By Paul Fitzgerald
State president Sporting Shooters Association of Australia (WA)
REMARKABLE statistics were released last week in the Western Australian Parliament, with Minister for Police Reece Whitby and WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch, interrogated with questions regarding the progress of the new firearms laws during Budget estimates. Shadow Minister for Police, the Liberals MLA Adam Hort, and The Nationals WA team of Peter Rundle, MLA, Lachlan Hunter, MLA and Scott Leary, MLA, represented the firearms community exceptionally well, with articulate and informed questions regarding the stalled progress of the WA Firearms Legislation. During questions to the minister, it was revealed in responses by the Police Commissioner that effective from June 25, 2025, and about 90 days after the new laws had come into effect, only 2856 existing firearm licence holders have successfully navigated through the digital firearm portal and have been issued with a renewal.
Figures quoted showed that 11,746 firearm owners had managed to create a profile on the digital dashboard and 8500 properties had registered with WA police. Commander Lawrence Panaia, who heads-up the entire firearm reform project, also clarified that firearm owners concerned about their 90-day transition period expiring on notice, and needing to upgrade their safe storage under the new laws, could provide WA Police with a receipt of the purchase of a new safe storage cabinet and this would be accepted – allowing firearm owners to renew their licence while they wait for their new cabinet to arrive.
In recent weeks, the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia (WA) and the highly respected member organisations of the WA Firearms Community Alliance, have been re-engaged in a working group with WA police. Heads of industry and peak bodies, individual firearm licence holders, professional shooters, hunters, club shooters and farmers are all arguing our case in the room. The general consensus has been that a change of attitude is becoming more and more evident, as the minister promised a ‘practical pragmatic approach’ under questioning in the hearings last week.
In social media echo chambers, calls for the whole thing to be scrapped have achieved nothing more than a distraction to the more pressing matter of addressing our concerns to the members of the Standing Committee on Legislation. With submissions having closed on Friday July 4, hopefully the committee will not have to sift through pages of AI-generated rhetoric and narrow-minded Texan escapee drivel to achieve good outcomes. In due course, the committee will publish the results of the submissions and make its recommendations to the WA Parliament. The next challenge for the minister will be how much can be repaired within the confines of the Firearms Regulations, versus having to give serious consideration to opening up the Firearms Act in a show of leadership and trust with the respected organisations in the WA Firearms community.
Of note in the hearings were the figures released outlining the total number of firearms handed in by licensed and legitimate WA gun owners since the first prohibition orders and a buyback scheme were announced in February 2023. The current buyback in effect until January 14, 2026, is the fifth iteration of the WA Labor government’s concerted push to claw back legitimate firearm ownership and is currently running at 56,942 licensed firearms having been surrendered – as quoted by the minister.
Alarming as this may seem, when taken into context with the WA Auditor General’s Surrender Arms Report, produced in September 2000, to examine the results of the first ever buyback scheme introduced in WA from October 1996, not much has changed with the numbers other than the financial fairness of governments paying WA citizens for guns they are forced to surrender.
Following the end of the buyback in September 1997, 53,000 firearms were handed in with a total of $19 million paid out to WA gun owners. A quick glance of the current payment schedule, devised in isolation by the WA Labor government to buy back guns this time around, it appears contemptuous, but the numbers handed back in to date are so similar that the questions begs ‘what do buybacks achieve?’ All these numbers aside, now is the time for all firearm owners to understand that they can log onto the firearms portal right now.
You do not need to wait until you your licence is up for renewal this year to get onto the system. All landowners can also register on the portal right now. Whether you have two hectares or 200ha, the legal opportunity to register your property is available to all landowners in WA. Combined with a genuine reason and a genuine purpose to own and use a firearm, the success of the current legislation rests with firearm owners and the regulators working together to run this marathon.