Posted on 10/02/2015 7:05:15 PM PDT by naturalman1975
(2) Apply for a handgun licence (the rules don't allow you to apply for higher level licences unless you already have a basic one). This one will be reviewed more closely and you may have to attend the police station to attend an interview with a Sergeant responsible for licencing in your area. Even a minor or old criminal record may be a problem in this case. The Sergeant can also form a judgement that you are 'not a fit and proper person' in which case, you'd have to appeal that decision. They are only supposed to do this if they have concerns about your intentions or mental state. Most people will have little difficulty here, but if you happen to have a bad local officer, they can make things difficult and I have heard of that happening.
(3) With the licence, you can now go gun shopping - and this is where the biggest problem exists in my view. You need to get a 'permit to acquire' the firearm you once, once you've chosen it. The first time you do this, there's a minimum 28 day period before you can purchase the firearm. Once you've done it once, there's no minimum but it can still easily take a couple of weeks for the permit to get issued for no good reason I can see.
Technically you can apply for the permit at the same time you apply for the licence, but that's generally not recommended as it seems to trigger alarm bells that can cause delays with both.
Once you've got the handgun, it has to be registered.
(Note, this is how it works in my state - details can differ from state to state).
It's overly complicated, and bureaucratic and a complete waste of time. And some people seem to get denied for spurious reasons - but I've never had that problem, and most people I know haven't either.
Thanks for the clarification on firearms in AU. Hopefully, the more unreasonable regulations will eventually be discarded.
Are there any restrictions as to manufacturer, model, magazine capacity, etc?
For instance could one purchase an 8 round capacity 1911 pistol but not a 13 round model by a different manufacture even though it was the same caliber?
Additionally is there any way for a law abiding private citizen to legally carry one concealed in public?
I’m truly grateful for the information. I don’t want to be ignorant on the subject. Thanks in advance.
L
Really sorry, but I thought of a couple of more questions after looking at the pictures in the link you provided.
I noticed all the rifles are bolt actions and the shotguns all appear to be pump action. Are there additional restrictions on semi automatic firearms?
Once again I’m grateful for the information.
Best,
L
Yes - although there are specialised licences to get around that (which means you will find some gun shops openly sellig 'prohibited category weapons' because the word 'prohibited' doesn't really mean what it says). A basic handgun licence though has calibre restrictions (basically .38 or 9mm being the largest allowed), barrel length restrictions (4 inches for revolvers, five inches for semi-automatics as minimums) and no more than ten round magazines. I don't think much of any of these rules, but I've managed to find a couple of handguns I am happy with within them, and so haven't bothered trying for a specialised licence.
Additionally is there any way for a law abiding private citizen to legally carry one concealed in public?
The simple answer is no according to statute law, but it is a very grey area - because it involves the 'common law right' of self defence and we generally don't codify common law (which is generally considered an 'unwritten' part of our constitution and any codification is likely to weaken it). A strict interpretation of the letter of the law would say no, but it's not that simple. I very rarely carry a handgun, but would have no real issue with doing so if I felt the need - for example, if we were under high terror alert. But I've got certain advantages in that area (more than twenty years in the defence force would be likely to be looked on more favourably than if a 'typical' person did this.
If you happen to use a gun in self defence in Australia, the sensible thing to say is "I just happened to have it on me" (and ideally have a credible reason for that) because police do take a dim view of people going armed and can make your life very difficult if they want to. In my case, I doubt that they would - but they might give somebody else a much harder time, and at the very least, it might be expensive to defend yourself in court, even if you win.
Yes - I mentioned earlier the basic A/B licence. That really restricts you to non-semi-automatics, and is the only licence that is what I would call easy to get.
Any semi-automatic will require a C licence, and that's not too hard but I wouldn't call it easy - it's about the same as handgun licence (which is technically 'Category H') - but I'd say 90% or more of people never bother going above an A/B licence and so most gun shops don't carry much in the range of C category firearms - you need to go to a specialist for that and my local dealer isn't a specialist.
Most things seen as 'military style' (the 'scary black gun;) is likely to be Category D, and a D licence is genuinely hard to get. There's also a Category E but I have never heard of anything like an ordinary civilian getting a E licence. That is things like genuine machine guns and similar.
They want to disarm you and let the killing begin, open season
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