By Firearms Categorisation
The Shooting Industry Foundation of Australia (SIFA), recognises that:
- The underlying policy objective of firearms regulation in Australia is to ensure public safety and to facilitate the safe and responsible possession, carriage, use, registration, storage, and transfer of firearms.
- The National Firearms Agreement (the NFA) sets out the basis of how the Commonwealth, States and Territories approach firearms management.
Key messages:
- The primary control mechanism relied upon to achieve the policy objectives summarised above is licensing.
- The placement of firearms into categories simply confirms which license class is required to legally possess and use a particular type of firearm.
- Categorisation decisions are increasingly being politicised and are no longer the objective rules-based regulatory decisions intended in the National Firearms Agreement.
- Categorisation decisions are increasingly being used by regulators to frustrate policy objectives.
- Inconsistent and unpredictable classifications undermine our much-acclaimed uniform national gun laws and result in unacceptable regulatory uncertainty for industry.
SIFA position:
- That the decision-making authority for categorisation decisions must not be delegated and must always remain with the responsible Minister following best practice industry consultation.
- That all categorisation decisions be informed by an objective technical assessment of fundamental engineering principles (e.g., actuation and ammunition type) as per the NFA.
- That the category assigned in the ACIC National Firearms Information Database (NFID) at the point of importation or manufacture be the default category adopted by all states and territories.
- That the Firearms and Weapons Policy Working Group be held accountable for ensuring that all Ministerial advice regarding categorisation policy options is consistent across all jurisdictions.
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