Page 260 - Week 01 - Thursday, 14 February 1991
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In respect of the recommendation that the licensing of persons be restricted to persons over 18 years of age, the Bill does not provide for an absolute lower age, but provides the Registrar with wide powers to refuse a licence to a person, including refusal based on age. Presently a person under the age of 18 years may be licensed for a long-arm. The Bill enables an under-age person to be licensed only in order to participate in competition shooting events. All the other criteria on which a licence may be granted also have to be met. Further, an under-age person may possess a firearm only while under supervision at a range, or while taking part in a competition. At all other times the firearm must be in the possession of a licensed adult. The Government considers that stringently supervised competitive shooting by young people should be permitted, and I am very impressed by the responsible attitude of the ACT shooting clubs with regard to the use of firearms by minors. I am firmly of the view that an exposure to firearms by young people in a regulated environment is immeasurably preferable to their using guns illegally and without proper training and supervision.
Turning now to the Bill itself, it establishes a system of dual registration. Every person who owns or uses a weapon will have to be licensed, and every weapon he or she owns or uses will have to be registered on that licence. The requirement to register each weapon on a licence will ensure that a person only ever has in his or her possession a weapon of a kind which is required for the reason for which his or her licence was granted. Each applicant for a licence will have to satisfy a number of criteria prior to obtaining a licence. These criteria, especially those requiring the applicant to be a fit and proper person and to establish an approved reason why he or she has need of a weapon, comprise the most fundamental aspects of the Bill. The various approved reasons for requiring a weapon are detailed in clause 5 of the Bill.
In establishing to his or her satisfaction that an applicant for a dangerous weapons licence is fit and proper, the Registrar is obliged to have regard to certain matters specified in clause 24, including whether the applicant has been, within the previous eight years, the subject of a restraining order or a domestic violence protection order. However, in addition, the Registrar may take into account any other relevant factors such as whether the applicant is subject to any mental or emotional instability, or is dependent upon drugs or alcohol, and also whether, because of age or physical fitness, the applicant can safely operate a weapon.
By specifying the approved reasons for which a person may require a weapon, the Bill goes well beyond some State and Territory legislation which leaves this to be determined at the discretion of the licensing officer. Clause 5 also provides for a person who recreationally shoots or hunts only in another State or Territory to have an approved reason for requiring a firearm and thereby to obtain a
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