You will recall that the Shooters and Fishers Party appealed to you last year, asking that you ring/email/visit your Local Member of State Parliament, regarding the atrocious “Ammo Bill”.
Your subsequent actions (literally thousands of complaints to Local Members) put the wind up the National Party, and those Liberal Members in marginal seats. The roll-out of the Bill was delayed by almost 12 months, while the Government struggled to make this hasty, poorly crafted legislation, work.
Thank you all for showing the power of “local” politics!
It now appears as though the bureaucracy are taking things into their own hands, and trying to pre-empt the watering-down of the Bill. See this statement by the NSW Police Firearms Registry.
The Government has conceded that the Regulations will only require handgun ammunition (Category H firearms, and those longarms that use pistol cartridges) to be caught up in the legislation. Note: rimfire and air rifle ammunition is excluded also.
After all, it is illegal pistols that are being used in drive-by shootings in Western and South Western Sydney, and the Ammo Bill was lauded as being the panacea to this criminal behaviour.
You all know, of course, that law abiding firearms owners are not the ones doing these stupid criminal acts, and that the Ammo Bill was simply a piece of “spin” put up to take public heat off the inability of the Police Force to stop or reduce these shootings.
So, once again, Robert Borsak and I ask that you take this matter up with your Local Member of Parliament as a matter of some urgency please.
The Sporting Shooters Association, and the NSW Firearms Dealers Association, and dozens of individual Clubs will also be sending this message out. A list of Local Members is available here.
When you contact your Local Member, the key points are as follows:
1. The Ammo Bill as it was drafted was hugely opposed by the rural community, and by legal firearms owners right throughout the State.
2. The rushed inclusion, in the Bill, of the provision that Permits To Acquire (PTAs) would suffice for the purchase of ammunition, has given the NSW Police Ministry the excuse to now try to further place red tape on the purchase of firearms and ammunition.
3. There is nothing in the Firearms Act 1996, or the Regulations that allows for these “administrative requirements” to be placed on Law Abiding Firearms Owners (LAFOs).
4. Why is the Minister for Police then, allowing his bureaucrats to impose these “wishes” upon us all?
5. Ask your Local Member to make representation on your behalf to the Premier, and to the Deputy Premier and Leader of the National Party Andrew Stoner, requesting that the Ammo Bill Regulation be only limited to centrefire pistol calibre ammunition, and further, that no requirement will be introduced that places firearms owners’ details (particularly home address) on records outside of the secure COPS system (i.e. that owners’ addresses not be kept on Dealer’s paper or electronic databases). In this regard, you have probably all heard of the ongoing concern that this sensitive information is being leaked, and hence the spate of highly “targeted” thefts and home invasions on owners of firearms.
6. The best way to ensure that your concerns are addressed is to put these concerns (in your own words) in writing to your Local Member, even if you intend to phone or visit that Member. It is important that you ask for a written reply to your letter or email.
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