GCA’s priorities in the current gun control environment remain tightlyfocused on training and handguns.

Both issues were opportunities missed when National and State lawmakers adopted the Uniform Agreement on Gun Laws following the Port Arthur Massacre in April 1996.

Progress towards tougher training limps along within the Federal Attorney General’s Department.

Progress towards tougher handgun controls follows the usual knee-jerk pattern practised by gun control legislators worldwide – “do nothing unless there’s a massacre.”

Gun dealers, criminals, gun collections, pistol clubs, pistol imports and the security industry remain weak links in the handgun problem, and deserve a concerted, focused study by the Police Ministers Council, due to meet again soon.

We can see a number of phases in Australia’s gun problem history:

The Post-World-War-2 Phase which saw a great increase in the gun inventory and a considerable increase in yearly gun deaths.
the Gun Massacre Phase of 1987-1998, which saw 32 multiple death shootings.
the current Handgun Phase, which has seen a considerable decrease in deaths by long-guns generally and in multiple death shootings, but a disturbing increase in criminal-based handgun shootings.

GCA calls on the upcoming Police Ministers Council to look long, hard and holistically at handguns in Australia. For three years we have called on the police ministers to start taking the handgun problem seriously – now is the time gentlemen.