Tasmanian Liberal praise shooters’ petitions, but reclassifications still loom

More than 11,000 Tasmanians have signed petitions opposing a Labor plan to institute caps on how many guns responsible shooters in the state can own.

Two petitions on the issue, collectively containing more than 11,000 signatures, were tabled in the state’s House of Assembly on Wednesday, and are understood to be among the largest petitions in recent Tasmanian history.

The petitions requested the House both reject the introduction of a cap on the number of firearms an individual can legally own, and also prioritise policies that target illegal firearms and criminal activity, rather than law-abiding, licensed firearm owners and users.

The petitions were sponsored by Liberal MP for Lyons, Mark Shelton, who welcomed the response and said it showed Tasmanians were rejecting Labor’s “extraordinary backflip” targeting farmers, hunters and sporting shooters.

“Our government has taken a strong and considered approach to firearms reforms that target terrorists and criminals,” Mr Shelton said.  

“We are progressing significant reforms to get guns out of the hands of criminals, keep Tasmanians safe, make Australian citizenship a requirement of firearm ownership, and accelerate the national firearms register.

“Labor have sold out farmers, they’ve sold out regional Tasmania, and they’ve sold out recreational shooters. 

“Our government is focussed on keeping Tasmanians safe, while Labor is attacking law-abiding farmers and recreational shooters.”

Shooters Union Tasmania president Phillip Bigg praised the efforts of every shooter in the state who had sent Tasmanian Labor a strong message that firearm ownership caps were not on the table.

“We can’t get too comfortable though, because we’re still having to deal with the Tasmanian Liberals deciding to reclassify firearms, contradicting every statement Police Minister Felix Ellis and Liberal members made when talking about the rejection of firearms caps,” he said.

“This is still a serious and significant concern for Tasmanian shooters, and we need to put aside our discipline differences and reject the reclassifications, too.

“It’s tempting to say, ‘well, I don’t hunt so I don’t need a lever-release firearm,’ but we all must be united to defend law abiding firearms owners irrespective of whether we are hunters or target shooters. 

“We cannot simply accept the lesser of two evils.”

Tasmanian parliamentary processes require the appropriate Minister – in this case Mr Ellis – to formally respond to tabled petitions within 15 days.