Mike Baird’s decision to remove his Police Minister Tony Grant looks to be a game changer in the national Adler debate.
Mr Grant had publicly campaigned for a weaker B classification for the Adler shotgun in the lead-up to the Orange by-election in NSW that was won by the Shooters Party as the Nationals attempted to court shooters.
The NSW cabinet decision is pivotal, because there is already broad national consensus that the Adler should be ­reclassified as a D licence firearm and NSW was the final barrier to a resolution.
The Prime Minister confirmed the National Firearms Agreement will be on the COAG agenda on Friday.
“The Government is waiting on the agreement of state and territory police ministers to the reclassification of these weapons under the 1996 National Firearms Agreement.”
Liberal Democrats senator David Leyonhjelm slammed the proposal to put the Adler on a D classification saying it “would have virtually the same impact as an import ban”.
Recently elected Philip Donato posted the following statement.
“As a shooter and hunter myself, I find this decision deeply disturbing for many reasons”.
“It’s now confirmed that Troy Grant and the NSW National Party waited until after the Orange by-election to commit themselves to restricting the Adler lever-action firearm to category D license holders”.
“This was done so they could buy some trust and votes from the licensed shooters/hunters in the Orange electorate – just like they tried to buy the electorate with their pork barrelling”.
Here are some facts:
– The Adler A110 is no different from any other lever-action firearm that’s been on the market for over 130 years.
– No crimes have committed with lever-action firearms.
– Moving the Adler shotgun to category D is not going to stop criminals misusing firearms.
– The Adler A110 and all lever-action firearms belong in category A.
“The Government cannot continue these window dressing exercises, that is, policy done on emotion, half-truths and to the tune of populist media rather than facts and statistics”.
“The Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party firearms policy is based around one fact: Criminals DO NOT obey the law”.
“I stand with all law-abiding firearm owners and hunters when I say I will not support any further restrictions on law-abiding firearm ownership”.
This reclassification of the Adler for Australian shooters is a dangerous one. Who knows where this will stop. The voices of the minorities and ill-informed are driving legislation that makes no sense at all.
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