Once again the Western Australian Government has put its boot into its law abiding firearm owners by coming up with the Firearms Amendment Bill 2021 to parliament, which in its current form could be interpreted to ban reloading ammunition, the possession of reloading presses and dies, and the possession of firearms reference manuals without a special dispensation from the state Police Commissioner.
Our WA branch has a meeting with the Shadow Police Minister next month to discuss our many, many concerns over the Bill but we need the help of our WA members in contacting their MP to voice their concerns over the Bill.
You can find your local MP’s details here: https://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/Parliament/memblist.nsf/screenLCMembersElectorate
In particular, the sections shooters need to be concerned about are Section 43, 23AG & AH, which define “Firearms Technology” as:
“(a) a thing that is programmed, configured or otherwise enabled to carry out a step in the manufacture or repair of a firearm, major firearm part, prohibited firearm accessory or ammunition; or without limiting subparagraph (i), to change an object into a component of a firearm, major firearm part, prohibited firearm accessory or ammunition;
(b) any type of digital or electronic reproduction of a technical drawing of the design of a firearm, major firearm part, prohibited firearm accessory or ammunition;
(c) a plan, drawing, instruction, template or computer program, in digital or electronic form, for the manufacture or repair of a firearm, major firearm part, prohibited firearm accessory or ammunition;
(d) a hard copy of a digital or electronic thing referred to in paragraph (b) or (c) And then goes on to state “A person who is in possession of firearms technology commits a crime unless the person is authorised by a licence under this Act to be in possession of firearms technology. Penalty for this subsection: imprisonment for 10 years.”
A regular Firearms Licence does not appear to authorise a shooter to be in possession of “Firearms Technology”, and the definition of “Firearms Technology” is so broad as to, in our view, encompass reloading presses, reloading dies, bullet moulds, loading manuals, load data, cartridge schematics, and detailed firearm repair manuals.