Fix these bad laws, shooters tell WA parliamentary committee

The West Australian Parliament Standing Committee on Legislation has heard informed evidence from representatives of several peak shooting community bodies in the state this week, all of whom are calling for a substantial reworking of WA’s deeply flawed firearms laws.

Representatives from the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia WA branch, Shooters Union WA, WA Shooting Association and the West Australian Firearms Traders Association (WAFTA) presented at hearings of the Committee in Perth on Wednesday, 17 September.

The SSAA WA, Shooters Union WA and WASA representatives were in a hearing focussing on sports and recreational shooting.

The WAFTA representative was part of an earlier hearing for agriculture and farming groups — having been a late addition to the proceedings after it was rightly pointed out there were no dedicated firearms industry representatives invited to present evidence to the Committee.

The presentations by the WA shooting community peak bodies covered the points you’d expect:

that many of the laws had no apparent rhyme or reason behind them
that their introduction and passing had been flawed
the laws were complicated and confusing
and the laws had caused considerable financial hardship and general distress to law-abiding firearms users across the state.

A recurring theme was that WA should simply adopt the recommendations of the WA Law Reform Commission Project 105 review, which (very broadly) said WA should be bringing itself into line with the laws in the rest of Australia, including licensing the individual rather than the firearm.

The review very clearly rejecting any limit on the number of firearms which a licensee could own, in stark contrast to what was introduced under the new Firearms Act 2024.

You can read the submissions from the firearm community peak bodies who presented evidence to the Committee here:

Other firearm user representative entities who lodged submissions to the Committee, but did not have the opportunity to present evidence in person, include:

One thing that has become abundantly clear from the hearings is the enormity of the task facing the Standing Committee.

The WA Firearms Act 2024 is 272 pages long (along with the 327-page long Firearms Regulations 2024) and it is, to put it bluntly, a confusing mess that it seems almost no-one can understand.

This is reflected in the fact that the Committee received 6681 emails during the submission period, with the most frequently raised concerns being the hard limits on how many guns a person can own, the written authority for hunting requirements, and the mandatory health assessment.

It was also clear there simply wasn’t enough time available in the hearings for representatives to make all the points they needed to make — there were eight groups present in the session covering agriculture and farming shooters, and three groups in the session for competition and recreational/hunting shooters, with each session being just over an hour long.

The Committee’s hearings began on 10 September and, besides shooters, have involved presentations from a range of groups including gun control organisations, doctors, conservation groups, farmers and Aboriginal representatives.

The hearings will conclude with presentations from WAPOL representatives Police Commissioner Col Blanch, Commander Laurence Panaia and Acting Inspector Paul McCourt on Monday, 22 September.

The Committee is expected to provide its final report on 16 October.