Australia is planning to ban the importation of bump stocks, and get its states and territories to ban them outright, too.
Rapid-fire gun attachments set for ban
Gun attachments which increase the firing speed of rifles, like those used in the Las Vegas massacre, are set to be banned in Australia.The federal government is outlawing the devices, and toughening rules for serial numbers on weapons shipped into Australia for better tracking.
Either this is just a political show of “Look! We’re doing something,” or they know something they’d rather we didn’t.
Obviously, bump stocks only work on semi-automatic firearms. But Australia already regulates the heck out of those. The only semiautomatic rifles allowed to civilians are Category C rimfires that can hold up to ten rounds, and Category D — for government or certain “occupational shooters” (pest control and the like) — centerfire rifles and rimfires holding more than ten rounds.
As you may recall, post-Port Arthur Massacre, Australia banned and “bought back” all the bad guns. Or so some anti-rights Presidential candidates would have us believe. You wouldn’t think the few semi-automatic rifles still out there would support much of a demand for bump stocks. That suggests that this ban is all smoke and mirrors.
More than likely, that ban only saw around 20% compliance. Supporting that is the fact that Australia had to run an amnesty in 2017. The government claimed 51,000 firearms were surrendered, of an estimated 260,000 unregistered firearms that were somehow still in the wild; that’s roughly… 20% again.
By government estimates, that leaves 209,000 unregistered firearms on the loose. Perhaps enough of those are semi-auto rifles to make importing bump stocks worthwhile.
If the bump stock ban is all for show, the play they’re producing is “Look What A Failure Our Ban Is.” I hope New Zealand and our own cast of gun controllers is watching.
So the half dozen civilians who own AR rifles won t be able to get bump stocks. They might have to call them all and notify them.
heck what’s gonna happen when they figure out that plans exist to 3D print these out? Use a VPN before pulling em down though.
It’s really amazing how two former colonies Australia and America are so different from the mother country England. When it comes to guns. I know Australia was a penal colony. But so was the state of Georgia in the US during colonial times.
And today there is an annual Machine Gun shoot in Stone Mountain (the former penal colony) Georgia!!!
Australia is MUCH closer to England than America is. In fact, I just look at it as England with a better climate and hotter women. Kind of like how Quebec is just France with American cars.
Is anyone selling or exporting “illegal machine guns”, er bump stocks to Australia? If so RW arms should have sold them abroad as “freedom stocks.”
Since they are in to banning fictitious weapons, Australia should go ahead and ban death rays, Terminator robots, magic wands, infinity guantlets, vampires, werewolves, super villains, and, since they are close to New Zealand, the One Ring. Gotta stay ahead of potential threats even if they don’t exist!
Here in California we REQUIRE fictitious parts in our guns, such as microstamping firing pins.
“Gotta stay ahead of potential threats even if they don’t exist!”
I know you were being snarky and I got a good laugh but, like most good jokes, there is a kernel of truth. Trying to mitigate perceived potential risk is the apparent motive behind most of the control freaks policy proposals. How else does someone explain the logic behind things like gun free zones. As best I can understand it the logic is: Well, someone might do something bad with a gun so we’ll tell them they can’t bring one in here and as long as they obey that virtually unenforceable rule then there won’t be any bad things happening. (At least, virtually unenforceable in the fashion that GFZs are usually established, that being, with a sign by the door. I’m not referring to places with metal detectors and baggage searches.)
Their entire perspective seems to be that since something bad might happen, we have to predict and prevent all the potential component parts of that thing from existing. Look at the UK, they virtually banned guns, people get stabbed, they ban the carrying of knives, people get stabbed with screwdrivers and other tools, they ban the carrying of pointy tools and are (or are trying) to ban points on knives. What’s next, licenses for grinders? File free zones? Banning of sandpaper and flat rocks?
I lived in Australia for several years and if you gave Aussies all the freedom on earth, the first thing they would do is start banning stuff. Actually that’s an unfair statement… but the country is run by urban nanny types with the mentality of preschool teachers, who unfortunately outnumber everyone else.
RGP
You were in the wrong part of Australia!. Lots of gun owners where I live in rural Qld.
Unfortunately our political system (simple majority) is dominated by three main cities. So laws are made by urban dwellers who live sometimes over a thousand miles away from where the people it effects are.
Queensland is normal though… unfortunately I had to live in Sydney and Melbourne.
Welcome to Australia.
Fines Apply!
I don’t know Aussie Law but if a person is risking their Liberty for “firearms possession”: why not go “All in”? If people in the “Never turn firearms in, Never comply” majority (evident by extremely low turn in rate) of gun owners also risk Life and limb with the opinion ” from my cold dead hands” mentality: there is no further Gov punitive action that matters.
A tyrannical government can quickly raise an Army but it will be the oppisitions.
Will
Lots of semi firearms floating around in Australia still. Best estimate from government claims they got 60% compliance in 1996.
One man caught earlier this year had 116 semi and full auto guns in his possession. Lived on large property out of town and would still have them aside from ex wife telling cops.
The latest ban is just a very junior, obscure politician trying to make a name for himself. By banning something that to the best of my knowledge was never imported into Australia.
Eejits.
Some time back I read a post on another site by a lady on a farm in Australia. They had just bought a new .22WMR bolt action rifle for whacking rabbits. Which is a pest there, being an invasive and non-native species with no natural predators.
The picture of the gun and the dead rabbits (pile of them!) showed a suppressor on the barrel. So I remarked about the crap we go thru here.
The lady was surprised, said when they picked out the gun they wanted it was in a big blister pack in the sporting goods store. Had a scope, the suppressor and a sling.
I understand Australia, or some of the states, have since gone full stupid on suppressors being evil works of the devil.
That in a country that also sees pump action and lever action rifles and shotguns as being too rapid fare, too much capacity.
Friggn’ politicans,
If a law isn’t effective pass a duplicate or one of similar nature, just the Democrats in this country.
Enuf
Firearm laws are state based but the federal government issues import licenses. Silencers are legal in 3 of 7 states last time I checked.
In my state pumps and lever action are fine. But over the border ok for me as a visitor but not for locals. They can’t yet take what is legal on my home licence unlike trips through NJ etc.
Feds also push their agenda by using grant money as a big stick. They took income tax and most other revenue of the states as a “temporary” war measure in 1942 and kept it.
I had to laugh at this one. I’d be surprised if there are any guns to attach them too.
With SMGs being made by bikie gangs, I thought the police and politicians would have more pressing concerns.
Could there be an issue with only 3% of containers being imported actually being inspected? Not according to The Greens.
So much for adding a bump stock to my kangaroo hunting muzzle loader.
If semiautos are banned, I’ll be damned if I’ll be fooling around with toy bumpstocks. I’m going to be milling and drilling the lower, or fabbing up a DIAS or LL.
If a semiauto is just as illegal as a machinegun, then I might as well just have the
machinegun.
In for a penny, in for a pound.
Honestly surprised the Australian government hasn’t just done a complete confiscation and banning of any type of firearm/weapon they could think of, I mean they have the full support of army (or at least that army didn’t care/didn’t do shit when the last major confiscation happened.) and it seems a majority of the population doesn’t care/also didn’t do shit when they had them confiscated so it’s not like it’s a completely impossible thing to implement or do. I’m guessing they just take a little every year to try and trick the Australian public into believing that their actually doing shit.
Doesn’t seem redundant. They are simply codifying something currently legal that they deem illegal, and closing its market. The size of that market or the previous failure to close it is not relevant.
If you want to point out that you are against the ban that’s fine but hiding that message behind an attack on its method of implementation is pathetic. It’s a cop out.
With anything on life, previous and current attempts that are not 100% successful at anything, are not reasons to stop.
Your argument is lame, your real message was not argued.
With as much poisonus stuff running around in Aussie land I would not have thought bump stocks are a priority.