Western Australia’s Government is planning terrible new firearms laws, which will have absolutely ZERO impact on criminals BUT will have serious and unpleasant ramifications for every single law-abiding firearms user in the state.
The details, if you’ve been living under a rock in the desert, are here:
There are three issues we think are worth pushing back on and focusing on:
- Hard limits on the number of guns a person can own.
- Someone’s “views, opinions and attitudes” and their “way of living or domestic circumstances” being part of the Fit & Proper Person Test
- The lack of genuine consultation with the shooting community in WA. In a nutshell, the issues with a hard limit on guns should be obvious – there’s no justification for it and it’s clearly being pitched because it “sounds” good to the Facebook Mum crowd, even though it will have absolutely no public safety benefit.
Taking into account someone’s views/opinions/attitudes or “way of living” with regard to Fit & Proper Person status is incredibly worrying – it is entirely possible the Government will use legitimate criticism of them and their policies, or legitimate social commentary as a reason to deny or revoke licences.
Concerningly, it is very clear the WA Government have not been listening to target shooters or hunters. Most of the “consultation” they have spruiked has been with primary producer/agricultural groups, a number of whom appear to have little to do with firearms use.
The proposed laws are an attack on law-abiding shooters and they must be opposed.
Here is what we need YOU to do, immediately.
MAKE AN APPOINTMENT TO GO AND SEE YOUR MP
We don’t care if they’re anti-gun or you don’t think they’re going to listen to you – you NEED to make an appointment and actually go in and talk to them anyway. Politicians know that for every person who makes the time to come and see them, dozens – even
hundreds – more feel the same way about an issue, and that it is something the MP needs to be concerned about.
Don’t forget to contact both your Legislative Assembly (Lower House) MP and your Legislative Council (Upper House) MP; they both need to hear from you about this issue. You can find their details here: Member List
While you can send MPs an e-mail, many of our members who have done that report getting generic responses that brush off or don’t really address their concerns. This is why you need to see your local MP in person – it’s much harder for them to fob you off when you’re there talking to them.
MAKE A SUBMISSION AGAINST THE PROPOSED NEW LAWS
The Western Australia Firearms Community Alliance (WAFCA) have put together a submission template form you can use to lodge your oppositions to the new laws. You can find it here: WA Firearms Act Submission Letter Form You can also write your own submission and e-mail it to [email protected]
Submissions close on November 14, so it is critical you lodge yours before then.
CONTACT YOUR LOCAL NEWSPAPER OR RADIO STATION
Local media are always looking for stories with an angle involving people in the community – even if you’re not in a position to be part of a news story, you can write them a letter to the editor or call into a radio talkback segment to get your viewpoint across.
If you’re a shooting club member, encourage your club to contact the local media and pitch a story expressing their concerns about the new laws – you might be surprised how receptive your local paper could be to the idea.