The latest kick in the testicles for law-abiding firearms in Western Australia is the announcement that they will have to meet extremely strict safe-storage demands that may be impossible for many shooters to currently meet.
Industry representatives has been given a preview of proposed secure storage requirements, some of which include the installation of safes with 10mm thick doors as well as alarms and CCTV monitoring.
Under the proposed requirements, anyone with even a single handgun will be required to store it in a safe with 6mm walls and a 10mm thick door.
As far as Sporting Shooter is aware, only an extremely small number of firearm safes on the market in Australia which meet these requirements.
Most handgun-rated safes have a maximum 6mm thick door, meaning pistol shooters in WA may be forced to buy expensive specialist or commercial safes to remain complaint.
A Category H shooter in WA with more than five handguns will also need to install an alarm, but authorities have not yet provided any information about what sort of alarm system will be required.
Things aren’t quite as bad for A and B licence holders, who will now be required to upgrade their safes to what WA is calling Level 1 security, the equivalent Cat C in other states, with a 6mm door and 3mm steel body.
Existing licence holders with up to five firearms will get some reprieve, with the regulations being ‘grandfathered’ in, allowing them to legally continue with their current safe storage setup provided they do not replace any of their guns or buy additional firearms.
New licence applicants will be required to have a Level 1 safe from the start.
While there are safes available in Australia meeting this requirement, they are expensive, especially as standard A/B-rated metal safes sold elsewhere in Australia usually have a 3mm door and 2mm body, depending on local state requirements.
Category C firearms holders in WA (and there are a few, since it’s the only state which has allowed pump-action shotguns for sporting use since 1996) will need to upgrade to a Level 1 safe as soon as the regulations come into effect.
The proposed requirements also demand increased security for unoccupied properties, with CCTV and alarm systems required in some cases.
Shooters Union WA state advocate Steve Harrison said the new requirements were yet another case of the WA government and WAPOL sticking the boot into law-abiding firearms owners on ideological grounds.
“This another example of WAPOL just making things up without evidence,” he said.
“No-one is holding them to account to substantiate these requirements; they’re just making them up as they go.”
He said obtaining compliant safes was going to be difficult and expensive for WA shooters, especially outside Perth, and he had no doubt many people would be forced out of shooting because they would be unable to afford or obtain the necessary storage upgrades.
“It’s going to be difficult and expensive for people to get new safes, especially for Category H, where there’s nothing commercially available off the shelf that meets the requirements.
“It’s crushing people, and people will have to give up their guns, or have them seized because they can’t afford to meet these new storage requirements.”
Mr Harrison said the word “gutted” was resounding among the firearms community in WA.
“I hear it in pretty much every conversation I have,” he said.
“The chickens will come home to roost in the 2025 election; it is widely predicted that Labor will crash and burn, and rightfully so.
“Thankfully, we have many political parties moving to support the shooting and outdoors community, all of whom are demanding change, fewer lies, less ideology and less theft of privately owned property and individual freedoms.”
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