I will be calling my local DFO about this in the coming weeks but I thought I’d ask here too.
My wife and I are planning on adding a two-car garage out the back of our house in the next few months. The plan is to have a garage at the front and workshop at the back, separated by an internal wall and door.
My thoughts were that I would put a new gun safe in this backroom, bolted into the concrete slab and install an alarm system with an alarm and flashing light. In order to get into the safe, someone would have to break into the garage, triggering the alarm and then through the second locked door into the workshop and then into the safe. Both rooms would be alarmed.
From your experience, are the police going to get cranky at this? I’ve heard that they don’t like gun safes in sheds, especially if there will be power tools in there. I could store them somewhere else I suppose but that will be a pain in the rear.
Ive never heard about this. Dads safe is in the shed (Bacchus Marsh). A friend who got his licence three years ago has his safe in the garage and he lives near the Westgate Bridge.
Regs say that guns must be stored in a safe made of steel or hardwood which is “not easily penetrated”. What the definition of that is is up to the inspecting officer.
I have heard stories, not directly, of people having an inspecting officer argue that the presence of power tools or the fact it is in a shed means that the safe is not secure enough.
Figured that someone on here might have had a similar situation.
What you’re proposing is completely in line with the regs, the stories you hear about cops being jerks over sheds is generally cops who hate guns or have it in for the owner (often with good reason, though that’s not an excuse).
Most cops actually wouldn’t know the difference between gun laws and their own arsehole.
I would sound out your local DFO as you say, the other thing I would suggest is to print out the act and the regs and have a copy in the shed.
If your DFO turns out to be a gun hating dick or a fudd then video your inspection, not sticking a camera in the cops face antaganisticly (spelling?) But get an alarm system That has cameras and records. Then if the cop has any issue with your set up you can hand him the act and regs and ask him which bit you are in violation of? Have the cameras where he will see them so he knows his response and actions are being recorded.
And this is not ment as an insult to the boys in blue, if you have a look at the metric shit tonnes of laws there are no-one could be expected to know half of it, let alone be an expert on the tiny portion that we care about.
My safe is in the shed. Was inspected about 10 years ago when I got my first rifle and it wasnt a problem. The cops were more interested in how I got the safe in to the position it is in rather than the type of building its in. Maybe it has changed since then? I am also in Victoria.
Well obviously the regs are different in each state, but in SA the regs state very clearly that you need a safe with thicker walls if it’s not under the main roof of the house (i.e. in the shed)
Mate you will be fine the DFO in your area is a really good bloke. He looks at things in a very practical way and does not stretch any of the laws or regs.