More than two dozen WA residents own more than 100 firearms each — all approved by police – Michmutters
Categories
Australia

More than two dozen WA residents own more than 100 firearms each — all approved by police

More than two dozen people in WA own more than 100 licensed firearms, each of which would have been individually approved by police, figures tabled in state parliament have revealed.

The numbers, which provide an insight into gun ownership in WA, were disclosed on Wednesday in response to questions from the Shadow Minister for Police, Peter Collier.

The figures show there are 178 people in WA with more than 25 firearms, including 34 people who have more than 50 of them, and 26 who have more than 100.

“I was, I’ve got to say, a little confronted by the figures,” Mr Collier told ABC Radio Perth host Nadia Mitsopoulos on Friday.

“But having said that, we need to have perspective on this issue.

“And that is that almost all of these multiple gun owners, I would assume, would be collectors or gun enthusiasts, or there’d be a valid reason.”

Shooting club president says numbers lack context

The numbers do not specify the classifications of the firearms, meaning they could include rifles, shotguns, handguns or paintball guns.

The numbers also do not include gun dealers.

Man in a suit in tie looks very serious while speaking to a group of people.
Shadow Police Minister Peter Collier requested the data from the state government.(ABC News: Cason Ho)

Paul Fitzgerald, WA president of the Sporting Shooters’ Association of Australia, said the numbers were high but lacking in context.

“We can talk about an individual that may run a paintball business, for example, in Western Australia,” he said.

“And there’s a number of those, and they may well have 300 or 200 paintball markers on their individual license in order to run that business.”

He said people that shoot competitively may also have 10 or 20 different firearms to compete in different divisions.

Firearms need individual approval

Under WA law, each of the 178 people in WA who have more than 25 firearms would need to obtain a license from police for each weapon.

.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *