This was published 5 months ago
I’ve had a gun licence for three years. Here’s what authorities needed to know about me
The massacre of 15 people at a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach on Sunday night by two gun-wielding terrorists has shone a harsh spotlight on Australia’s firearms licensing laws.
I’ve had a Victorian firearms licence for three years, though I own no guns and have never applied for a permit to buy one. Authorities can – and do – do spot checks of gun owners, but not for those who have licences but no weapons. Every legal gun must be registered to an address, and police make sure that it is locked up separately to ammunition in a legal manner.
In 2022, wanting to learn how to hunt for my dinner and writing about it, I applied for a Victorian firearms licence.
For several years, I had been interested in eating introduced animals from an environmental and ethical perspective.
And I wanted to write about my journey from being vegetarian to confronting the reality of hunting for the meat I consumed.
It was a complex exercise that took me several months. At each turn, the application seemed to ask more information of me. It felt rigorous, and I was grateful for that. It should be no easy task.
The process of acquiring a licence is a prerequisite for buying a firearm, but I was never interested in gun ownership. I do not want the responsibility of keeping a firearm in my house.
In addition to obtaining a licence, you need a “permit to acquire” to buy a firearm. There are 960, 693 registered guns in Victoria, owned by 236,609 licence holders. Because I have never purchased a gun, new or secondhand, I have no experience of how often police conduct spot checks on owners to make sure their firearms are locked away in the legally required manner. So I asked someone who does.
Sporting Shooters’ Association of Australia chief executive Tom Kenyon says police can conduct random checks of owners at any time to ensure guns are stored in the legally required manner and the number of firearms match with recorded purchases.
“The police come to your house without warning,” he said. “They don’t tell you they’re coming.”
But Kenyon, who owns about half a dozen guns, said he had been checked randomly only twice in the past 30 years at his residence in South Australia.
He said it typically took at least 28 days for police to issue a permit to acquire for a first firearm.
Kenyon said reports of domestic violence, apprehended violence orders, criminal charges and mental health episodes could result in police checking on gun owners or seizing their firearms. Members of the public can also report concerns about firearm ownership to the police.
To obtain a licence for category A and B long arms, which include rifles and shotguns, I had to undertake practical training at a rifle range under the supervision of expert instructors. I also had to complete online training and a test.
Then there was an extensive police check. The police check document ran to more than a dozen pages. It required 100 points in identification documents, which can include a passport and driver’s licence. The questionnaire asked whether I had any medical or psychiatric conditions or impairments that might impact my ability to hold a licence registration or approval.
It also asked about mental health conditions, alcohol- or drug-related problems and physical disabilities. I had to also disclose whether I had been found guilty of any offences in Australia or overseas, whether I had charges pending and if I had ever received a diversion in court among a range of other questions.
In addition to all those requirements, I had to get a declaration from a referee who could attest they had known me for at least 12 months. It asked my reasons for the firearms application, which were hunting and target shooting.
Since gaining my licence, the only firearm I have handled is a .22 rifle. It is a rifle typically used for hunting rabbits. While it is powerful enough to inflict horrific injuries or even kill a person, it is not considered strong enough for hunting large animals, including deer.
Even upon successful completion of that category A and B process, I was still ineligible to operate automatic or semi-automatic firearms or even pistols. I am no expert on firearms or gun ownership, but I am grateful to former prime minister John Howard for banning automatic and semi-automatic guns. I cannot see how they have any place among recreational hunters or shooters in Australia.
Howard himself has said the laws he brought in probably saved lives on Bondi Beach. “I’ve reflected on a number of occasions since this terrible event how many more people would have died if the guns we outlawed … had still been available for evil people to use,” he told Sky News.
However, the former prime minister added: “I do not want this debate post this horrible event to be used, the focus on guns be used as a pretext to avoid the broader debate about the spread of hatred of Jewish people and antisemitism.”
And as we witnessed in the horrifying events in Bondi on Sunday, the existing firearms that are legally available in Australia can cause devastation to our community when in the hands of those filled with hatred and murderous intent.
More coverage on the Bondi terrorist attack
- Three days after: What we know about the Bondi terrorist attack
- The victims: ‘Too big for this world’: The father who died a hero at Bondi and ‘went down fighting’ gunman
- Analysis: Police were young and outgunned: Where was the back-up at Bondi?
- Guns in Sydney: The Sydney suburbs with the most guns, as overall numbers rise
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Benjamin Preiss is The Age's regional editor. He was previously state rounds reporter and has also covered education for The Age.Connect via X or email.