NSW Passes Bill To Strengthen Illegal Firearms Laws
Monday 23 November 2015 @ 12.53 p.m. | Crime
Last week, the Firearms and Weapons Prohibition Legislation Amendment Bill 2015 passed the NSW Legislative Council and is now awaiting assent. The Bill aims to strengthen the currently existing laws in relation to illegal firearms, and implement a number of the recommendations from the joint Commonwealth and New South Wales Martin Place Siege Review Report. This follows the earlier passage of the Bail Amendment Act 2015 which made changes to bail laws as a response to the same review.
In his second reading speech on the Bill in the Legislative Assembly, Deputy Premier Troy Grant said:
“Stolen firearms present a significant risk to public safety. Each year approximately 700 firearms are stolen in New South Wales. The majority of firearm thefts appear to be opportunistic; however, many thefts are found to be targeted. The recovery of stolen firearms is historically low and analysis of recovered stolen firearms indicates that a single firearm can circulate within the illicit market for between 10 and 20 years. In the wrong hands, these firearms pose a very high risk to the community.”
Key Points
The Bill creates a new offence under section 51H of the Firearms Act 1996 for the use, supply, acquisition or possession of a stolen firearm, with a maximum penalty of imprisonment for 14 years.
The Bill also aims to make maximum penalties for certain firearms offences more consistent and increases the maximum penalties for other offences to this 14 year period. The Explanatory Note for the Bill outlines these changes as:
- Increasing the maximum penalty for certain offences concerning pistols, prohibited firearms, shortened firearms or converted firearms from 10 years’ imprisonment to 14 years’ imprisonment
- Increasing the maximum penalty for the offence of defacing or altering numbers, letters or identification marks on a firearm or firearm barrel, or possessing such a defaced or altered firearm or firearm barrel, from 5 years’ imprisonment to 14 years’ imprisonment.
The Bill also expands on the existing offence in section 66 of defacing or altering identification marks on a firearm or firearm barrel. The new section 66 makes the possession, supply or acquisition of a defaced or altered firearm or part subject to the same 14 years’ imprisonment maximum penalty.
The Bill will also allow the Commissioner of Police to consider spent convictions of applicants for firearms licences and permits when considering if they are a fit and proper person to hold such a licence.
The Bill also creates new offences relating to digital blueprints for the manufacture of firearms. New section 51F will make it an offence to “possess a digital blueprint for the manufacture of a firearm on a 3D printer or on an electronic milling machine”, with a 14 year maximum penalty. Possession includes possessing the computer or data storage device on a computer, or having control of the blueprint held in a computer possessed by someone else. New section 51G deals with defences, including being engaged in approved research or if the defendant did not know they possessed the blueprint or if it came into the defendant’s possession unsolicited. The Bill also amends the Weapons Prohibition Act 1998 by introducing an offences of possession of digital blueprints for prohibited weapons.
The Bill was passed without amendment through both Houses of Parliament and will commences on the day it is assented.
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Sources:
Firearms and Weapons Prohibition Legislation Amendment Bill 2015, Explanatory Notes and Second Reading Speeches - available from TimeBase's LawOne service
