Victoria Police are out of ideas and have launched a campaign to try and get illegal firearms off the street:
Before we go any further, getting illegal firearms off the street is 100% a good thing. The problem is, it’s almost an impossible task created by the past and current situations we have before us in Australia. That’s not to say do nothing, but rather to say federal and state governments have created the conditions leading to this problem.
What this latest move is really saying is that they don’t know what to do. They’ve tried amnesties, they’ve tried ineffective firearm prohibition orders, scare campaigns, pointless reclassification of lever action shotguns and the rest – none of it has worked.
Further, people have always been able to make an anonymous tip off to Crime Stoppers – this is nothing new at all and effectively just lazy policing.
Like any other country that has tried prohibition on a number of issues, Australia’s rubbish gun laws have created a massive black market. Throw in porous borders and soft sentencing and you have a perfect storm. New Zealand is about to go down this path if they continue on their current trajectory.
There’s very little incentive for crooks to snitch on each other – there’s a monetary incentive either way. Further, if they didn’t hand their guns in the much-touted amnesty in 2017, they aren’t going to now. Have a look what turned up in Western Sydney yesterday, none of those were stolen from LAFO’s and were clearly illegally imported – the same applies in Victoria.
Until there is talk of deregulation, dismantling of the registries and the rest, then this is just an empty gesture. Regular programming of daily illegal firearm crime and bullying of LAFO’s to continue.
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