Same thing happened here about three years ago in the NT. So they did a full audit on every gun owner regardless. Three guns I had sold had years earlier not been recorded in the registry and I had two that according to the registry were not purchased by me.
The head of the firearms unit went to court after being charged with stealing surrendered firearms shortly after. [EDIT: He was found NOT guilty on ALL CHARGES by a jury, my apologies for not including this part]
This was at the same time we went from Liberal to Labor leadership and they installed the biggest see you next tuesday firearms chief and pta’s went out to beyond four weeks.
Even pta’s are just a bureaucratic time wasting exercise here in Vic, I don’t know anyone that’s been knocked back on a pta, sure some people have been given a “please explain why you want a 27th 303?” But after that any answer will justify it, its for spare parts, its lighter to carry, i now identify as a left hander, this one matches my new earnings, it doesn’t matter really.
We got access to some FOI information in QLD that showed statistically no-one has been outright refused a PTA in the past few years.
In 2018, there were 55,638 PTA applications in Queensland and 121 were outright rejected. The reasons weren’t covered in the FOI data, but it’s reasonable to assume it includes people doing things like applying for .45 calibre handguns when they don’t have a PCS or PCM endorsement on their licence, people who have property letters as their sole Genuine Need wanting a .416 Rigby on a small property, or primary producers/pest controllers wanting an additonal Cat C or Cat D gun and not making a decent case to WLB for it (Obligatory “They shouldn’t have to and neither should anyone else, we say” disclaimer).
Yeah… that wasn’t ideal, when i had my inspection the cop was like this ones not on our sheet whats the serial number mate? And i was like ermm well she’s an old gun got a few markings i think its this one and that was that he noted it and i thought the system would take care of it, constable must have put it in the to hard basket
On gel blasters, that may change if the police minister keeps on the current path. Sounding like they want to push for a club membership requirement for genuine reason to have what they have previously considered toys. next step will be requiring registration, secure storage etc just like firearms.