NSW LIBERAL Democratic Senator David Leyonhjelm says 800,000 firearms owners have been placed in the “deplorables basket” due to a government decision to tighten gun control measures.
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The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) met today in Canberra and reclassified lever action shotguns with a capacity of greater than five rounds into Category D.
Those with a capacity of less than five rounds were moved into Category B.
Both were previously available to gun owners with a Category A licence but were re-classified as part of a review of the National Firearms Agreement (NFA).
But Senator Leyonhjelm said there were now 800,000 firearms owners in Australia who feel they have been placed in the “deplorables basket” and won’t be voting for the major parties at the next election.
He said COAG had not addressed what would happen to thousands of lever action shotguns that were already in private hands, particularly those that had been legally fitted with a magazine extension.
“Assuming there is no buyback, what will prevent them being used by terrorists and armed criminals – just like they haven’t been for the last 100 years?” he said.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the meeting of state and territory leaders had agreed to strengthen the NFA by tightening the classification of lever-action shotguns.
“This is the first time the national firearms agreement has been strengthened in this way in 20 years and it continues Australia's strong approach to the regulation of firearms,” he said.
“It reflects detailed discussions with all jurisdictions and stakeholders.
“As we've previously foreshadowed, the Commonwealth has also secured agreement from the states and territories to undertake a national gun amnesty expected to commence in mid-2017.
“This is aimed at reducing the number of unregistered firearms in Australia.
“It is not a buy back; it is not targeting law abiding firearm owners.”
A poll that ran on Fairfax Agricultural Media this week saw respondents overwhelmingly opposed to re-classifying the Adler as a Category D weapon.
Of the 6109 total votes received, 6012 respondents voted ‘no’ and a mere 97 voted yes’, on the question “Should the Adler 110 lever action shotgun be re-classified as a Category D weapon?”
That amounts to 98.41 per cent voting against placing the gun in the toughest classification category and only a minuscule 1.59pc agreeing its access should be tightly limited.
Labor Shadow Justice Minister Clare O’Neil said her party welcomed the classification of the Adler A110 lever-action shotgun with a capacity of over five rounds as a Category D weapon.
Ms O’Neil said Labor had consistently supported protecting John Howard’s world-leading gun laws by tightening restrictions on the Adler.
But she said while her party welcomed COAG’s decision, the manner of reaching it had been “appalling”.
“Both Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull reportedly attempted to trade our gun laws for the vote of Senator Leyonhjelm in the Senate,” she said.
“The Liberals and the Nationals split on gun control in the Senate, with members of Mr Turnbull's own cabinet refusing to vote in support of a cabinet decision to extend the import ban on the Adler A110.
“Two years of shifting and splitting on gun control has had serious consequences.”
Ms O’Neil said there was much more work to be done to ensure the continued safety of Australians against gun violence.
She said Adlers had “flooded” into Australia, with more than 7000 reported to be on order.
But Victorian Nationals Senator and gun enthusiast Bridget McKenzie said she was “incredibly disappointed” that Labor and Liberal premiers had today decided to turn their backs on evidenced based decision-making, on national firearms regulations.
She said COAG’s decision to place a lever action shotgun into the same category as a high powered semi-automatic rifle, believing the two weapons were equivalent, “beggars belief”.
“If there is any evidence there, or rationale, other than to play the politics of fear, I’d love to see it,” she said.
“It’s incredibly disappointing that they’ve decided to go down this path but let’s see what happens when they take this back to their state legislatures.”
Senator McKenzie also dismissed accusations of Coalition disunity over the Adler issue, by the Opposition.
“This is about state premiers making a decision – it’s not the federal government – and I’m incredibly disappointed they turned their back on rational policy,” she said.