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Letter from Australian Customs Simon Latimer 4 April 2008 Dear SSAA National, I refer to your email of 17 March 2008 requesting statistics in relation to the seizing by Customs of attempted illegal firearm importations. The following figures relate to firearms that are prohibited or restricted imports that were detected by Customs and were not declared in accordance with Customs import requirements: The figure for 2005-2006 includes a significant detection of a commercial importation of replica guns (2668) that were not correctly declared to Customs. I note there are no legislative provisions that require import permission for the importation of toy guns, therefore, the statistics do not include toy firearms. However, replica firearms do require import permission as provided for in the Customs (Prohibited Imports) Regulations 1958 - any undeclared importations will be incorporated into the figures set out above. As you may be aware, Customs employ a number of methods to detect undeclared firearms upon importation into Australia. These include the use of x-ray technology, risk management techniques, cargo intervention and information provided to Customs. We are unable to provide you with a breakdown of the number of firearms detected using our various intervention methods. I trust the information provided will be of assistance to you. You are welcome to quote a Customs spokesperson if you are using the information above. Finally, I apologise again for the delay in responding to your query. Regards, Simon Latimer |