Lever-release, button-release and most lever-action .22 LR rifles are among the large number of firearms that will be banned in Western Australia from March 2025, following the suspiciously timed release of the Firearms Regulations accompanying recent changes to the state’s gun laws.
The Firearms Regulations 2024 were published on Saturday, 21 December — a few days before Christmas — and have been roundly and unanimously condemned by the Australian shooting community.
Shooters have taken aim at the complete lack of good-faith consultation about the regulations and the fact they were released on a weekend ahead of Christmas with no prior notice.
One of the most glaring changes in the regulations is that lever-release and button-release firearms of all descriptions are now prohibited completely – which means that popular firearms such as the Savage A22R, CZ 515, and Bushmeister BA-X12 are now prohibited in the state.
Most lever-action .22 rifles, including the Henry Model 1, Browning BL-22, Marlin Model 39A, and the Rossi Rio Bravo will also be banned as a result of the legislation, which restricts Category A firearms to 10 rounds maximum and prohibits the use of blocking devices to restrict magazine sizes.
Several pump-action .22 LR rifles, including the Winchester 1906, Rossi Gallery and Remington 572 Fieldmaster are also caught in the ban, as are some bolt-action .22 LR rifles including the BSA Sportsman 15, the Marlin XT-22TR and the Australian-made Sportco Model 15.
The 10-round restriction also applies to centrefire rifles, although there are fewer affected than with rimfires – mainly some full-length Winchester Model 1873 and Model 1892 rifles and their clones.
Turn-bolt and straight-pull shotguns will be restricted to 5 rounds, much as their lever-action counterparts already are.
The nigh-impossible to meet storage requirements reported on by Sporting Shooter last week are also confirmed to be in the regulations, although in a small concession, licence-holders who currently have five or fewer firearms will not have to upgrade their storage facilities unless they replace a firearm or acquire a new one.
It gets worse, though. Semi-automatic air rifles are all essentially banned as well, being moved from Category A to Category C (up to 10-round magazine) or D (over 10 rounds), and air rifles over .25 calibre are now Category B firearms.
Unsurprisingly, pump-action shotguns are now banned for competition use (WA was the only state which had allowed them post-1996), except for clay target shooters with a disability or the tiny number of people who have been a member of a clay target club since 1996 and still have the original Cat C shotgun they owned at the time.
Collectors are not spared a pointless kicking in the regulations either, with the collection of all handguns less than 50 years old (ie, anything made after the mid-1970s) now banned, and other handguns only allowed for collection on “historic” criteria.
This means collecting modern reproductions of Old West handguns — a popular option elsewhere in Australia, given the high prices of original guns — will no longer be possible in WA.
The Western Australian Firearms Community Alliance (WAFCA), Shooters Union and SSAA WA were quick to express their displeasure over the regulations.
WAFCA posted on Facebook: “In fashion true to form by the current government — they wish all firearms [owners] a Merry Christmas by today finally releasing the Firearms Regulations and advising licensed owners via [SMS] — 6 months after the Act was forced through Parliament … Of no surprise of course and true to form of this government — we were not consulted on the Regulations.”
Shooters Union WA state advocate Steve Harrison said there had been absolutely no consultation with the shooting community about the regulations, and everyone had been completely blindsided by their weekend release.
“This is completely typical of the Labor Government and WAPOL; they’ve just made up nonsensical, hateful rules and then not bothered to even ask the major shooting organisations for input — likely because the people pushing these laws know exactly where we’d have told them to shove the restrictions and bans,” he said.
“I honestly do not believe any of this is about ‘public safety’ and neither Police Minister Paul Papalia or WAPOL have ever presented any genuine evidence to support any of the changes to our gun laws — and this latest attack is no different.
“This whole thing continues to raise extremely serious Constitutional questions and genuinely harms the state of democracy in WA, and it astounds me there aren’t lawyers queuing up around the block to help WA shooters fight these relentless assaults on the most law-abiding citizens of the state.
“Shooters absolutely need to be working together to fight back against these laws.
“It doesn’t matter whether you are a club member, hunt recreationally, or cull feral pests professionally, or which shooting organisation you support, we all need to be working as a united front together — and we need to make sure we vote Labor out in the March 2025 state election.”
The regulations are about 300 pages long and fairly involved, so there is no doubt that even more unpleasant surprises will be unveiled as shooting representatives wade through them over the coming days and weeks.
The Firearms Regulations 2024 can be viewed here: https://www.legislation.wa.gov.au/legislation/statutes.nsf/law_s54842.html&view=asmade
Hi Royce, I’d just like to point out the extensive list of prohibited firearms, which includes popular sporting models like the Remington 700 and Howa 1500. Browning X-bolt, savage 10 and 110.
I think with that little parcel of prohibitions, they’ve just banned about 80% of the centrefire rifles in circulation.
I also wonder why they missed the Tikka T3 variants, they could have gotten close to 100% if they picked the right ones.
Our reading of that list of prohibited firearms is that it only applies if those rifles are chambered in prohibited calibres, ie, a Remington 700 is banned if chambered in a prohibited calibre, but not if it’s a .223. We stand to be corrected, of course. This part of the regulations appears to be just another bit of stupidity; why list specific models when it is, a, only based on calibre and, b, not an exhaustive list? As usual, it appears to be regulations written by people with no real understanding of firearms.