Ask The Australian Gun Owner

In My Humble Opinion
1

Well, there have been more than a few firearm related threads on the SDMB of late, so I thought I’d create another one… :wink:

I post on a number of Military Surplus Firearms Collector’s boards, and the amount of ignorance about Australian gun laws and shooting in Australia is astounding- I often hear comments about “Guns being banned in Australia” and the likening of our Government to a Communist or Nazi regime.

Anyway, in the interests of educating, enlightening, and hopefully fighting some Ignorance, feel free to Ask The Australian Gun Owner questions about shooting, hunting, collecting, and firearms ownership/legislation in Australia!

Over to you…

2

Do Australian gun laws vary by state or are they a matter for the national government?

Are Australians permitted to own handguns, rifles, shotguns, etc? Are there any types which are specifically banned?

What about de-activated collectibles and replicas?

Must firearms be registered with the government? Is there a license or training requirement?

3

Re the shooting and hunting questions:

What do you shoot with your gun?

4

Australian Gun laws vary by State, but they’re all based on a uniform set of laws agreed upon at a Police Minister’s Meeting in 1996.

The differences are in minor things like Storage Requirements (ie, what sort of safe you need to keep your guns in), how long it takes to get a Permit To Acquire (Mandatory 28 day waiting period in NSW, as fast as they can process them in QLD, for example), and what you need to do to qualify as having a “Genuine Need” to own a gun (In all States, membership of a shooting club, and/or having lots of land to hunt on- in some States you need to do a certain number of competitions per year to keep rifles, in others you just have to shoot “regularly”.)

It is highly illegal to own a firearm for Self-Defence. The only legal reasons for firearm ownership are:

Hunting
Target Shooting
Collecting
(Security Firms, Gun Dealers, Armourers, and Theatrical Ordnance Suppliers are also, obviously, required to be licenced)

Handguns are legal provided you join a pistol club. You need to be a member for six months before you an apply for a pistol licence, and you’re limited to owning one handgun (any calibre) for the first year of being licenced. Handguns held for target shooting must have a barrel length of at least 100mm (revolvers) or 120mm (Semi Autos), and not be above .45 calibre. (In Queensland, .455 Webley, .45ACP, .45 Long Colt, and .45/70 are considered “.45 calibre”, and are legal to own).

All bolt and lever action rifles are legal in Australia, as are pump action rifles provided you don’t stick an M-16 mag in them.

Single-shot and double barrel shotguns are totally legal, as are lever action shotguns.

Pump and Semi-Auto shotguns are heavily restricted, but not impossible to get a licence for.

Self-Loading Centrefire Rifles are effectively banned.

The Categories are:

A: .22 rifles, shotguns, air rifles, paintball guns
B: Non-semi automatic centrefire rifles, and muskets made after 1/1/1901
C: Semi-auto .22s, pump action/semi-auto shotguns holding 5 or less rounds. (Restricted- only Farmers and Collectors can own working Category C firearms)
D: Self-loading Centrefire Firearms, pump action/semi-auto shotguns holding more than 5 rounds (Category D Firearms are effectively Banned- it is nearly impossible to acquire a licence for a function Category D Firearm.)
E: Body Armour, Extendable Batons (Security Guards only)
H: Handguns (being any firearm under 75cm in length, that is not also a Category C or D firearm.) This includes Air Pistols and Deactivated Pistols
M: Martial Arts weapons- Nunchaku, Sai, Shuriken, etc.
R: Restricted Weapons- Machine Guns, Rocket Launchers, Assault Rifles, Flame-Throwers, Anti-Tank Guns, Howitzers… all the fun stuff. :wink: (Collectors can get a licence for these, but they must be deactivated.)

All guns must be kept in a gun safe of some sort, made of solid steel and bolted to the floor.

Deactivated Category A, B, and C guns can be owned by anyone, no licence or registration required. Deactivated Category D, H, M, and R must be licenced and registered.

You must have a Firearms Licence to buy, own, or use guns. This involves doing a Safety Course, being a member of a Shooting Club (the Sporting Shooters Association Of Australia is fine), and filling in a lot of forms, as well as having somewhere safe to store your guns.

Each gun you buy needs a Permit To Acquire- permission from the Police to acquire that particular gun. These cost around $20 and take from 1-6 weeks to arrive, depending which State you live in. Firearms must be Registered, which is done when you buy the gun with your PTA.

Replica guns do not need to be licensed in Queensland (except replica Machine Guns and Assault Rifles), but other states have different laws.

I shoot foxes, hares, goats, pigs, deer, and other feral pests (depending what’s been declared a pest at the time), and I generally hunt with either a 1950 Longbranch No 4 Mk I* .303 Lee-Enfield rifle, or a 1946 Fazakarely No 5 Mk I “Jungle Carbine” .303 Lee-Enfield rifle.

5

I might have overlooked it, but…is there a rifle caliber limit, too?

Say I’m visiting someone in Sydney, and one night, all of a sudden—bam! The Living Dead start to overrun the city, infecting or devouring every human they can find. Realistically, how hard is it going to be for me to find some guns? (After seeing Shaun of the Dead, the question was raised in my mind. Granted, the film takes place in the U.K., not Australia, but it sure reminded this Yankee about vulnerability to zombie attacks when traveling abroad.) :smiley:

6

Firstly, as a general rule, no, there isn’t a rifle calibre limit in most places- although in Queensland you can’t own anything chambered in .50BMG (which includes the Barrett Sniper Rifle), and Western Australia has a reputation for telling people they can’t have certain calibres for no particular reason (“We’ve decided you don’t need a 7mm Remington Magnum for Deer Hunting- instead you can have a .270”). It basically boils down to how you justify owning each gun- although you don’t need a justification for .22 rifles, single-shot/double barrel shotguns, and air rifles- you can have as many of those as you want without having to provide a reason (beyond having a gun licence), at least in QLD and, I believe, Victoria.

I can’t really answer the second part of your question because I don’t live in Sydney (Which is in NSW), but in Brisbane (State Capital of Queensland), you wouldn’t have too much trouble finding a licensed gun owner, especially if the Zombies are invading. There are several excellent gun shops in Brisbane, and out of a State Population of 4,000,000 there are c. 120,000 people with firearms licences. Interestingly, there are approximately 1,000,000 registered guns in Queensland, and especially in rural areas, most families have (or know someone who as) at least one firearm.

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Suppose you found a specific rifle that you want, only it’s overseas. Is there a mechanism by which you could import it?

8

Yes, there is- and it’s surprisingly straightforward!

Basically, you apply for your Permit To Acquire normally, but attach a note to the effect that the firearm is to be imported from overseas, so can they please also give you a B709A (Customs Import Permit for Firearms)?

They issue both the PTA and the B709A, and when customs intercept the package with your gun in it (or you get off the plane with your gun, whichever the case may be), you hand over your B709A, Customs take your gun away for a week or two to “safety test it”, then you hand over your B709A, they give you your gun and get you to sign for it, at which point you take your gun to a licensed Firearms Dealer and, using your Permit To Acquire, get the firearm registered to your licence.

Even more amazingly, there’s no charge for any of this (except the Permit To Acquire), and the Customs Guys do know their stuff about guns- so people can’t try anything sneaky like try and pass an M1 Garand (semi-auto and therefore effectively illegal) off as a Bolt-Action .30-06 (which is perfectly legal).

Also, firearms being imported into Australia MUST have a safety catch (except revolvers, anything made before 1901, and modern muskets). This causes problems with some of the old handguns and rifles (things like the MAS36, Tokarev TT-33 and a lot of the old Browning Pocket Pistols, for example), as they have no safety catches.

Ironically, it’s almost impossible to get individual firearms out of the US, what with all the State Department Clearances, Export Permits, and what have you.

About the only places you can realistically import individual firearms from are New Zealand and the United Kingdom, but all new firearms sold in Australia are imported from overseas- the only guns still made in the country are the AUSTEYR Assault Rifle, used by the Australian Defence Forces, and the Australian International Arms M10 and No 4 Mk IV, which are 7.62x39 and .308WIN copies of the No 6 Experimental Trial Rifle (The “Australian Jungle Carbine”) and the Lee-Enfield No 4 Mk II.

9

Isn’t there an exception for primary producers (I believe this means essentially certain categories of farmers / ranchers) on items like pump action shotguns and self-loading .22s like the Ruger 10/22?

Is there anyway to openly display an antique firearm in ones home, or must they be put away in a gun safe at all times?

In the US, on certain public lands like National Forest and Bureau of Land Management lands, one can hunt and recreationally shoot. What are laws on this in Australia on public land?

When transporting a firearm from home to a legal place to shoot, what are the rules?

Are air-pistols and air-rifles similarly regulated as firearms?

I suspect that the my great-grandfather’s 1886 Winchester circa 1898 hanging on my wall and my NEF single shot .22lr behind my pickup’s seat and a console with ammuniton would get get me into plenty hotwater over there.

You have some very interesting and classic firearms from a US perspective with the Lee-Enfields BTW. What other firearms do you own?

I have my Grandfather’s 1886 and my single shot; I also currently store my nephew’s Anschutz Woodchucker, a youth model .22 LR with 5 shot magazine.

10

Are silencers (sound suppressors) legal to own?

11

Slightly off the firearms topic but category **M: Martial Arts Weapons ** got me wondering if switchblade (auto opening) knives are regulated.

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Both illegal.

13

So I’m in Brisbane as well and what I have wondered is why a person would want to own a gun. I’m from Bundaberg (rural town), and even there, I only knew 1 or 2 families who owned a gun.
So, why do you want to own a gun? And if someone broke into your house, would you use it in self defense (assuming they didn’t have a gun)?

14

This is true. Primary Producers can get a Category C licence, which allows pump-action shotguns and semi-auto .22 rifles.

Antique firearms (being any firearm made before January 1st, 1901 for which ammunition is not commercially available anywhere in the English-speaking world) are not considered “Firearms” and as such, it is legal to hang them on your wall, leave them on the coffee table, etc. Antique cap & ball or cartridge pistols must be registered, but are not required to be licensed, whereas antique rifles do not need to be registered or licenced.

They vary from State to State, but as a general rule it’s illegal to hunt on Public (Crown) land without a very hard to get permit from the appropriate authorities. However, it is legal to hunt on private property provided you have the landowner’s express permission. The upside of this is Australia has relatively few hunting laws, because Parks & Wildlife aren’t allowed on private property without a very good reason, AFAIK.

Again, it varies from State to State, but in Queensland the gun must have the bolt removed and be either locked in the boot of your car, or, if your car has no boot, stowed out of sight somewhere. Most people transport them in padlocked gun cases, though. NSW is slightly different- guns must be trigger locked and the carry case must be secured to the vehicle, preferably by either a cable or being bolted to it.

It goes without saying your gun must be unloaded while you’re transporting it- and this also means not having pre-loaded magazines in the car. However, pre-loaded charger clips (like those on the Lee-Enfield or Springfield '03) are generally fine.

Yes, they are. Air Rifles are Category A weapons, and Air Pistols are Category H weapons. I don’t know anyone who owns an Air Pistol, since the amount of hassle involved in getting one is exactly the same as a .22 pistol, or a .38, or a .357 magnum.

Yes, yes it would. If you had a licence to own those guns (and they’re not hard to get, despite what people say), owning them wouldn’t be a problem, but hanging them on the wall or driving around with them clearly visible in the back of your 4WD/Ute/Pickup would be.

In the interests of prudency I’m not going to list every gun I’ve got, but I do have a 1943 dated Husqvarna M38 Swedish Mauser in 6.5x55mm, as well as a c.1945 Webley Mk IV in .38 S&W. And yes, I do have a Martini-Enfield- made in 1895 by L.S.A., and chambered in in .303. All three are a lot of fun to shoot (and the Husqvarna is very accurate), but there’s something about the noise the Martini-Enfield makes when it ejects an empty shell that you have to be a lover of antique firearms to truly appreciate… :wink:

Silencers are highly, highly illegal. Interestingly, in NZ, they’re totally legal and even encouraged, so you don’t annoy people with the sound of gunfire when you’re hunting. Not here, though.

My interest in guns is mainly from an historic and collecting point of view, but I do enjoy hunting feral pests as well. Foxes, rabbits, hares, and so on cause a lot of damage to farmer’s crops, and I know a couple that are always more than happy for me and some hunting friends to go out to their property and shoot the ferals. We get to shoot our guns, the farmers get rid of some feral pests, and everyone wins!

Just as there are people who collect classic cars or toys, I collect and/or shoot classic guns. It’s all tied into history, at least for me. And just as some people enjoy golf and the skills involved in it, I enjoy the skills involved in target shooting, and the fact I can shoot military surplus rifles as a result is an even bigger bonus.

It’s against the law to own a gun for self-defence purposes in Australia.
More importantly, you have to keep your guns in a gun safe (with the ammunition stored separately), which precludes ready access to them in a hurry. So no, if someone broke into my house, I couldn’t legally use a gun in self defence, regardless of whether or not they were armed.

15

I wasn’t asking could you. I was asking if you think you would.

16

Is it true that in the Southern Hemisphere bullets exit rifles spinning in the opposite direction?

17

I don’t really have a question for you; I just wanted to mention that I have a Lee-Enfield No. 4 Mk I* in .303, and it’s been my hands-down favorite deer rifle for 25 years.

Back in the late '70s, there were a lot of these on the market here in the States, and the ammunition was cheap and plentiful as well - and we were able to get it in armor-piercing, tracer, incendiary, and FMJ ball (it’s a lot of fun, plinking in a gravel pit with tracer and incentiary rounds!) I’ve put thousands of rounds through my Enfield, and it still shoots 1/2-inch groups at 300 yards.

I guess I have a question after all. Are “specialty” ammunitions like the incendiaries available in Australia?

18

Yes. In fact it is this opposite direction of spinning bullets that creates the weather systems in the southern hemisphere. The spinning of the bullets creates vortices that have an effect on the rotation of air blowing in and out of low and high pressure systems. One of the arguments for restrictions on the firing of rifles is that there is a correlation between lower use of rifles and nicer weather. The main reason Darwin gets tropical cyclones is that there is a military base there and the associated use of firearms creates eddies which eventually manifest as severe storms. It’s a lot like the butterfly effect.

:wink:

19

It’s not an easily answered question, I’m afraid. The short answer is:

I really don’t know, and I pray I never have to find out.

Like I said, I shoot because I enjoy the sport and skill of it, not because I like killing things. (Thats what Computer Games are for :wink: ).

It’s a bit like asking if you could run someone over in your car because they were running at you with a Molotov Cocktail- it’s not something you think about, and it’s an eventuality you hope never arises, but if it does, you’ll deal with it as the situation warrants.

As for “Specialty” ammunition… it’s available to collectors (mainly tracer rounds), but it’s a fire risk to go hunting with it, so for all intents and purposes, No. The main types of ammo are Full Metal Jacket, Jacketed Hollowpoint/Soft Point, and Lead

20

Does a replica of a pre-1901 firearm count as an ‘antique’? For example, I have several Colt 1851 Navy replicas (Colt 2nd & 3rd generation, and Uberti) that are identical to the originals. Is the Australian law based solely on date of manufacture? Or is there a loophole for guns like the cap-and-ball Colt replicas? Here, you can order such firearms through the mail. IIRC they are considered antiques because they were designed before 1895 and do not fire fixed ammunition.