Tasmania will not restrict the number of firearms a shooter can own under new gun laws to be introduced this year, but its planned re-categorise of lever-release and straight-pull rifles has been called “uneducated dribble from desk dwellers and fear mongering organisations”.
The criticism came from Shooters Union Tasmania president Phillip Bigg, who said he was disappointed the government not taken the opportunity to stand up to the Federal Government, as Queensland had done.
Premier Jeremy Rockliff and Police Minister Fexis Ellis foreshadowed a number of changes under legislation to be tabled this year, including:
- No caps imposed on individual firearms owners
- Improved intelligence sharing and background checks
- The requirement that licence holders be Australian citizens, but there will be some exemptions
- Harsher penalties for theft and possession of stolen firearms.
Most straight-pull and lever/button-release rifles and shotguns will become Category C firearms, limited generally to only professionals, primary producers and collectors.
At this stage, rimfire lever-release and straight-pull firearms are not being recategorised and will remain Category A, which will be welcome news for owners of rifles such as the CZ 515 and Savage A22R, but leave owners of Ross Rifles, Schmidt-Rubins and other pre-WWII straight pull rifles scrambling to either obtain a collector’s licence or sell their guns interstate.
The state will join the federal government’s proposed buyback scheme and the premier has flagged paying full or greater value for firearms handed in.
Referring to the re-categorised firearms, Mr Rockliff said Tasmania would offer “incentive payments of 1.5 times the gun’s value to encourage their surrender”.
“A voluntary buyback will also be open to any [other] legal firearm a licence holder wants to surrender at market value,” he added.
Tasmanian Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party MP Carlo Di Falco said he was pleased to see there would be no caps on how many guns a licensee could have, but that a buyback was a pointless and unaffordable exercise given the ongoing cost-of-living crisis.
“I will not support any further restrictions on licensed firearm owners,” he said.
“Reclassification and buy backs are pointless and do nothing for public safety.
“We need fit-for-purpose firearm laws, not something that just panders to some people’s irrational fears.”
Police Minister Ellis insisted the re-categorisation was necessary to improve community safety but recognised the impact of the change on firearm owners.
“We want to make sure that people are getting a fair price plus some, because … these people have done nothing wrong,” he said on ABC radio.
“In Tasmania’s context, we think that our approach is about getting the balance right. Our focus has been very heavily on making sure that we’re getting firearms out of the wrong hands.”
However, Mr Bigg rejected claims the changes were about keeping firearms out of the hands of criminals and terrorists.
“Lever release and straight pull are not ‘rapid fire’ and the technology has been around a long time – since the 1880s, in the case of straight-pull rifles,” he said.
“It seems pretty obvious to me the Rockcliff Government is trying to have a bet each way here; keeping left-leaning anti-gun voters happy by banning something otherwise legal which those voters think sounds scary, while simultaneously telling rural and shooting voters ‘we didn’t put caps on how many guns you can own’.”
He acknowledged the government was promising good value in the buyback but said, “I see a lot of taxpayer money being spent on obtaining lawfully-owned firearms and no taxpayer dollars being spent taking guns off actual criminals.
“Queensland has taken the correct approach here, not banning anything, not implementing ownership caps, and keeping the focus entirely on criminals and terrorists.
“Mr Rockcliff could have shown similarly strong leadership and adopted their approach, but instead we’ve got a political compromise rather than a fact-based one.”
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