Hot of the presses of the Sydney Morning Herald.
Friday, August 27, 1999
Spotlight on gun use in country areas
By LINDA MORRIS
Police tracked gun licence renewals in at least 12 regional centres in country
NSW, according to statistics obtained under the NSW Freedom of
Information Act.
NSW Firearms Registry data shows gun licence renewals had been separated
for 12 "specified" postcode areas, centring on Tamworth, Grafton, Goulburn,
Wagga Wagga, Bathurst, Dubbo, Mudgee and Broken Hill, Lismore and
Cessnock.
The leader of the National Party, Mr Souris, said any move to track
reapplications for firearm licences in country NSW could only be seen as
discriminatory.
He said it was extraordinary to single out rural gun licence reapplications when
city guns owners were more likely to use their weapons for criminal purposes
than rural people who had a genuine need for firearms.
But the Minister for Police, Mr Whelan, said there had been no attempt to
single out any particular group. The data had probably been generated
following a specific request by police.
The firearms registry "as a matter of course does not query or take any action
on the basis of regional areas or postcodes".
"I'm told the document referred to was probably the result of a specific request
and that was most likely from one or more regional commanders wanting to
know the statistics in their area. The registry advises me rural people, or any
group for that matter, are not singled out for particular treatment," he said.
Preliminary figures compiled by the NSW Firearms Registry show as many as
993,000 guns are now registered in NSW after the introduction of strict laws
banning automatic and semi-automatic weapons and establishing a national
register of guns.
The registry sampled 11,912 of 93,481 reapplications made between January
and July last year, before the expiry of the gun buyback offer. A note on the
files indicates data was also compiled for local area commands and regional
police districts within the specified areas.
Following disclosure about the size of the legal gun stockpile, the Premier, Mr
Carr, ruled out any relaxation of the State's gun laws, including a reduction in a
28-day cooling off period for the issuing of second guns and a parliamentary
inquiry into gun laws. The NSW Sporting Shooters Association backed the
National Party's calls for a wider parliamentary inquiry into the operations of
the State's gun laws and a reduction in the cooling off period for second guns,
saying checks on a licence holder should hold for all guns.
"We can understand any government would be hesitant about changing the
legislation and agreement reached between the States but if we can have open
and bipartisan review we would like to think it would come up with proposals
which would not weaken the firearms laws but make them more workable," its
spokesman, Mr Roy Smith, said.
Duncan
PS
Notice the date? Nothing like reading tomorrows newspaper that day before
