Firearm Legislation in Australia 21 Years After the National Firearms Agreement (original) (raw)

Small Arms in the Pacific

2003

This study examines a wide range of small arms-related issues in 20 nations of the southern Pacific. It investigates the status of existing firearm legislation, the extent of legal stockpiles and illicit trade, and the socio-economic impacts of armed conflict on Pacific communities. Case histories examine more closely the disarmament process in Bougainville and the Solomon Islands, along with the widespread disruption wrought with small arms in Fiji and Papua New Guinea. Current initiatives to combat small arms trafficking in the region are also examined.

Locking Up Guns: Foiling Thieves, Children and the Momentarily Suicidal

1996

"There is evidence that New Zealand gun owners and parents, while priding themselves on gun safety as a group, often fail as individuals to take the precautions they recommend for others. Deactivation of weapons and the separation of guns from their ammunition, though perhaps the most widely known precautions, seem commonly neglected. As an increasing proportion of firearms are not easily disabled, this measure is now largely unenforceable. Despite more stringent security regulations universally in force for the past two and a half years, despite persistent publicity, many firearms owners still neglect the obligation to lock guns away."

The Right to Keep Secret Guns: Firearm Registration in New Zealand

1997

In New Zealand, 97% of licensed firearm owners are allowed to keep an unlimited number of guns in secret. The firearms held by these people – common sporting shotguns and rifles – are also the guns most often used in family violence, homicide, suicide, injury and crime. By contrast the remaining 3% of gun owners possess weapons deemed more dangerous, namely handguns, military-style semi-automatics and machine guns. These must be individually registered by serial number to each owner. As a direct result of this careful registration, such weapons are far less commonly misused. So the guns most often used to kill, injure and intimidate are those which are least controlled. Shotguns and rifles can be collected and kept in any quantity without the need to show a genuine reason to own them, and with no official record of the guns being kept anywhere. Firearm registration, a system proven to work in many countries around the world, is not applied in this country to the guns which are most misused. New Zealand is now one of the very few Western countries which does not have this elementary form of control over all firearms.

(2018) Triggering Terror Illicit Gun Markets and Firearms Acquisition of Terrorist Networks in Europe

2018

This edited volume offers an in-depth and detailed insight into Project SAFTE’s research findings. In-depth country studies were conducted in eight EU member states. The in-depth qualitative research methodology involved desk research and semi-structured interviews with key international actors and stakeholders such as Europol, EMPACT Firearms, Interpol, SEESAC and the Office of the EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator. The volume sheds ligh on how illegal firearms markets are structured in the EU and shows how terrorists access these. Contributions: - Strazzari F, and Zampagni F, Between organised crime and terrorism: illicit firearms actors and market dynamics in Italy - Strazzari F, and Zampagni F, Illicit firearms circulation and the politics of upheaval in North Africa

FIREARMS CARRIAGE BY POLICE IN AUSTRALIA

1996

In the last two decades there have been major shifts in the firearms policies of Australia's eight police jurisdictions. The moves from the deployment of the baton to the covered pistol, and then to the widespread carriage of the exposed revolver, have occurred more by a process of incremental accretion, with tacit yet popular public acquiescence, than as a result of a careful series of decisions following public debate 2.

Triggering Terror: Illicit Gun Markets and Firearms Acquisition of Terrorist Networks in Europe

Project SAFTE, an international research project funded by the European Commission, has addressed this knowledge gap by improving the intelligence picture on illicit gun markets across the EU and throwing light on, in particular, on terrorist access to these markets. To map this phenomenon a group of experts on international firearms trafficking have undertaken several in-depth studies on the characteristics and dynamics of illicit firearms markets in different parts of Europe, the firearms acquisition patterns of different types of terrorists across the EU and the policy that has been developed to combat these security phenomena. In concreto, eight country study were conducted in Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania and the UK. For these country studies the different research teams, coordinated by the Flemish Peace Institute, used a variety of sources and research methodologies. Yet, given the lack of reliable and detailed official data in most EU member states, the research design of the different country teams mainly relied on in-depth interviews with key national actors involved in the combat against illicit firearms trafficking or terrorism. During the initial phase of the research, it became clear that the phenomena under consideration could not be adequately understood without a sounder understanding of what happened in Europe’s wider neighbourhood. Therefore, in addition to the eight country studies, an assessment was made of the illicit possession and proliferation of firearms in the wider EU neighbourhood in order to address the significant nexus between the EU’s internal and external security dimensions in terms of illicit firearms trafficking. The research conducted within the framework of Project SAFTE resulted in two separate publications: a policy report and a comprehensive research volume. The policy report10 contains the systematic and comparative analysis of the main findings of the different country and neighbourhood studies, whereas this research volume contains all eight in-depth country studies and two neighbourhood studies as separate chapters. This allows the reader to gain profounder and more detailed insight into the research findings of Project SAFTE. With this book we hope to have provided further groundwork to reinforce the effort to combat illicit firearms markets in Europe and terrorist access to these markets, and have demonstrated the potential of using existing expertise and knowledge to improve the intelligence picture on these pressing security phenomena.

Policing Gun Laws: Non-Compliance, Neglect and a Lack of Enforcement Continue to Undermine New Zealand’s Firearms Laws

1996

New Zealand has come late to the gun culture. For the past century we prided ourselves on a healthy, safe attitude to firearms and low rates of gun crime. There was pride in our smile when visitors from North America were amazed to see unarmed police. That smile is now tinged with concern – a “yes, but” reaction as we acknowledge that guns have become a noticeable problem here, too. The history of New Zealand’s gun control law is dominated by failure. Failure of gun owners to comply with the laws, failure of police and courts to enforce and uphold them, and most importantly the failure of successive Governments to provide the will and the resources to see the laws through. At the same time we have pioneered and proved the worth of strict registration of individual firearms. Though New Zealand has consistently achieved this only with hand guns and restricted weapons, the low rate of misuse involving such firearms is acknowledged to be the result of registration. Now the challenge is to achieve the same result with the guns most commonly used in death, injury and crime – common sporting long guns.