Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1697641559049.pdf (Australia)
To whom it may concern, My name is Adam Smith and I am an Australian citizen, have served my country in the Royal Australian Navy, have paid tax my whole working life, am a registered Sporting competition shooter and I vote.

As such I would like to express some points of consideration / concern with respect to the above mentioned inquiry.

Point No.
Point No.

1: Senator Penny Wright ; “My inquiry will look at how the illegal gun trade is working; who’s behind it, how they are operating, and what we can do about it.” I totally agree, nobody in the community wants ANY illegal trade working or operating in Australia.

I support an open and transparent investigation, not only an inquiry, to accurately find out exactly what is going on with the illegal gun trade.

Point No.
Point No.

2 Senator Penny Wright ; “Handguns are designed to kill people – nothing else – so what justification is there for people in the community to own them?” This is clearly an outdated / uneducated statement of opinion and in fact demonizes handguns and their legal owners prior to any pending inquiry for the purpose of political progression.

Keeping in mind this is a statement from a media release to the public, It is apparent that the main agenda is to ban Handguns from this statement alone.
Clearly there is something else that handguns are designed for………SPORT, not only “killing” people as the Senator would have the good people not involved in the sport of shooting believe.

Australians as a whole do not buy firearms to KILL people.

I find this opinion / statement is unjustified and a direct misrepresentation of legal handgun owners integrity in Australia.

Point No.

3 Senator Penny Wright ; “There are more than 10,000 handguns on the black market.
These are the weapon of choice for gangs and drug traders, because they’re small, easy to hide, easy to fire and deadly.” I would like to point out that that if Handguns are the “WEAPONS OF CHOICE” for “Gangs and Drug traders”, why isn’t Senator Wright looking to increase penalties, bans, jail time and fines and decrease rights of known GANGS AND DRUG TRADERS?

The logic of trying to ban anything in society due to a minority of criminals doing the wrong thing defies me.
Placing a ban on legally owned items will not stop the black market or criminals, for these items on the black market were not obtained legally anyway.

Stricter storage requirements above and beyond the already strict, Draconian and invasive storage requirements in place, is not going to stop a Criminal from opening an Australia Post and importing illegal items into Australia.
I would also like to suggest that if the integrity of Legal Sporting handgun shooters is bought into question by figures being quoted as fact, then these figures need to be supported / accompanied by evidence such as; exactly how these figures were achieved / calculated, where and when to determine its currency and by which agency to determine its authenticity.
If this figure is actually known, then surely common sense would say somebody knows where these items have The ability of Australian law enforcement authorities to eliminate gun-related violence in the communitySubmission 369 come from.

I’d be very surprised to see that all supposed 10,000 (+) firearms that are on the black market, were stolen from Legal owners at all, which appears to be insinuated in this instance.
Statistics produced to justify this preference have proven unsubstantiated when challenged.

Hand guns may be the gun of choice for committing crimes????

?, however, hand guns are the least stolen firearm due to the already massively strict storage requirements in place.

The gun related crimes reported on the news lately have all been carried out by rifles and a rifle is just as easy to fire and can be more deadly than a handgun.

Point No.
Point No.

4 Senator Penny Wright ; “The Australian Greens’ view is we can reduce gang crime by taking away gang weapons.” I agree, so take the weapons away from the Gangs, not the law abiders that have to jump through many, many, many laws, restrictions and requirements.

Punishing law abiding citizens with more restrictions, more laws, more bans and more requirements will certainly not stop “The Gangs” from getting their hands on Black market items.
If anything, it appears counterproductive and may exacerbating the black market problem?.

Point No.

5 Terms of Reference; “the extent to which there exist anomalies in federal, state and territory laws regarding the ownership, sale, storage and transit across state boundaries of legal firearms, and how these laws relate to one another.” Differences in laws and regulations between states do not necessarily constitute an anomaly.
Our federal system assumes that laws in states will reflect different perspectives and circumstances.

In some cases differences do constitute anomalies, but in other cases reflect our system of government.

The assumption that differences constitute anomalies appears at odds with the policy of the current government to restore the role and responsibilities of states.
I would like to suggest that the most effective way to address the threat to the safety of police by firearms used in the commission of crimes is to focus more front-line resources on reducing the distribution and elimination of drugs.

The fact that a bikie gang’s control of an Australia Post license went undetected by law enforcement authorities is an indicator of the need for more resources at the coal face.

The terms of reference of the Committee appear far too limited.
The Committee should consider also the environmental, economic and social contributions made by sporting shooters to the economy and the community, and understand what impact regulations to make gun ownership even more limited, costly and difficult would have on these contributions.
The Committee should focus on the heart of the cause of gun-related violence and that is the link between guns used in crimes and drugs, and ensuring that more and sufficient resources are directed to attacking this problem, rather than avoiding or disguising the issue by attempting to divert attention onto a soft target — lawful gun owners.

Massive penalties for Gun crime should be put in place with a zero tolerance.
If you are caught with a firearm and are not legal to own / shoot that firearm, an instant jail time period with a massive fine and total ban on firearms or any related activities for life.

No good behavior bonds.

The message needs to be “Loud and Clear”, follow the Law.

If you are an Australian citizen, not originally from Australia, and are caught up in illegal firearms, theft of, murder, etc.
etc., then that individual should be charged, jailed and then deported to The ability of Australian law enforcement authorities to eliminate gun-related violence in the communitySubmission 369 their home of birth never to return to Australia at the completion of their sentence.
Further, if the below data is studied (GunPolicy.org) you can see the trend of annual total gun deaths, annual handgun homicides in Australia and annual long gun homicides has actually declined throughout the years to the point where there are less total deaths in 2011 than in 1979.
In Australia, annual deaths resulting from firearms total: 2011: 18815 2010: 22415 16 2009: 222 2008: 232 2007: 23715 17 2006: 24615 2005: 212 2004: 234 2003: 28715 18 2002: 292 2001: 326 2000: 32418 1999: 347 1998: 312 1997: 428 1996: 516 1995: 470 1994: 516 1993: 513 1992: 608 1991: 618 1990: 595 1989: 549 1988: 674 1987: 694 1986: 677 1985: 682 1984: 675 1983: 644 1982: 689 1981: 618 1980: 687 1979: 685 In Australia, annual handgun homicides total: 2011: 320 2010: 420 22 2009: 9 22 The ability of Australian law enforcement authorities to eliminate gun-related violence in the communitySubmission 369 2008: 7 2007: 3 2006: 14 2003: 6 2002: 12 2001: 13 In Australia, annual long gun homicides total: 2011: 1120 2010: 1420 22 2009: 18 2008: 1122 2007: 14 2006: 15 2005: 10 2004: 5 2003: 24 2002: 20 2001: 10 As seen above, handgun homicides are significantly lower than Long gun homicides.
In summary, I would encourage the Committee to examine the issues dispassionately and factually and not to be overwhelmed by emotion and inadequate or unsubstantiated information.

Regards, Adam Smith The ability of Australian law enforcement authorities to eliminate gun-related violence in the communitySubmission 369