FOU

  • Home
  • Current Campaigns
    • Suppressor September 2023
      • Suppressor letter templates
    • Inquiry into Victoria’s Recreational Native Bird Hunting Arrangements – Submission
    • National Firearm Register consultation submission
    • Bowhunting South Australia – Our Statement
  • Membership
  • How to get your firearm license
  • Merch Shop
  • Database
  • About Us
    • Policy and Stance
    • Meet the team
    • Donate
    • Current Campaigns
    • Articles & Blogs
  • The Australian Firearms Industry
    • Our Partners, Sponsors and Corporate Members
    • Current competitions
Home  /  Gun Grab • Mental Health • News • WA Police • Western Australia  /  WA Police want to use ‘mental health’ as new excuse to confiscate guns

WA Police want to use ‘mental health’ as new excuse to confiscate guns

fouadmin April 22, 2019 Gun Grab, Mental Health, News, WA Police, Western Australia 1 Comment

WA Police have gone off the reservation in the last 18 months with regards to anything firearms related.

The ‘very powerful firearm’ debacle, the transport issue, the attack on Ella Valla station, etc among a slew of other incidents that have revealed a distinct anti-firearm culture within WAPOL and Firearms Licencing.

Now WAPOL want to follow in NSWPOL’s footsteps again:

“WA could follow New South Wales and rewrite its gun laws to prevent people with mental health problems and histories of family disputes getting a licence.

Police Minister Michelle Roberts this week confirmed she had asked Police Commissioner Chris Dawson for advice about an overhaul of NSW’s firearms legislation to see if WA should adopt similar changes.

In a revamp that has been described as the most significant of its kind at a State level, NSW will apply more stringent checks on a person’s mental health when applying for a gun licence.

This could include requiring GPs or other medical experts to report to police when a person with an existing firearms licence shows signs of risky behaviour.”

The article pretty much reads as a spruik for WA Police to adopt these laws.

Put simply, these proposals are ridiculous, not to mention a privacy breach.

One only has to look at the MyHealth Record fiasco to know how much of a disaster the proposal is. How are WA Police going to obtain private medical records from a number of private health care providers and keep that information safe, when their own registry can’t do that already? The answer is they can’t, particularly when they were mailing out licences to the wrong addresses.

Further, “mental health” is a vague term in itself. There’s a difference between a fully functioning adult with a mild bout of managed anxiety or depression, which would also realistically rule out a lot of serving Police, to a full-blown schizophrenic who likely should be institutionalised. Who defines what is a precluding condition?

This proposal will also further discourage those with issues from speaking out or getting help, if the consequence of having their personal property confiscated should be a potential outcome.

The issue of domestic violence is also a grey area. It already is the law that an IVO subjects you to a 10-year exclusion period on firearms. Given that knives are clearly the choice of weapon in domestic violence incidents, it’s easy to argue that this really makes little difference. There’s also plenty of vexatious domestic violence claims made by ex-partners to have their firearms taken away – how will this be addressed?

Ultimately, it does absolutely nothing to stop the use of illegal firearms.
The red flag laws in the US have essentially been used as a form of pre-crime and this is essentially how they will be used here if brought in.

Call it for what is is: just another excuse to further civilian disarmament and confiscate firearms.

WA Police and Firearms Licencing need to get their house in order because they are becoming more of a farce every day.

Tweet

Share this:

  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Click to print (Opens in new window) Print
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

Previous Article
Next Article

About Author

fouadmin

Related Posts

  • The Grinch that stole reloading for Christmas – A Mark McGowan tale.

    21 December, 2021
  • WA Premier closes all Gunshops

    27 March, 2020
  • Victoria: Duck Hunting on thin ice!

    20 November, 2019

1 Comment

  1. Politenessman Reply
    23 April, 2019 at 11:17 am

    If they want to advance this approach, they need to be prepared to confiscate motor vehicles and suspend drivers licences too otherwise they are just posturing with public safety.

Leave a ReplyCancel reply

  • Popular
  • Recent
  • Wankers: Victoria Police tell citizens not to fight back against African gangs 29 December, 2018 123
  • Australia has also had school shootings and they were after 1996 24 February, 2018 46
  • NZ Police shut down gun confiscation website in less than 24 hours due to trolling 22 March, 2019 43
  • Dean Webber case exemplifies everything that’s wrong with defending yourself in Australia 15 October, 2018 38
  • Why we push for self-advocacy 3 December, 2023 0
  • The Grinch that stole reloading for Christmas – A Mark McGowan tale. 21 December, 2021 0
  • Species highlight: The Red fox 11 November, 2021 1
  • Pest control methods spotlight: Biocontrol 7 November, 2021 0

Recent Comments

  • Val on The Sound Case for Firearms Suppressors
  • Anonymous on Species highlight: The Red fox
  • Anonymous on Gel Ball Blasters now illegal to possess in Queensland without ‘reasonable excuse’
  • Anonymous on Gel Ball Blasters now illegal to possess in Queensland without ‘reasonable excuse’
  • Philip Kevin Walter on FGC-9s: 3D Printed 9mm Carbines Found in Aus

Social Media

Firearm Owners United

Firearm Owners United was founded in response to the many hysterical voices crying out for further gun control in this country. We already go through so many hoops to get our firearms as it is. We do not need more hoops. We don’t need a mother/father figure deciding what’s the best for us. We are Law Abiding Firearm Owners, and we are sick of being treated like second-class citizens.

Social Media

Explore FOU

  • About Us
  • Blog
  • Current Campaigns
    • Bowhunting South Australia – Our Statement
    • Inquiry into Victoria’s Recreational Native Bird Hunting Arrangements – Submission
    • National Firearm Register consultation submission
    • Western Australia Firearms Act Reform – our submission to the consultation
  • Database
  • Donate
  • FOU Elite Atheletes
  • How to get your firearm license : state -by- state
  • Media Affiliates
  • Merch Shop
  • Our Partners, Sponsors and Corporate Members
  • Policy and Stance
  • Publications
  • Suppressor letter templates
  • Suppressor September 2023
  • Suppressors 2022
  • The Australian Firearms Industry
Follow @FOU_official

Follow Us

%d