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http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,5811395%5E421,00.html
from The Australian
from The Australian
Race to beat guns ban
By Mark Butler
January 08, 2003
A MAJOR gunmaker is flooding the Victorian market with 2000 semiautomatic pistols ahead of a national ban on the weapons.
The $2 million shipment of Italian-made Beretta guns arrived last week.
The 2000 weapons represent almost a quarter of the total number of handguns imported last financial year.
At least three of the Beretta models are on a list of weapons the Federal Government intends to ban after last year's Monash University shootings.
Beretta plans to sell the pistols before the ban comes into effect on June 30.
Beretta Australia spokesman Luca Scribani Rossi yesterday said the law was not clear and he would sell the guns to licensed dealers and shooters.
He confirmed the shipment - which is still being processed by Customs - includes the models 8000 Cougar, 87 Cheetah and 81 .32 calibre, which are all on the to-be-banned list.
Shooters holding banned handguns on June 30 are supposed to hand them over to authorities as part of a Federal Government buyback.
Authorities are still working to establish the compensation value of guns surrendered.
Mr Scribani Rossi said orders for the guns were taken as far back as May.
"I am carrying out a lawful business. We want to explore every niche of the market in Australia," he said.
Despite mounting national concern about guns, Beretta has shown remarkable growth in Australia in recent years.
Mr Scribani Rossi said the company sold 227 firearms here in 2000 but sales leapt to 1350 last year.
He said Australia should be more concerned about a flourishing trade in black-market guns.
"I'm worried when I know people can buy illegal handguns in the pub easy. They just have to have the cash in hand," he said.
Gun Control Australia president John Crook said some of the weapons in the Melbourne shipment would inevitably end up in the wrong hands.
And he said there was no guarantee that licensed shooters would not use the guns to kill, as allegedly happened at Monash University in October.
Huan Yun Xiang, a fourth-year commerce student, was allegedly carrying five licensed guns when he allegedly shot dead two classmates and wounded five others.
Mr Crook said gunmakers and distributors were working against the spirit of the new gun laws by trying to offload the weapons before they became illegal.
He said state and federal governments had not gone far enough in restricting the number of handguns allowed into Australia.
"The ministers have been far too lax in formulating the new handgun laws," Mr Crook said. "They should have either banned handguns altogether or severely restricted handgun importations for only Olympic and Commonwealth Games competition," Mr Crook said.
Combined Firearms Council of Victoria chairman Sebastian Ziccone said he believed the Berettas should be handed over to those who had ordered them.
He said any attempt to block the sale of lawfully ordered guns would be unfair. "You're going to have a big issue here. A lot of dealers are going to go to the wall here," he said.
Prime Minister John Howard pushed for the banned list after the Monash University shootings in which two people were killed and five others wounded.
He spoke strongly of the need for reform after the Herald Sun revealed the alleged shooter legally owned seven handguns.
"The Herald Sun ... posed the quite legitimate rhetorical question 'How on earth can these be legally available?' I think it is a question every Victorian would be asking," he said at the time.
Minister for Justice Chris Ellison announced last month that tough new specifications would put 500 handgun models on a banned list.
Australian Customs Service figures show 8829 handguns were legally imported into Australia in 2001-2002. Officers seized 306 illegal handguns.
© The Australian
