The successful WA Parliamentary Motion to review the state’s Firearms Act and Regulations (introduced by Shadow Attorney General Nick Goiran) is a welcome positive step for shooters in the West, even if it’s not the “magic bullet” many are hoping for.
Under the Motion – which passed unanimously, with even The Greens and The Animal Justice Party supporting it - the legislation has been referred to the Standing Committee on Legislation for a full report; expected to take somewhere between three to six months at a minimum.
Our understanding is that unfortunately the Act and Regulations will remain in effect during the Review, which doesn’t help with the many issues with the new laws which are causing chaos right now.
Shooters Union WA state advocate Steve Harrison says the successful motion was a community effort by a lot of different people, and is a key acknowledgement the ALP Government got things extremely wrong with the laws.
“No one group or organisation can claim success for this – this has been a community effort by every shooter in WA, including the 32,000 who signed the petition that was binned,” he said.
“We can’t control the review, but we have some expectation it will provide some moderated and improved outcomes on the impact of the legislation.
“We don’t want to get our hopes up, since the review process is going to take a long time, but after years of being ignored, abused, gaslit, and literally told to ‘get another hobby’, it’s good to see the Government rolling over and finally admitting they got it demonstrably wrong.”
We have made a formal submission to the Review, but cannot release it until the Committee itself makes it public - we will be sure to let you know when that happens!
