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Background Note no. 1 2007-08
Firearms in Australia: a guide to electronic resources
Online Only issued 6 August 2007
Janet Phillips
Social Policy Section
Malcolm Park
Statistics and Mapping Section
Catherine Lorimer
Law and Bills Digest Section
Introduction
On 28 April 1996, 35 people
were killed and 18 others were wounded at Port Arthur in Tasmania by an
assailant using a semi-automatic rifle. In response, The
Australasian Police Ministers’ Council convened a special meeting
on 10 May 1996 and agreed to a national plan for the regulation
of firearms—the Nationwide Agreement on Firearms. This agreement banned
self-loading rifles and self-loading and pump-action shotguns, introduced
a nationwide registration of firearms along with limitations to firearm
ownership, and led to the Australian
firearms buyback scheme.
Other shooting incidents since then, including
one at Melbourne’s Monash University on 21 October 2002 in which
two people were killed and five wounded by a gunman, have prompted other
government initiatives, in particular the National
Handgun Buyback Act 2003 and the National
Firearms Trafficking Policy Agreement 2002.
On 18 June 2007, a gunman shot and killed
a man who had come to the rescue of an assault victim on a busy Melbourne
street during morning peak hour. Two others were also shot and seriously
injured. The violent incident has once again sparked calls in the media
and Federal Parliament
for even tougher gun controls in Australia.
This brief is a guide to some of the literature,
statistics and information on firearm ownership, firearm offences, firearm
controls and government policies since the Port Arthur massacre in 1996.
In 2000, the United Nations Interregional
Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) conducted an International
Crime Victims Survey that included comparative data on firearm ownership
in Australia, the USA, Canada and the UK. From this survey the Australian
Institute of Criminology (AIC) estimated that in 2000 about 10 per cent
of Australian households owned a gun, reflecting a decline of 45 per cent
in gun ownership since 1989. In Australia, the majority of households
which owned a firearm did so for hunting or sport-related purposes. Details
of the findings were published in the firearm ownership section of Australian
Crime – Facts and Figures 2001.
After the Nationwide Agreement on Firearms
was introduced in 1996, the AIC was asked to establish the National
Firearms Monitoring Program which regularly produces publications
on firearm offences and related issues in Australia.
According to recent firearms
data from the AIC, there are currently about 2.5 million registered
firearms in Australia belonging to 731 567 individual licence holders.
This compares to nearly 2.2 million registered firearms and 764 518
licence holders in July 2001 (AIC, Trends & Issues in Crime and Criminal
Justice No. 230: Firearms theft in Australia).
In 2002–03 just under 41 000 legal firearms, including antique and
military, were imported into Australia (for more detailed statistics of
legal and illegal imports for 2000–03 see the answer
to a Question on Notice from Senator Mark Bishop in March 2004).
The numbers of registered firearms by type are not regularly published,
but some rough estimates can be calculated using data from the AIC report
Firearms theft in
Australia 2004–05. For example, using the number of handguns stolen
in 2004–05 (96) and the percentage that this represents of registered
handguns (0.05 per cent), it is possible to estimate that in 2004–05 there
were approximately 192 000 registered handguns in Australia.
As to the number of illegal firearms, in International traffic
in small arms: an Australian perspective and the media release Illegal
trafficking of small arms, the AIC points out that ‘there is no way
of assessing the number of illegal weapons’. Recently, a gun control researcher
from Sydney University’s School of Public Health, Philip
Alpers, estimated that there are about 20
000 illegal handguns in Australia. Similar reports are available on
the gunpolicy.org website hosted by
the University of Sydney’s School of Public Health.
There is information available on the number of stolen firearms, including
handguns. In Firearms theft in Australia
2004–05 the AIC found that less than 0.1 per cent of registered firearms
(almost 1500 firearms) were reported stolen to police. In 2004–05, rifles
accounted for the majority (58 per cent) of all stolen firearms, with
bolt action rifles the most often listed. One-quarter of stolen firearms
were shotguns, and nearly 40 per cent of these were single-barrelled.
Handguns constituted seven per cent of firearms reported stolen, with
around 40 per cent of these being semi-automatic handguns. This report
also includes data on incidents by jurisdiction and by geography. For
more AIC reports see their firearms publications
list and the weapons
page.
According to the latest Australian Bureau
of Statistics (ABS), Recorded
Crime–Victims 2006, a weapon was used in 74 per cent of attempted
murders, 63 per cent of murders and 44 per cent of robberies. A knife
was the most common type of weapon used in committing these offences.
Over one third (34 per cent) of murder victims, 35 per cent of attempted
murder victims, 22 per cent of the victims of robbery and 10 per cent
of kidnapping/abduction victims were subjected to an offence involving
a knife. A firearm was involved in 25 per cent of attempted murder, 17
per cent of murder and 7 per cent of robbery offences.
The latest Australian Crime: Facts and Figures
2006 from the AIC states that the percentage of homicides committed
with a firearm continues a declining trend which began in 1969: ‘In 2003,
fewer than 16 per cent of homicides involved firearms. The figure was
similar in 2002 and 2001, down from a high of 44 per cent in 1968.’ The
Homicide in Australia:
2005–2006 National Homicide Monitoring Program (NHMP) annual report
points out that while the use of firearms to commit homicide had decreased
over time, the use of handguns as a percentage of all firearm homicide
has increased. In 1992–93, 17 per cent of firearm homicides were committed
with a handgun, compared with 47 per cent in 2005–06.
The Homicide in Australia:
2005–2006 National Homicide Monitoring Program (NHMP) annual report
also states that:
Another consistent finding over the years is that the majority
of firearms used in homicide were not registered, and the offenders who
used them were not licensed. During the current year, 13 per cent
of offenders who used a firearm were licensed to own the firearm and 10 per
cent of the firearms used were registered to the offender. Earlier research
found that in 1997–98 and 1998–99, nine per cent of offenders were licensed
to own the firearm and nine per cent of the firearms used were registered
to the offender.
While much of the firearm debate focuses on murders, most firearm deaths
in Australia are suicides. In 2005 the Australian Institute of Health
and Welfare’s National Injury Surveillance Unit (NISU) released a briefing
paper, Firearm
deaths and hospitalisations in Australia, which found that:
Suicide was consistently the most common type of firearm-related
death over the period 1979–2002, accounting for a mean annual proportion
of 77 per cent of all firearm deaths during that time frame. The next
most frequent type of case was homicide, which accounted for 15 per cent
of all firearm deaths. The frequency of unintentional firearm-related
deaths was comparatively low (6 per cent).
The latest available information shows that:
- in 2005 there were 147 firearm suicides (ABS, Suicides
Australia 2005)
- in 2006 there were 46 firearm homicides (ABS, Recorded
Crime–Victims 2006)
- in 2003–04, there were 48 accidental firearm deaths. It should be
noted, though, that assessment of the source of these data (the National
Coroners Information System) suggests that many of these cases would
be reassigned as suicides, on the basis of information available after
completion of coroners’ inquiries. (National Injury Surveillance Unit
of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Injury deaths,
Australia 2003–04).
In addition to the NISU briefing paper mentioned earlier, some recent
articles that have analysed the number and type of firearms deaths in
Australia over recent years include:
- P. Alpers, K. Agho and S. Chapman, Australia's
1996 gun law reforms: faster falls in firearm deaths, firearm suicides,
and a decade without mass shootings, Injury Prevention, no.
12, 2006 (includes data from 1979 to 2003)
- J. Baker and S. McPhedran, Gun
Laws and Sudden Death: Did the Australian Firearms Legislation of 1996
Make a Difference?, British Journal of Criminology, vol.
47, 2007 (includes data from 1979 to 2004).
All of the data and analysis show a general downward trend in firearm
deaths since 1979, particularly for firearm suicides since the late 1980s.
According to the Australian Institute of Criminology paper, International traffic
in small arms: an Australian perspective and the media release Illegal trafficking of small
arms, ‘In [the] 5 years to June 1998 just under 260 000 firearms were
legally imported into Australia, but there is no way of assessing the
number of illegal weapons.’
Customs detect and seize approximately 2000 to 4000 illegal firearm parts
each year. In 2005–06 for example, ‘Customs seized 3857 firearms, parts
and accessories; and the Australian Crime Commission seized or quarantined
1300 firearms and, as a result of activity of its firearms determination,
laid 97 charges with respect to the illegal possession of firearms’ (Source:
Answer
to a Question on Notice from Senator Mark Bishop, Senate Debates,
19 June 2007). Similar statistics for 2000–2003, plus legal import figures,
are available from an earlier
answer to a Question on Notice from Senator Mark Bishop in March 2004.
In November 2002, the then Minister for Justice and Customs, Senator
the Hon. Chris Ellison, stated in a press
release that ‘The Commonwealth has targeted illegal firearms trafficking
by significantly increasing border resources in recent years, with 100
per cent of postal items and passenger luggage entering Australia now
being x-rayed or inspected. Seventy per cent of all air cargo consignments
entering Australia are x-rayed and inspection rates at sea ports continue
to be increased through the use of trace particle detection equipment.’
However, some argue that detecting gun parts in the mail is very difficult
and that hundreds or even thousands of gun parts might be arriving in
the post or in shipping containers each year. See for example, Criminals
use post to beat gun laws, (Daily Telegraph, 18 April 2002)
and Dossier:
fortress Australia under attack: busted borders, (The Australian,
25 August 2001).
On 21 December 2001, Australia signed the UN
Protocol against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms,
Their Parts and Components and Ammunition, supplementing the United Nations
Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, 2001, but is yet
to ratify it. According to the List
of multilateral treaty actions under negotiation, consideration or review
by the Australian Government on AUSTLII for March 2007, ‘Before ratification,
Australia must implement all the obligations contained in the Firearms
Protocol. This will involve the taking of various steps/measures in cooperation
with states and territories. These steps/measures are being investigated
through the Australasian Police Ministers’ Council (APMC). For example,
work is being done by the APMC Firearms Policy Working Group on the nationally
consistent regulation of firearms manufacturers in Australia’.
A National
Firearms Trafficking Policy Agreement was agreed to by the APMC at
a meeting in Darwin on 17 July 2002. The Agreement ensures that substantial
penalties apply for the illegal possession of a firearm, creating an offence
of conspiring to commit an interstate firearm offence; and regulating
the manufacture of firearms in a nationally consistent manner, with serious
offences for illegal manufacture of firearms.
Useful publications from the Australian Institute of Criminology include:
On 28 April 1996, 35 people were killed and 18 others were wounded at
the historic site of Port Arthur in Tasmania by an assailant using a semi-automatic
rifle. The Australasian Police Ministers’ Council convened a special meeting
on 10 May 1996 and agreed to a national plan for the regulation of firearms.
The resolutions were refined at
subsequent meetings and formed the basis of the National Firearms Agreement.
The Agreement committed all states and territories to a uniform system
of firearms licensing and registration. The terms of the Agreement included:
- banning military style automatic and semi-automatic firearms
- limiting the availability of non-military style semi-automatic rifles
and shotguns to primary producers, professional vermin exterminators,
and a limited class of clay target firearm users
- introducing registration for all firearms, including long arms
- grouping firearms into 5 broad licensing categories
- requiring all licence applicants to establish a genuine reason for
firearms ownership
- requiring all licence applicants other than those applying for category
A firearms to establish that they have a special need for the particular
category of firearm
- requiring that permits be acquired for every new firearm purchase,
with the issue of a permit to be subject to a waiting period of at least
28 days to enable appropriate checks to be made
- stricter storage requirements for all firearms
- requiring all sales to be conducted by or through licensed firearms
dealers.
Firearms which were otherwise prohibited could be owned legitimately
if they were deactivated.
Following the Australasian Police Ministers Meeting, the Commonwealth
and the states and the territories introduced the Medicare Levy Amendment
Act 1996 and the National Firearms Program Implementation Act 1996.
The National Firearms Program Implementation Act 1997 extended
compensation to certain automatic weapons not covered by the May 1996
Police Ministers Agreement. The National Firearms Program Implementation
Act 1998 related specifically to Norfolk Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands
and Christmas Island. Relevant legislation:
As a result of the National Firearms Agreement, approximately 660 000
firearms were surrendered under the Government’s Australian
firearms buyback scheme (Source: Answer
to a Question on Notice from Senator Mark Bishop, 19 June 2007).
According to the Federal Government there
were about 3.25 million guns in Australia prior to the 1996/97 buyback
scheme. This estimate was based on a phone poll conducted in 1999 on behalf
of the Federal Government by Gun Control Australia, The
ABC of gun control: 101 questions answered.
The effectiveness of the buyback scheme in
reducing firearm-related offences and deaths continues to be controversial.
For examples of some of the analysis and evaluation of the effectiveness
of the scheme since 1996 see:
- Australian National Audit Office (ANAO), The
gun buy-back scheme, 1997
- P. Alpers, K. Agho and S. Chapman, Australia's
1996 gun law reforms: faster falls in firearm deaths, firearm suicides,
and a decade without mass shootings, Injury Prevention, no.
12, 2006
- K Ashby, J Ozanne-Smith, S Newstead, V Z Stathakis, A Clapper, Firearm
related deaths: the impact of regulatory reform, Injury Prevention,
no. 10, 2004
- J. Mouzos, Firearm-related
violence: the impact of the Nationwide Agreement on Firearms, Australian
Institute of Criminology, 1999
- J. Baker and S. McPhedran, Gun
laws and sudden death: did the Australian firearms legislation of 1996
make a difference?, British Journal of Criminology, vol.
47, no. 3, 2007
- C. Neill and A. Leigh, Weak tests and strong
conclusions: a re-analysis of gun deaths and the Australian Firearms
Buyback, ANU, 2007.
On 21 October 2002, a shooting incident occurred at Monash University
in Melbourne in which two people were killed and five wounded by a gunman.
It was subsequently reported that the alleged gunman was a licensed pistol
owner with access to several handguns, including semi-automatic pistols
and a .357 magnum revolver.
In response to this incident the National
Firearms Trafficking Policy Agreement was agreed to by APMC at its
meeting in Darwin on 17 July 2002. The Agreement ensures that substantial
penalties apply for the illegal possession of a firearm and regulates
the manufacture of firearms in a nationally consistent manner, with serious
offences for the illegal manufacture of firearms.
On 28 November 2002, the Australasian
Police Ministers’ Council developed 28 resolutions aimed at tightening
the control on handguns
in Australia. At its meeting on 6 December
2002, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) endorsed these resolutions
in a communique
and decided to prohibit the importation, possession and manufacture of
certain types of handguns for sports shooting purposes. The Customs
(Prohibited Imports) Regulations 1956 were amended by the Commonwealth
to accord with the COAG agreement.
A press release, Firearm
laws have been strengthened, from the Attorney-General’s department
detailed the changes to the control of handguns. Each state and territory
agreed to amend its firearms laws by 1 July 2003 to prevent the purchase,
possession and use of prohibited handguns used for sports shooting and
also those that are held as part of historical collections. Where legislation
was not already in place, the states and territories also agreed to introduce
substantial penalties for the illegal possession of a firearm.
The National
Handgun Buyback Act 2003 commenced on the day it received assent,
30 June 2003. This legislation enabled the Commonwealth to appropriate
funds for the purpose of providing financial assistance to the states
and territories for the handgun buyback scheme that was scheduled to run
from 1 July to 31 December 2003.
The appropriation was for two main purposes:
- to reimburse states/territories for payments made by them to compensate
persons for their surrender of handguns, handgun parts, and accessories
during the handgun buyback
- to reimburse states/territories for other payments made in connection
with the handgun buyback or with the Council of Australian Governments’
(COAG) handgun reforms.
Under this scheme, 70 000 handguns were recovered from the community
(Source: Answer
to a Question on Notice from Senator Mark Bishop, 19 June 2007).
The total indicative cost of the handgun buyback program to the Commonwealth
is expected to be $69 million, to be appropriated out of the Consolidated
Revenue Fund. The COAG agreement specifies that the handgun buyback will
be funded firstly from the $15 million left unspent from the 1996 firearms
buyback. The balance is to be met on a cost-sharing basis between the
Commonwealth and the states, with the Commonwealth reimbursing two-thirds
and the states one third.
In 2001 the Firearms Policy Working Group was also established by the
Australasian Police Ministers’ Council (APMC) to assist in the provision
of advice on firearms policy matters. It continues to work in conjunction
with the
Australasian Police Ministers’ Council and the Attorney General’s
Firearms
Unit to develop Government policy on firearms and ensure there is
consistency among state and territory approaches to the control of prohibited
firearms.
In 2003 the Sporting
Shooters and Firearms Advisory Council was formed, comprising representatives
of farmers, sporting shooters organisations, firearms dealers and the
security industry. The Council had its inaugural meeting in Canberra on
9 October 2003 and is a forum through which the Federal Government can
consult with representatives of the firearms industry on firearms-related
issues and regulations. At the first meeting, the Minister for Justice
and Customs, Senator Chris Ellison, foreshadowed a full review of Customs
regulations regarding the firearms importation process and the transfer
of firearms safety testing from the Australian Federal Police to Customs
to overcome delays in the safety testing of imported firearms.
According to the Attorney-General’s Department Annual
Report 2005–06:
- under the 1996 National Firearms program, the Commonwealth provided
$398 million to the states and territories for compensation for the
purchase of semi-automatic weapons and $63 million for administering
the program of which $56.6 million was paid to the states and territories
- under the 2003 National Handgun Buyback program, approximately 70
000 handguns and more than 278 000 parts and accessories have been surrendered
and $96.6 million paid in compensation. The Government also provided
just over $70 million in reimbursements to jurisdictions for administrative
procedures.
Historically, the Commonwealth has used its overseas trade and commerce
power to make regulations about the importation of firearms into Australia
and to legislate for firearms importation offences. Thus, a number of
Commonwealth regulations were made in response to the Nationwide Agreement
on Firearms. In 1996, Commonwealth regulations were made to increase controls
on the importation of rimfire self-loading rifles and self-loading or
pump action shotguns. Later that year, regulations were made establishing
a new structure for the control of firearms importation, tightening controls
on the importation of handguns with a fully automatic firing capacity,
and introducing controls on the importation of all parts, some firearm
accessories and all magazines and ammunition.
The Customs
Legislation Amendment (Criminal Sanctions and Other Measures) Act 2000
made it an offence to import prohibited firearms into Australia and made
an offender liable to a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment or a
fine of $250 000, or both.
The Customs
(Prohibited Imports) Amendment Regulations 2000 (No. 7) was designed
to impose stricter controls on the importation of handguns. The regulations
ensured that handguns are now released into the community on an ‘as needs’
basis and once a legitimate end-user has been established. They permit
the importation of only a small number of handguns for dealer stock for
the purposes of testing and demonstration, as well as providing an exemption
for persons competing in the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games. In addition,
the regulations also provided that firearms dealers may hold a limited
number of Category C firearms (these include self-loading rimfire rifles,
self-loading shotguns and pump action repeating shotguns) as stock for
testing and demonstration purposes.
The Customs
(Prohibited Imports) Regulations 1956 were further amended by the
Customs
(Prohibited Imports) Amendment Regulations 2002 (No. 4) to prevent
the importation of prohibited handguns and handgun parts with the following
features by sporting shooters, or their direct sale by firearms dealers/importers
to sporting shooters:
- a calibre that is greater than .38, unless the handgun is used to
participate in a specially accredited sporting event – in that case
a calibre of up to .45 will be permitted
- a barrel length of less than 120 mm for semi-automatic handguns and
less than 100 mm for revolvers and single-shot handguns, unless the
handgun is a highly specialised target pistol
- a magazine/shot capacity that exceeds 10 rounds.
The firearms provisions of the Crimes
Legislation Amendment (People Smuggling, Firearms Trafficking and Other
Measures) Act 2002 amended the Criminal Code Act 1995 and
commenced on 16 January 2003. The amendments make it a criminal offence,
in the course of trade and commerce between any states and territories
to:
- dispose of or acquire a firearm, where the disposal or acquisition
of that firearm is an offence under a state or territory law
- take or send a firearm from one state or territory to another, intending
that the firearm will be disposed of in the other state or territory
in circumstances that would constitute an offence against the firearm
law of that other state or territory.
The maximum penalty is imprisonment for 10 years and/or a fine of 2500
penalty units (currently $275 000).
- The government’s firearms
regulation policy page is available on the Attorney-General’s site
- See the firearms
section of the Criminal Law Resource Guide, produced by the Law
and Bills Digest Section of the Parliamentary Library for links to relevant
legislation.
- P. Alpers, K. Agho and S. Chapman, Australia's
1996 gun law reforms: faster falls in firearm deaths, firearm suicides,
and a decade without mass shootings, Injury Prevention, no.
12, 2006.
- Australian National Audit Office (ANAO), The
gun buy-back scheme, 1997.
- K. Ashby, J. Ozanne-Smith, S. Newstead, V. Z. Stathakis, A Clapper,
Firearm
related deaths: the impact of regulatory reform, Injury Prevention,
no. 10, 2004.
- M. Davies and J. Mouzos, Homicide in Australia:
2005–2006 National Homicide Monitoring Program (NHMP) annual report,
Australian Institute of Criminology, 2007.
- J. Mouzos and M. Borzycki, Firearms theft in Australia
2004–05, Australian Institute of Criminology, 2007.
- J. Mouzos, M. Borzycki and Y. Sakurai, Weapon used in armed
robbery, Australian Institute of Criminology, 2005.
- J. Mouzos and C. Rushforth, Firearm Related
Deaths in Australia, 1991–2001, Australian Institute of Criminology,
2003.
- J. Mouzos and C. Rushforth, Decrease in firearm
homicides, Australian Institute of Criminology, 2003.
- J. Mouzos, Firearm-related
violence: the impact of the Nationwide Agreement on Firearms, Australian
Institute of Criminology, 1999.
- C. Neill and A. Leigh, Weak tests and strong
conclusions: a re-analysis of gun deaths and the Australian Firearms
Buyback, ANU, 2007.
- J. Norberry, D. Woolner and K. Magarey, After Port Arthur:
issues of gun control in Australia, Current Issues Brief,
Parliamentary Library, 1996.
- A. Rule, The
death dealers, The Age, 24 June 2007 and Editorial:
It's time to pick off the thriving illegal gun trade, The
Age, 24 June 2007.
For
copyright reasons some linked items are only available to members of Parliament.
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