Australia: "Police crackdown on gun safety"

[cuchulainn]

Mandatory police inspections of homes in which the homeowner must prove innocence.

10 years in jail for improper storage of a pistol -- improper storage includes keeping a pistol and rifle in the same safe.




from the Cowra Guardian

http://cowra.yourguide.com.au/detai...s=local&category=general news&story_id=225783

Police crackdown on gun safety

Wednesday, 7 May 2003

Cowra Police will be inspecting gun owner's firearms and ammunition storage as part of the State-wide safety compliance audit.

The compliance audit is in response to an increasing number of firearms being stolen during break and enters. A gun was stolen in a break and enter at Cowra last year.

"We will be contacting firearm licence holders and inspecting their firearm storage safes,†said Cowra Police's Licencing Officer Constable Mervyn Slater.

"The safes will be inspected for the storage of both ammunition and firearms,†he explained.

Constable Slater outlined the basic requirements for firearm storage.

"The rifles must be bolted to the wall and floor through the back and the base of the safe.â€

"With the ammunition locked in a different department to the firearms,†he explained.

"The door must be fitted with a three point locking mechanism and padlocked through a hasp staple or lever handle,†he said.

Constable Slater said that different firearms require different security measures.

"Self loading rifles require a more secure safe than the single fire guns.â€

"Also hand guns will need a different safe to the rifle,†he added.

Constable Slater urged gun owners to comply with the firearm safety storage regulations.

Failure to comply with the storage requirements of the new laws is an offence with a maximum penalty of ten years imprisonment for prohibited firearms and pistols and five years for any other firearm.

A police officer may seize any firearm or ammunition not meeting the storage requirements, forfeited on a finding of guilty by the court.

If there are any queries regarding the storage of firearms contact Cowra Police on 63415099. Approved firearm safes are available from Cowra Locksmiths.

 

[Pilgrim]

I wonder if the Australian police departments can meet the same storage requirements.

I know my sheriffs department doesn't.

 

[Bruce in West Oz]

"The rifles must be bolted to the wall and floor through the back and the base of the safe.â€

No, the reporter stuffed it up -- the safe must be bolted to the wall and floor (depending on its weight), not the rifles!!

At least the police here are notifying the gun owners first -- in some States they don't have to do that -- just rock up and demand entry for inspection (and no, they don't need a warrant).

"With the ammunition locked in a different department to the firearms,†he explained.

That would be "compartment", not "department". (Did they get the cadet journo to write this drivel?) My "safe" (steel cabinet) has a padlocked compartment at the top to store the bolts and the ammo in. (Here in WA our rifles must be stored disassembled; i.e. no bolts.)

single fire guns

WTH are these? I hope the copper didn't really use that terminology! :banghead:

 

[ahadams]

Bruce - it's okay - really - remember we have more people than you and therefore far more incompetents than you (and so very many of ours want to be reporters)- don't worry that the reporter has his head in rectal defillade (let's see if the various censors catch that one! ) we here in the States are accustomed to that - right now, right here in MO we have people telling others that if the governor actually signs our concealed carry bill into law, there will be automatic weapons in elementary schools - lawyers are idiots!

 

[fallingblock]

Too right, Bruce....

I didn't get a phone call or letter before the N.T. cops came looking for those 'Qld. licence weapons' awhile back. Nevermind the address-change letter on file at Qld. weapons registry, OR my current N.T. licence.

I wonder if all the 'strict new gun laws' are going to have any effect on the criminal misuse of firearms?

Oh well, thanks to the Qld.-induced 'raid', I now have two approved 'safe storage' inspections

 

[hipower22]

A gun was stolen in a break and enter at Cowra last year.

WOW! Obviously a hot-bed of criminal activity.

Must have been a quiet news day.

 

[fallingblock]

If is spells G-U-N it leads...

I think the media here just like the word GUN!

Typical associate words are: evil, murderous, illegal, criminal, rampage, stolen, crime, man, play, fire, culture, rings, suicides and, of course, laws, tough, new.

In the old days it could be used to note someone who was tops at what they did, as in:
Jackie Howe was a gun shearer.