The prerequisites for applying for an Australian firearms licence are you need to be at least 18 years of age and have completed a firearms safety course. The course can be done over 2 days on the weekend or 3 nights during the week. Once you have applied for the Licence at your local police station and supplied a passport size photo, they will conduct a background check on you, If you pass they they will send you your Licence in the mail. The Licence is needed before you can legally handle and fire a gun. The whole process including registration cost around $350 from memory, but it was a long time ago. I have to renew my Licence every 7 years which cost around $250.Steve51 wrote:Welcome to the site and congratulations on your new Henry rifle. I have heard a lot of different versions about Australian gun laws. How difficult is it to purchase a rifle or shotgun there? Are you allowed to own a handgun?
Next step is to apply for a "Permit to Acquire" which is needed to purchase a fire arm. In Australia firearms are broken into certain categories, and depending on the category of weapon you are wanting to acquire, you need to provide sufficient evidence of a genuine reason to own said firearm. the PTA costs $35 to lodge.
The category which I applied for is Category A - Rimfire rifle (other than self loading). My genuine reason is that I am part of a gun club and will use it for target shooting. If I fail to maintain membership of the gun club I can have my Licence and firearm taken away from me.
Category B is Centerfire rifles (other than self loading) - you can use the same genuine reason as cat A to own these
To own any semi automatic rifle or shotgun and pump action shotgun - Category C & D you need to be a professional hunter under the employ of the government for culling pest species. Or you need to be a large land owner (were talking over 200 hectares) and provide sufficient evidence that you need the weapon for protecting livestock from large amounts of predators/pests, this is notoriously difficult to prove.
All full automatic weapons are Category R - Restricted to Law enforcement agencies.
Even bullet proof vests is classed as a Category E weapon and are also restricted to law enforcement.
As for Handguns, these are classed as category H and can be acquired as long as you are a club member and also competing in at least 2 events per year in target shooting comps.
A few weeks ago a farm owner was riding his horse on his property herding cattle with his legally owned and registered pistol on his belt. Somehow word of this made it to local police. He had his pistol confiscated and licence suspended. He was not using the pistol for his genuine reason which was competitive target shooting.
Ben.
