standards;

38. A ban on the so-called sport of 'combat shooting' where participants use semi-automatic handguns to shoot human-shaped targets in simulated scenarios; and

39. Rural owners of licensed firearms to limit their use of firearms to legitimate farm purposes, and to use their firearms in ways that minimise disturbance of people on neighbouring properties, and reduce lead pollution in the local environment.

Follow this link for The Greens NSW Firearms Policy Summary.