By NSW Police establish firearms classification working party.
A major frustration for many in the Australian shooting industry has been witnessing NSW Police categorise certain firearms differently to their jurisdictional counterparts.
Time and time again, these inconsistencies have led to certain firearms being prohibited in NSW when they are available to be owned and used by appropriately licensed shooters in all other states and territories in Australia.
SIFA has been representing these issues to NSW Police, whilst seeking to understand the categorisation processes undertaken, so that we could provide clarity back to industry stakeholders.
In what comes as a huge step forward, we are extremely pleased to see that after listening to our concerns (and the concerns of many others), NSW Police have announced the formation of a Firearms Classification Working Party (FCWP).
The primary responsibility of this ‘working party’ will be to oversee a comprehensive review of NSW Police firearms classification practices, and the development of a firearms classification framework.
Following an expression of interest process by NSW Police, seeking industry representation on the group, SIFA is pleased to announce that our CEO James Walsh has been successfully appointed to sit as a member of the working party.
One of our main goals will be to use this forum to work with NSW Police to highlight and hopefully address the inconsistencies in firearms categorisation, particularly with the application of appearance-based controls.
SIFA would like to thank the NSW Police for taking this consultative approach, and for proactively engaging with the shooting industry.
We look forward to working with them and other industry representatives over the coming months on this incredibly important project.
