In an article by journalist Nigel Hunt in Adelaide’s Sunday Mail on 15 September 2007 we are told that:

“A TWO YEAR police operation targeting gun owners has resulted in more than 1000 weapons being seized or surrendered.”

In the 05-06 financial year the operation looked at about 1900 gun owners and found:

“This resulted in 422 guns being seized, 366 being surrendered by owners and 30 unregistered firearms and four silencers being found. There were also 134 people reported for various breaches of the Firearms Act that included being unlicensed, holding unregistered guns and storing guns and ammunition incorrectly.”

In the financial year 06-07 about 1500 gun owners were checked:

“..which resulted in 60 being reported and six arrests for breaches. Police also seized 264 guns and located another 42 unregistered”

The article reports that the SA Firearms Branch also conducted its own audit in the financial year 06-07 which concentrated on security companies, firearms dealers, and others as identified by intelligence sources. About 500 people were checked. This resulted in:

“203 guns being seized and 34 people being reported for various breaches of the Act. Another 109 people were found not to be complying with storage requirements and were cautioned”

The Officer in Charge of the Firearms Branch Chief Inspector Jim Langmead is quoted as saying:

“The vast majority of firearms owners are responsible people…but some do not realise the strict requirements for the storage of both firearms and ammunition”

The facts shown above do not support such an benign appraisal of shooters misbehaviour.

There is an unfortunate willingness by authorities to pretend that the dangerous behaviour of shooters is not a serious problem for the Australian community. Recently the Australian Institute of Criminology was willing to ignore the fact that they were helping fundraise for an organisation which has a major interest in destroying our hard-won gun laws and is an affiliate of an extremist American gun organisation. In their fund-raising effort for the Sporting Shooters Association and a large international gun manufacturer the Institute’s display informed its mainly shooter audience that the matter of gun theft might become an issue in the future – this, in our opinion is a highly irresponsible attitude to take to one of the greatest gun problems which has existed in Australia for over a decade and still is confronting the Australian community.

This same superficial attitude to community safety is inherent in SA Inspector Langmead’s attitude when he describes shooters as ‘not realising’ the strict requirements of gun and ammunition storage. Shooters aren’t that dumb Inspector, As we see it, a sizeable minority of them just don’t care.