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Tasmania Liberal Party Considers Reform of Extreme Gun Restrictions, Media Attacks
Gun Watch ^ | 14 March, 2018 | Dean Weingarten

Posted on 03/14/2018 1:26:41 PM PDT by marktwain



The Liberal Party in the Australian state of Tasmania is planning to reform some of the state's extreme firearms laws. The modest reforms include doubling the term of Class A and B licenses terms from five to ten years and increasing the license term for class C firearms from one to two years. Class A licenses are roughly airguns, .22 rimfire, and break-open shotguns. Class B licenses are most single shot, double, and manually operated center-fire rifles. Class C license holders, can have semi-automatic rifles that hold no more than 10 rounds, and pump action shotguns. The reforms would allow Class C licenses to have silencers or suppressors.  From abc.net.au:
The Liberals have promised changes to gun laws if elected which would allow greater to access to Category C firearms — such as self-loading rifles, pump-action shotguns — for farm workers and sporting shooters.

Licence holders in category C would also be allowed gun silencers.

The proposed changes would also:
Extend gun licence duration for Category A and B firearms from five years to 10 years; or in the case of Category C, from one year to two years
 
Relax penalties for minor gun storage law breaches

The proposal was sent to a firearms consultation group, including farmers and sporting shooters, about three weeks ago, but was not released publicly.

The Liberals' Rene Hidding wrote to firearms owners telling them the party also planned to establish a Tasmanian Firearms Owners Council.

The party released the changes several hours after media coverage, saying the policy was aimed at "helping agricultural producers, particularly farmers to protect crops".
The reaction in the Australian national media has been spectacular. Last night the media paraded survivors from the Port Arthur massacre that happened 20+ years ago, across the screen numerous times.

The Australian anti-gun group was given time on the screen. I recall seeing one person from an Australian shooting association, and perhaps one spokesman from a farmers group. The bias in favor of the anti-gun view was as large as we see in the United States.  I recall one argument that no Australian state could be allowed to reform its gun laws, because the laws gave the rest of the world "hope".  I estimate the anti-gun time compared to time given to those for reforming the law was easily 10 to 1.

The reforms in question are so mild and commonsense it is hard to argue with them. Queensland reformed the term of their class C license from 1 to 3 years  already, with no problems. New Zealand sells suppressors or silencers over the counter to anyone with cash, and has no problems.

The relaxation of penalties fro minor gun storage breaches is a direct response to the extreme harshness of the penalties.  In New South Wales, the police demand to destroy hundreds of thousands of dollars of valuable collector guns "because the law requires it". One collector lost over a hundred thousand dollars of super-grade pre-64 Winchester model 70s, topped with expensive European scopes. A Supreme Court judge said that the penalties were harsh, and were meant to be harsh.

This is a local election in Tasmania. It is not national. For some perspective, Tasmania is an island separated from the continent of Australia by the Bass Strait, about 150 miles of ocean. It is about the size of West Virginia, with 518,000 residents. Before the 1996 law, Tasmania had the most moderate of firearms laws in all Australia. It has felt the harsh penalties more than any other Australian state.

The Labor party (who championed the harsh firearms laws) were in power in Tasmania for 16 years before the Liberals. The Liberal party is closer to American conservatives in policies. The Liberal party in Tasmania has been in the Majority for the last four years, and is the odds on favorite to maintain power. The Shooters, Fishers, and Farmers party has a presence in Tasmania. The Liberal party appears to be appealing to those voters.

Australia has fairly complicated voting system, with multiple parties. Voting is mandatory, with a fine of about $20 for not voting.

We should start getting election results tomorrow, the 4th of March, in Australia.

Update: The Liberal party has won the election, but the results are not final, yet.


©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch



TOPICS: Government; Politics; Society
KEYWORDS: australia; banglist; gunlaws; tasmania
The Australian state of Tasmania has a complicated voting system. The liberals won, but what the apportionment of actual seats in the Assembly is not yet finalized.
1 posted on 03/14/2018 1:26:41 PM PDT by marktwain
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To: marktwain

Aren’t the terms ‘Liberal’ and ‘Conservative’ opposite of what they mean here there?...............


2 posted on 03/14/2018 1:38:38 PM PDT by Red Badger (The people who call Trump a tyrant are the same people who want the president to confiscate weapons.)
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To: Red Badger

“Aren’t the terms ‘Liberal’ and ‘Conservative’ opposite of what they mean here there?...............”

Yes, but those are Aussie terms. Their liberal is more like the classical meaning of the term and therefore more like our conservatives. Their version of our democrats is labor. The filthy turd John Howard was behind the Australian ban. I think the prick is still kicking around. Australia has good guys and bad guys just like us.


3 posted on 03/14/2018 2:00:44 PM PDT by Bonemaker (invictus maneo)
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To: Red Badger
Aren’t the terms ‘Liberal’ and ‘Conservative’ opposite of what they mean here there?...............

The Liberal Party of Australia is the major (moderately-)conservative party. They tend to govern in a very long term coalition with The National Party of Australia who are smaller, and slightly more conservative. In some places, the Liberals and Nationals have formally merged.

Realistically, Australian Federal and state governments are always either Liberal/National Coalition governments, or Australian Labor Party governments - Labor are the left wing socialists. As in the US, we have a host of minor parties (and in Australia some of these are actually somewhat significant) but in practical terms it's a two party system - Liberal/National coalition versus Labor.

The term conservative still has a similar meaning to that in the US, but, yes, if you hear people talking about a Liberal politician in Australia, you're normally talking somebody who is right of centre (although not necessarily by much - and our current Liberal Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, is so centrist, he could just as easily be Labor.)

4 posted on 03/14/2018 3:27:42 PM PDT by naturalman1975 ("America was under attack. Australia was immediately there to help." - John Winston Howard)
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To: marktwain

And the gun control people and their Australian Media Party friends will not bother to tell people that Martin Bryant was a very mentally challenged individual who had no business roaming freely like he did, let alone be given a firearms licence he used to legally acquire the firearms he used in the Port Arthur rampage.

Bryant was someone who apparently at about the age of nine doused himself with lighter fluid and set himself ablaze, thinking it was great fun and told a psychologist so and that he’d try it again despite suffering severe burns. Constantly exhibited very withdrawn and/or anti social behaviour at school and had about the idiot/imbecile level of IQ. Yet, he was permitted to own property and given money by family and the older woman he became involved with (and likely killed with his dangerous behaviour related to driving). All of this having absolutely nothing to do with responsible, law abiding firearms ownership in Australia and elsewhere.


5 posted on 03/14/2018 4:24:48 PM PDT by OttawaFreeper ("If I had to go to war again, I'd bring lacrosse players" Conn Smythe)
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