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Gun politics in Australia |
| Part of the Politics series |
| Gun politics by country |
| Politics portal |
Many Australians1 own and use firearms for legitimate purposes including hunting, controlling feral animals, collecting and target shooting. Low levels of violent crime through much of the 20th Century kept levels of community concern about firearms low. However, in the last two decades of the century, following several mass killings and rising concern, the Australian Governments co-ordinated more restrictive firearms legislation with all State Governments.
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State laws govern the possession and use of firearms in Australia. These laws were largely aligned under the 1996 National Agreement on Fireams. Anyone wishing to possess or use a firearm must have a Firearms Licence and be over the age of 18 with some exceptions. Owners must have secure storage for their firearms.
Before a person can buy a firearm, they must obtain a Permit To Acquire. The first permit has a mandatory 28 day delay before it is first issued. In some states (e.g. Queensland, Victoria, and New South Wales), this is waived for second and subsequent firearms of the same class. For each firearm a "Genuine Reason" must be given, relating to pest control, hunting, target shooting, or collecting. Self-defence is not accepted as a reason for issuing a licence.
Each firearm in Australia must be registered to the owner by serial number. Some states allow an owner to store or borrow another person's firearm of the same category.
Firearms in Australia are grouped into Categories with different levels of control. The categories are:
(Participants in "approved" competitions may acquire handguns up to .45", currently Single Action Shooting and Metallic Silhouette. IPSC shooting is not "approved" for the larger calibres, for unstated reasons. Category H barrels must be at least 100mm (3.94") long for revolvers, and 120mm (4.72") for semi-automatic pistols, and magazines are restricted to 10 rounds. Handgun collectors are exempt from the laws stated above.)
Antique firearms can in some states be legally bought without licences. In other states they are subject to the same requirements as modern firearms.
All single-shot muzzleloading firearms manufactured before 1 January 1901 are considered antique firearms. Four states require licences for antique percussion revolvers and cartridge repeating firearms but in Queensland and Victoria a person may possess such a firearm without a license, so long as the firearm is registered.
Unlike most other countries, Australia has tight restrictions on air pistols and airsoft guns, and most states ban replica firearms. Suppressors (or 'silencers') are extremely restricted and generally not available to most shooters.
Firearms were first introduced to Australia with European settlement. They were used for hunting, protection of persons and crops, in crime and fighting crime, and in many military engagements. From the landing of the First Fleet on 26 January 1788 there was conflict with aborigines over game, access to fenced land, and spearing of livestock. There were a number of massacres of aborigines and some of settlers and explorers. The history of these conflicts is contentious (see History Wars).
Australian colonists also used firearms in conflict with bushrangers; in duels, the last in 1854; in armed rebellions, such as the Castle Hill convict rebellion in 1804 and the 1854 Eureka rebellion. The Eureka Stockade in 1854 arose as a result of Government and police abuses against gold miners. A large force of police and soldiers assaulted the miners stockade. Six soldiers and twenty-two miners were killed. A strong volunteer military tradition was established, and Australians learned to value marksmanship both as a strategic military asset, and as a sport.
From the beginning there were controls on firearms. The firearms issued to convicts (for meat hunting) and settlers (for hunting and protection) were stolen and misused, and this resulted in more controls. In January 1796, David Collins wrote that 'several attempts had been made to ascertain the number of arms in the possession of individuals, as many were feared to be in the hands of those who committed depredations; the crown recalled between two and three hundred stands of arms, but not 50 stands were accounted for'.3
From the 1850s to the 1950s, Australians developed a strong volunteer tradition in preparing defence against possible invaders, and sent volunteer expeditionary forces to most British wars. From this arose an enthusiastic civil marksmanship movement, a form of military reserve supported under the Defence Act until as late as 1996. The movement exists to this day in the fullbore Rifle Clubs affiliated with the State and National Rifle Associations of Australia.4 The highest trophy shows the significance of this sport to the nation: the Queen's Prize.
Game animals, in particular rabbits and kangaroos, provided an important source of food and income for rural Australians. From settlement through into the 1970s Australian and immigrant families developed new land farms, and hunting provided security of food supply in sometimes desperate economic circumstances.
Gun laws were the responsibility of each Colony and since Federation in 1901, of each State. The Commonwealth does not have constitutional authority over firearms, but it controls customs and military matters, and the external affairs power can be used to enforce internal control over matters agreed in external treaties.
During the 1920s, Australia, Canada and Great Britain became concerned about the rise of Communism after the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, and imposed restrictions on handguns5. These restrictions have increased over the succeeding decades. In New South Wales, handguns were effectively banned after World War II but the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games sparked a new interest in the sport of pistol shooting and laws were changed to allow the sport to develop.
Rifles and shotguns were less restricted than handguns. State gun laws varied widely. Western Australia and the Northern Territory had severe restrictions even on sporting rifles and shotguns, but in Queensland and Tasmania they could be bought without restrictions.
Fully-automatic arms were banned on the Australian mainland from the 1930s, but remained legal in Tasmania until 1996.
In the 1940s and 1950s, Cold War concerns about ex-military rifles falling into the hands of communist radicals led New South Wales to place restrictions on the legal ownership of rifles of a military calibre (see: .303/25) while members of rifle clubs and military rifle clubs could own ex-military rifles. In the 1970s and 1980s these restrictions were relaxed and military style rifles (both bolt-action and semi-automatic) once again became widely available except in Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
By the 1980s, the relative popularity of shooting and the prevalence of firearms in the community began to fall as social attitudes changed and urbanisation increased.
From 1984 to 1996, multiple killings aroused public concern. The 1984 Milperra massacre was a major incident in a series of conflicts between various 'outlaw motorcycle gangs'. (These gangs are a major component of organised crime in Australia and continue to arm themselves illegally.) In 1987, the Hoddle Street massacre and the Queen Street massacre took place in Melbourne. In response, several states required the registration of all guns, and restricted the availability of self-loading rifles and shotguns. In the Strathfield massacre in New South Wales, 1991, two were killed with a knife, and five more with a firearm. Tasmania passed a law in 1991 for firearm purchasers to obtain a license, though enforcement was light. Firearm laws in Tasmania and Queensland remained relatively relaxed for longarms. In 1995, Tasmania had the second lowest rate of homicides per head of population.
Shooting massacres in Australia and other English-speaking countries often occurred close together. Forensic psychiatrists attribute this to copycat behaviour,67 which is in many cases triggered by sensational media treatment.89 Mass murderers study media reports and imitate the actions and equipment that are sensationalised in them.10
The Port Arthur massacre in 1996 transformed gun control legislation in Australia. Following the horrific Dunblane massacre in Scotland, this mass killing at the notorious former convict prison at Port Arthur horrified all Australians.
Thirty five people were killed and 37 wounded when a man opened fire on tourists with two military-style semi-automatic rifles: an AR-15 and an L1A1 SLR. These weapons were of a type that was legal to possess in Tasmania at the time, but the murderer did not have a license and acquired the firearms illegally.citation needed
Newly elected Prime Minister John Howard immediately took existing gun law proposals developed after the report of the 1988 National Committee on Violence11) and pushed the states to adopt them under a National Firearms Agreement, necessary because the Australian Constitution does not give the Commonwealth power to enact gun laws.
The proposals included a ban on all semi-automatic rifles and all semi-automatic and pump-action shotguns, and a tightly restrictive system of licensing and ownership controls. Some discussion of measures to allow owners to undertake modifications to reduce the capacity of magazine-fed shotguns occurred, but the Government decided not to permit this.
Public feeling after the Port Arthur shootings overwhelmed the opposition from gun owners' organisations and the Commonwealth was able to induce all states to agree to their proposals without change.
The Government planned a series of public meetings with farmers and sporting shooters to explain the proposed changes. In the first meeting, on the advice of his security team, Mr. Howard wore a bullet-resistant vest, which was visible under his jacket. This was perceived as a deeply offensive act by the shooters, and their outrage was interpreted by many of the media and the public to show that ordinary shooters were dangerous and contemptiblecitation needed.
Thousands of shooters applied to join the Liberal Party in an attempt to influence the Government, but were barred from membership.citation needed
The American National Rifle Association expressed support for Australian gun owners and was roundly condemned by Federal Attorney General Daryl Williams.12
Because the Australian Constitution prevents the taking of property without just compensation the Federal Government elected to put a 1% levy on income tax for one year to finance the "buy back" purchase and destruction of all semi-automatic rifles including .22 rimfires, semi-automatic shotguns and pump-action shotguns. Although only Victoria published statistics, it appears that only 5% of the destroyed guns were centrefire semiautomatic rifles, the huge majority being ordinary sporting rimfires and shotguns.citation needed The buyback was predicted to cost $A500 million.
In 2002, an international student killed two fellow students at Monash University in Victoria with pistols he had acquired as a member of a shooting club. As in 1996, the federal government pushed state governments to review handgun laws, and, as a result, amended legislation was adopted in all states and territories. Changes included a 10-round magazine capacity limit, a calibre limit of not more than .38 inches (9.65 mm), a barrel length limit of not less than 120 mm (4.72 inches) for semi-automatic pistols and 100 mm (3.94 inches) for revolvers, and even stricter probation and attendance requirements for sporting target shooters.citation needed Whilst handguns for sporting shooters are nominally restricted to .38 inches as a maximum calibre, it is possible to obtain an endorsement allowing calibres up to .45 inches (11.43 mm) to be used for Metallic Silhouette or Single Action Shooting matches. These new laws were opposed by sporting shooters groups but also by their opponents, who saw it as paying for shooters to upgrade to new guns.citation needed
The new changes were planned to result in the destruction of some 50,000 legal pistols and their replacement at taxpayer expense, but no impact on public safety was likely. Due to the universal registration of pistols and their owners compliance was very high. Many were able to change magazines and barrels to comply with the new legislation.
One of the government policies was to compensate shooters for giving up the sport. Approximately 25% of pistol shooters took this offer, and relinquished their licenses and their right to own pistols for sport.citation needed In the state of Victoria $A21 million was spent "buying back" 18,124 firearms, while in the same period Victorians imported 15,184 firearms to replace their confiscated target pistols.citation needed
Historically, Australia has had relatively low levels of violent crime. Overall levels of homicide and suicide have remained relatively static for several decades, while the proportion of these crimes that involved firearms has consistently declined since the early 1980s. Between 1991 and 2001, the number of firearm related deaths in Australia declined 47%.13
In the year 2002/2003, over 85% of firearms used to commit murder were unregistered.14 In 1997-1999, more than 80% of the handguns confiscated were never legally purchased or registered in Australia.15 Knives are used up to 3 times as often as firearms in robberies.16 The majority of firearm related deaths involved the use of hunting rifles, with their share being most pronounced in firearm suicides.13
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics [1], in 1985-2000, 78% of firearm deaths in Australia were suicides, yet only 5% of suicides involved firearms. Following the Buyback there was a fall in firearm suicides which was more than offset by a 10% increase in total suicides in 1997 and 1998. There were concerted efforts in suicide prevention from this time and in subsequent years the suicide rate began declining again.
The number of guns stolen has fallen dramatically from 4,000 per year17 to 664 in a six-month period in 200518. This is because of efforts by police and shooting bodies to encourage secure storage of guns. Long guns are more often stolen opportunistically in home burglaries, but few homes have handguns and a substantial proportion of stolen handguns are taken from security firms and other businesses. Only a tiny proportion, 0.06% of licensed firearms, are stolen in a given year, and while only a small proportion of those firearms are recovered, only about 3% will afterward be connected to an actual crime.
Concern has been raised about the number of smuggled pistols reaching Australia, particularly in New South Wales.
In 1997, the Prime Minister appointed the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) to monitor the effects of the gun buyback. The AIC have published a number of papers reporting trends and statistics around gun ownership and gun crime, which they have found to be mostly related to illegally-held firearms.1517 In 2002 the AIC announced that they had proof of many lives saved, but their paper which was released months later demonstrated only continuing downtrends in gun deaths since many years before the buyback19.
In 2003, CLASS reported that no benefit-cost analysis of the buyback had been published, and that scientific debate was politicised and ignored benefits of shooting and costs forced on legitimate owners20.
The Sporting Shooters Association of Australia says there is no evidence that gun control restrictions in 1987, 1996 and 2002 had any impact on the already established trends.2122
Some researchers have claimed a dramatic effect on firearm deaths, by counting the drop in firearm suicides and ignoring rising deaths by substitute methods. One such author is Ozanne-Smith et el. (2004) in the journal Injury Prevention23.
The head of the New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, Don Weatherburn,24 noted that the level of legal gun ownership in New South Wales increased in recent years, and that the 1996 legislation had had little effect on violence. In 2006, the lack of a measurable effect from the 1996 firearms legislation was reported in the British Journal of Criminology by Dr Jeanine Baker (SSAA) and Dr Samara McPhedran (Women in Shooting and Hunting).25 This paper was criticised by economists Christine Neill and Andrew Leigh,26, who claimed that while time series methods were not the best way of answering the question, the time series evidence suggested that lives were saved as a result of the gun buyback. This depended on their view that falling suicides were not substituted by other methods because at the end of their study period suicides were down overall. However De Leo, Dwyer, Firman & Neulinger27, found a rise in hanging suicides at the exact same rate as a fall in gun suicides over the years of the buyback to be possible evidence of substitution of suicide methods. The rise in hangings started slightly before the fall in gun suicides.
Don Weatherburn described the Baker & McPhedran article as "reputable" and "well-conducted" and stated that the available data are insufficient to draw stronger conclusions.28 Weatherburn noted the importance of actively policing illegal firearm trafficking and argued that although there was little evidence that the new laws had helped, they were needed to prevent an emerging problem with handgun violence potentially worsening.29
A study co-authored by Professor Simon Chapman, former convenor of the Coalition for Gun Control, argued that reduction in firearm numbers had prevented mass shootings because in the 18 years prior to the Port Arthur massacre there were 13 mass shootings and in the decade since 1996 there have been none.30 Data interpretation of trends in this study differs from other authors, while clearly being based on the same data. Media reports gave Professor Chapman wide publicity while failing to reveal his involvement in gun control activism.
Baker and McPhedran then published a meta-study pointing out that differing authors' conclusions were based on the same data, but that interpretations diverged. This was taken up by Lee and Suardi at the Melbourne Institute who stated:
An explanation of the total absence of mass shootings in 1996 has not been advanced. The reduction in firearms inventory to which Chapman attributed this result was replaced in the first years after the buyback.citation needed
Firearms laws are the responsibility of State Governments, and usually these Governments act on the recommendations of their Police services in firearms matters. Before 1996, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia all had different laws, no licence was needed for long guns in Queensland, and licences were only introduced for long guns in Tasmania in 1991. Western Australia and the Northern Territory had tight restrictions, especially on centrefire semi-automatic firearms.
Since 1996 all States subscribe to the National Agreement on Firearms (NAF). The NAF was instituted through the Australian Police Ministers Conference, as a Federal intervention over-riding major differences in State laws.
Until 1996, the Federal Government had little role in firearms law. Following the Port Arthur massacre, the Howard Government (1996-2007), with strong media and public support, enforced uniform gun laws on the states. Despite his strong support for the USA on many other issues, former Prime Minister John Howard frequently referred to the USA to explain his opposition to civilian firearms ownership and use in Australia, stating that he did not want Australia to go "down the American path".323334 In one interview on Sydney radio station 2GB he said "we will find any means we can to further restrict them because I hate guns... ordinary citizens should not have weapons. We do not want the American disease imported into Australia".35 In a television interview shortly before the tenth anniversary of the Port Arthur massacre, he reaffirmed his stance: "I did not want Australia to go down the American path. There are some things about America I admire and there are some things I don't. And one of the things I don't admire about America is their... slavish love of guns. They're evil".36 During the same television interview, Prime Minister Howard also stated that he saw the outpouring of grief in the aftermath of the Port Arthur massacre as "an opportunity to grab the moment and think about a fundamental change to gun laws in this country".
Gun control has been a source of some friction between the National Party and the Liberal Party, who together formed the coalition Federal Government from 1996 to 2007. The National Party had strong support from rural voters, many of whom were opposed to the Federal government's moves towards gun control. The 1996 National Firearms Agreement has been blamed for the defeat of the National Party in the 1998 Queensland elections and generating much of the support for the 1997 rise of the One Nation Party.37
In the November 2007 Federal election, the Australian Labor Party replaced the Liberal Party in government. The new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has personally indicated support for the shooting sports but Labor's policy is to continue supporting the National Agreement on Firearms.
Gun control groups in Australia have very few active members but a high media profile. The main focus of these groups is on tightening firearm controls, reducing legal gun ownership in the hope of reducing the number of firearm-related deaths in Australia. Active lobbying in Australia is conducted by two main groups: Gun Control Australia and the National Coalition for Gun Control (NCGC).
The NCGC had a high profile in the public debate up to and immediately after the Port Arthur Massacre. Rebecca Peters, Roland Browne, Simon Chapman and Tim Costello appeared in media reports and authored articles to support their aims.38 and Tim Costello39 In the aftermath of Port Arthur a number of public health bodies added their support as members of the NCGC, and they won the 1996 Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission’s Community Human Rights award.
More recently Samantha Lee as chair of the NCGC was financed by a Churchill Fellowship to publish a paper 40 claiming that current handgun legislation is too loose, that police officers who are shooters have a conflict of interest, and that licensed private firearm ownership per se presents a threat to women and children.41 In a late 2005 press release, Roland Browne as co-chair of the NCGC, advocated further restrictions on handguns.4243
Gun Control Australia has published a number of booklets, maintains a website and has an office in Ross House in Flinders Lane in Melbourne. The NCGC has no website or public contact details and does not solicit public membership.
The public debate on gun control is essentially conducted via the media. Newspaper and broadcast media usually support gun control, publishing editorials in favour of strong restrictions on firearms. Firearms advocates write 'letters to the editor' to put their positions.
Shooting clubs have existed in Australia since the mid 1800s. Their political activity is intermittent, generally responding to increasing restrictions.They are mainly concerned with protecting the viability of hunting, collecting and target shooting sports, rather than keeping firearms for self-defence as in the USA. Australian shooters regard their sport as under permanent threat from increasingly restrictive legislation. They argue that they have been made scapegoats by politicians, the media, and anti-gun activists for the acts of criminals who generally use illegal firearms. Their researchers consider that there is little evidence that increasing restrictions have improved public safety, despite the high costs and severe regulatory barriers imposed on shooters in Australia.
In Australia, shooter organisations have never approached the strength of the National Rifle Association in the United States, and political sympathisers are quite discreet in their support.
The largest organisation is the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia, with over 120,000 members (2002 figures). SSAA has been more active in the public debate than any other organisation, and have appointed a Federal Parliamentary lobbyist.44
The Combined Firearms Council of Victoria was created after the 2002 shootings at Monash University led to a clampdown on handguns. The CFCV ran advertisements in the 2002 Victorian State Election. The CFCV made voting recommendations at the 2002 and 2006 Victorian state elections, supporting specific candidates rather than political parties. Four of the six ALP MPs elevated to the front bench after the 2002 Victorian election were supported by the CFCV. A Firearms Consultative Committee, established in 2005 in Victoria, led to several changes to firearms legislation that benefited handgun users and gun collectors.
Smaller activist groups such as the Coalition of Law Abiding Sporting Shooters (CLASS) and Women in Shooting and Hunting (WISH) engage in research and activism on behalf of firearms ownership.
There are several other peak sporting bodies, such as Field and Game Australia, the National Rifle Association of Australia and Pistol Australia which with their state counterparts concentrate on sporting issues rather than political activity. These associations have produced gold-medal winning performances at the Olympics in shotgun, and in the Commonwealth Games in rifle, pistol and shotgun.
The Shooters Party is a political party in New South Wales that "represent[s] the rights of law abiding firearms owners and users".45 Its founder, John Tingle, served as an elected member of the upper house of New South Wales parliament, the Legislative Council, from 1995 until he retired in late 2006. The party currently holds two seats in the Legislative Council.
The One Nation Party in 1997-98 briefly gained national prominence and had strong support from shooters. A number of minor political parties such as Liberal Democratic Party of Australia, Outdoor Recreation Party, and Country Alliance have pro-shooter platforms.
Weapons Act 1990 (Qld)
Weapons Regulation 1996 (Qld)
Weapons Categories Regulation 1997 (Qld)
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