Bureaucracy gone mad?

[Woodwould]

I don't like guns as a rule, however, I inherited several beautiful flintlock 'shooting pieces' which I disposed of before leaving Ireland and I really enjoyed just handling, admiring and owning them.

I took a notion a while ago to make a walnut-stocked flintlock. I don't want to shoot it, but I do like the idea of making an iconic accoutrement that most gentlemen of the eighteenth century would have owned. I mainly want to make a walnut stock, fettle some brass and steel parts and assemble a reasonably accurate copy of a (non-functioning) puff-bang pistol or blunderbuss.

There are a myriad of flintlock kits available in the US (who'd have guessed!) making it possible to knock up a working firearm with not much more than a screwdriver and some sandpaper.

I made enquiries with one US company about shipping a lock, barrel and a few other related bits of gun furniture to Australia and received a very daunting and lengthy response requiring various Australian permits and import documents before they would entertain my order.

I made enquires here and was informed by a gun dealer, a gun club and (through a friend) the police, that the only possible means to acquire something as innocuous as a triggerguard was to first join a gun club that specialised in black powder weapons, remain in good standing within the club for a period of one year, and only then could I approach a gun dealer and request him to purchase the parts on my behalf!

I realise there was a concerted effort some years ago to reduce the number of legally and illegally held firearms by the great unwashed, but is my desire to own a facsimile of an unwieldy, out-of-date puff-bang unreasonable, or has this country gone completely off the rails?

[Waldo]

G'day Woodwould,

Tis sad but true. I have my Dad's old target air rifle, to keep that as well as ticking the boxes of storage I had to join a target rifle club. The cost of doing so was piling up, I only wanted to keep the gun not use it.

So I enquired, more for verification so I knew I was doing the right thing - I had two choices:

• have it disenabled, which to me was akin to not really having the rifle (but still requires a gun licence); or
• or change my Licence from target shooting to hunting, which all I had really to do was to get a bit of paper from the DSE.

This was done all on the day my Licence was up for renewal/expiry. A friendly cop told me the 2nd dot point, which I knew, but only after talking to three cops in Licensing at Know copshop.

So, I was told to complete the required forms for my license, all but sending the original bit of paper granting me permission to hunt on Crown Land - which gave me time to get the paper from DSE and I would then receive my application back from Licensing with 28 days to comply.

Now, my Licence has expired and I having wait to have returned to me the incomplete paperwork for me to get it returned complete does mean I am legal, though stored legally and am waiting for either the cops to send me the paperwork to complete and then inspect my gun storage etc; or bash down my door charge me have to explain why I have a gun without a current licence although its in the paperwork somewhere (not trusting that all heads talk to each other, although the visit will be from Licencing at Knowfield).

But in answer to your problem and as I understand it, there are a few things:

• to get a gun license (in your case which applies to me also - Category A or A and B longarms) you need proof of membership of a target shooting club, or permission from a land holder to shoot on their property or be a land holder, i.e. farmer in which case you need to show a rates notice and show proof of area of land owned. From the Victorian Firearms Licence Renewal Application Guidelines - Category A or A & B Longarms, " Copy of your current membership card of an approved shooting club or organisation."

There is no need to have it for 12 months. When I first got my licence I only had to show a letter from the president of the gun club that I had membership if I could not provide a membership card. On the Category A or A & B Longarms Renewal Application you have to either one of two things:

• approved sporting club/organisation's endorsement stamp, including signature of nominated person or

• Provide a copy of your membership card.

In other answers to your problem, and which is much more expensive to do you need a collectors licence. But to do so costs megabucks as you have to store the guns in a certain way.

But all said and done you need to get it from the horses mouth, and when I can find it I'll post up a phone number and a woman to ring direct at Licencing at Knox.

One other point, a category A licence lets you keep: airguns: paintball firearms, shotguns (not semi-automatic or pump action); and combiation of a shotgun and rimfire rifle; muzzle loading shotguns.

Category B lets you keep: muzzle loading firearms (except shotguns); center fire rifles (including pump action not automatic or semi-automatic); any combination of a shotgun, and center fire rifles, or black powder ball firing cannon. (category B automatically lets you use Cat A firearms).

[Waldo]

Woodwould, phone Emma on 9247 6029 at Firearms Licencing at Knowfield copshop (I'm pretty sure that's the phone not the fax) explain the situation and she will easily tell you what you need to do. She is the only one I spoke to who could tell me the right thing when I needed something confirmed before I did it.

Even a gun dealer I spoke to ballsed up the real info!

[Woodwould]

Thanks Waldo!

It all involves ridiculous quantities of money and copious ammounts of red tape which I couldn't be bothered with just to own an ornament.

Apparently I could even be prossecuted for making/owning a replica flintlock pistol stock if it could be established a barrel could be fitted to it! Blimey! I've innocently made very convincing 'replica' guns for the Channel Nine props department in the past. I don't remember all the details, but IIRC, apparently it saves them having to have an armourer on set.

[rrobor]

Every story has 2 sides. Can't remember which country it was that wanted to import these special steel pipes for their gas works. Turned out they were trying to build a great big gun capable of shooting rockets for several hundred miles. So as usual the innocent suffer because some damn idiot decdes he wants to shoot up something he thinks offends him. So Woodwould, ask yourself would you sleep better an night if it had been real easy to import gun bits. Back in Scotland I came from a place a few miles from Dunblane, an idiot went into the primary school there and shot kids. How many kids could he kill or maim with a blunderbus.

[Woodwould]

Every story has 2 sides. Can't remember which country it was that wanted to import these special steel pipes for their gas works. Turned out they were trying to build a great big gun capable of shooting rockets for several hundred miles. So as usual the innocent suffer because some damn idiot decdes he wants to shoot up something he thinks offends him. So Woodwould, ask yourself would you sleep better an night if it had been real easy to import gun bits. Back in Scotland I came from a place a few miles from Dunblane, an idiot went into the primary school there and shot kids. How many kids could he kill or maim with a blunderbus.

I was waiting for that argument! I fully accept your point, but surely to goodness, it should be legal to make a purely ornamental puff-bang with a sealed barrel. And before someone points out it wouldn't be difficult for some murderous individual to swap a sealed barrel for a functional one, there are many, many easier and more covert ways to concoct a gun. You can make a zip gun from a car aerial, a nail and an elastic band - even Biros have been used for ghetto guns. It's impossible to prevent a determined criminal from making and/or firing a weapon if he sets his mind to it.

[dazzler]

I was waiting for that argument! I fully accept your point, but surely to goodness, it should be legal to make a purely ornamental puff-bang with a sealed barrel. .

I think that if it looks like a gun its declared to be a gun under law

[funkychicken]

Make the trigger guard yourself and don't tell the cops

[AlexS]

It's not a trigger guard, officer .....
It's a carrying handle for a lump of wood.

[bsrlee]

Be thankful you are not in NSW - it is relatively easy to own a real firearm, but if you have a non-functional replica then you have a 'prohibited article' - last person I heard of who was charged with possession of a replica got 2 years - and that was after the item in question was declared by the Firearms Registry NOT to be a replica, but someone from another section disagreed & they conned the dope into pleading guilty - so there was no cross examination of 'expert' witnesses.

But don't worry, Victoria has promised to amend their legislation to follow NSW down the looney path.

[rrobor]

Its very easy to believe its all the fault of the law but once you start making exceptions you muddy the water and make it easier for idiots to get hold of things. Customs are going to have nightmares as to is it, or is it not a gun, can it be modified and so on. Now anyone can turn a wooden barrel and paint it to look real, a firing mechanism is tougher but why does it need to , as Woodwould say go puff bang. If I hadnt come to Australia there would have been a very good chance that one of my daughters would have been in Dunblane school when a gunman killed 16 kids and a teacher. So no, lets not make it easy for maniacs. The price for that is you may have to forgo a toy.

[.RC.]

Its very easy to believe its all the fault of the law but once you start making exceptions you muddy the water and make it easier for idiots to get hold of things.

If you give up liberties for safety, you deserve neither...

And the country building the "super gun" was Iraq..It was for "launching satellites into space" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Babylon

[rrobor]

That's a platitude. Without law we would be subjected to the rabble. So yes some law we dont like and some we do, and to change the law you have a vote. Its called democracy.

[.RC.]

Its called democracy.

Except modern democracy is highly flawed..

I also did not mention getting rid of various laws, merely how Australians have sacrificed liberties for the illusion of safety...The free'est we ever were was in the seventies, now it feels like we are in communist russia..

How long till we become like the brits...Hell they shot an innocent person in cold blood in the name of "terrorism" and there was zero culpability on the people who ordered the shooting..

[Calm]

I dont like the restrictions either

but

think about the poor bank teller/shop assistant with a weapon pointed at them

Do you think they can tell it's not going to kill them - or should they ask "by the way is that a real gun or just a replica" youre pointing at me.

As with all rules they are made for the minoroty and restrict the majority.

Cheers