With hunting and feral animal control a huge part of the culture, remote community shooters argue they are getting the short end of the stick after new gun law reforms were passed in parliament. Photo: Facebook (Western Cape Feral Animal Control).
Australian gun laws will undergo some of the most significant changes since the 1996 Port Arthur massacre in a move controversial to remote firearm owners.
Spurred by last month’s Bondi Beach terror attack, Federal Parliament voted for gun law reforms and a crackdown on hate speech — bills split off of Labor’s sweeping omnibus bill encompassing gun laws, hate crime and migration changes.
The gun reform measures, which were passed by the House of Representatives and Senate on Tuesday 20 January, include a national buy-back scheme and tighter background checks.
Sporting Shooters Association of Queensland (SSAA) Weipa Branch president David Rutherford said he was concerned the needs of remote communities had been ignored.
“On the Cape, all the stations have got firearms for pest control — pigs and dingoes and things like that. Sometimes you need to put down animals as well,” he said.
“It’s also a sport that you don’t get to do much in the cities, because it’s restricted.
“We’ve got a good range set up here; it’s been there for nearly 15 years and it’s mainly people who come to Weipa for the outdoor life, for somewhere to go and safely shoot their firearms.”
New figures released on 18 January from the Department of Home Affairs revealed a record number of firearms in Australia — 4,113,735 — more than at the time of the Port Arthur massacre.
However, there are only 929,741 firearm licences across the country.
Queensland held the second-highest number of firearms at 1,143,895, yet only 231,732 firearm licences.
“It’s crazy to think they’re going to tighten up the laws … the tight laws they had didn’t work; they need to look at what went wrong there first,” Mr Rutherford said.
“The last buy-back scheme didn’t work that well; there’s a lot of firearms out there that aren’t registered still, in the hands of people who haven’t got a licence.”
Queensland is expected to oppose the national buy-back scheme. Member for Cook David Kempton said the focus of the reforms were misplaced.
“The Crisafulli Government does not plan to support the Federal Government’s proposed buy-back schemes as it sends the wrong message,” he said.
“I believe the focus should be on stamping out antisemitism and keeping firearms from those who clearly should not have access to them, rather than victimising honest farmers and legitimate licence holders, including recreational shooters.”
