Gun control, health and family violence groups have united to demand caps on how many firearms one person can own before parliament debates the state government’s firearms bill next week.
The bill, tabled on August 20, sets no limit on firearm numbers.
Stephen Bendle from the Alannah and Madeline Foundation said parliamentarians needed to consider the 93% of Tasmanians who do not hold a firearms licence.
“We don’t think it’s appropriate that a small group of Tasmanians have an unfettered ability to have as many firearms as they want,” he said.
“And I’m not talking 3 or 4, I’m talking potentially hundreds.”
“None of us here are stopping anybody from owning or using a firearm,” he said -explaining a “fit and proper person” should be able to hold one.
Tasmania and the Northern Territory have the highest rate of firearm ownership in the country at one gun for every four people, according to the Australia Institute, against a national average of one in seven.
Research by the same institute found 29.3 firearms are stolen per 100,000 people in Tasmania, the worst rate in the country and well above the national figure of 8.4.
Sam Maloney from Medics for Gun Control said health professionals had joined the campaign because they saw the aftermath of firearm harm, including suicide, violence and domestic violence.
Tasmanian Family and Sexual Violence Alliance Chief Executive Bree Klerck said firearm regulation needed to account for coercive control.
“We’ve heard from victim survivors that firearms can create real fear,” she said.
“Firearms can cause intimidation, perpetuate coercive control and stop someone from leaving violence or calling the police.”
Klerck said family violence risk should be assessed as part of the licensing process.
Roland Browne from Gun Control Australia said the government had “gone to water” on reforms agreed nationally after the Bondi shooting, in which 15 people were killed in December.
He pointed to the 15 firearms stolen during an armed robbery at Coles Bay in July, none of which have been recovered. Three men have been charged over the incident and are before the courts.
Greens leader Rosalie Woodruff said submissions from the health sector, family violence groups and Legal Aid had been “roundly ignored.”
“Without a cap on firearms, without the removal of the grandfathering clauses, this legislation will do nothing to keep Tasmanians safer,” she said.
Labor’s Ella Haddad said her party supported caps.
“Meanwhile, we know that Jeremy Rockliff and the Liberals support unlimited guns in the community,” she said.
Independent MP Kristie Johnston said she had amendments ready for the firearms bill but had not yet seen Labor’s.
“I think it’s really important that we get the amendment early and we can talk through that,” she said.
Police Minister Felix Ellis has consistently rejected caps, arguing the bill lifts community safety in ways that limits would not.
He said the central reform was Tasmania’s delivery of the National Firearms Register, an intelligence sharing platform between law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
“We’ve seen that the failures at Bondi have been very much about the failure to share intelligence, particularly about people who are seeking to do harm in the community,” Ellis said when the bill was tabled.
The bill also introduces mandatory minimum sentences for stealing firearms and for possessing stolen firearms.
“People understand that it’s not the number of firearms, it’s the hands that they’re in,” Ellis said.
He defended grandfathering provisions covering reclassified firearms and non-citizen licence holders, saying some had lived in Tasmania for decades and complied with the law.
Under the changes, existing owners may keep reclassified firearms but cannot buy new ones.
Ellis said more than 600 submissions were received during consultation and that the process showed overwhelming opposition to caps.
The government is also negotiating with the Commonwealth over a voluntary firearms buyback.
Government minister Nick Duigan defended the legislation today, saying the government had consulted widely and taken in a range of views.
“What we need to do is get the firearms out of the hands of people who would seek to commit crime with them,” he said.
Duigan said caps could not be held up as delivering a substantial community safety benefit.
Western Australia is the only jurisdiction where a cap is currently enforced.
New South Wales has legislated a limit of four firearms, 10 for farmers and sporting shooters, with owners above the cap required to surrender guns when a buyback starts on November 2.
The ACT has a five-gun cap bill before its Legislative Assembly.
