News flash: National Firearms Register won’t have telepathic powers

By Tim Bannister 

The Report Co-Managing Editor and Australian Shooters Alliance Federal Government lobbyist 

It may seem obvious to us, but it has become clear that those unfamiliar with firearms and much of the media have absolutely no understanding of what the National Firearms Register will and won’t achieve. 

After two men at the Melbourne Cricket Ground were found to be carrying unregistered handguns, The Australian newspaper published a story quoting the Coalition’s Senator James Paterson laying the blame at Labor for being too slow in implementing the firearms ‘registry’. 

“No one should ever have to worry about firearms at any public event in Australia,” he said. “We know that one of the firearms last night was unregistered and Australians know that the Albanese Government have never been on the front foot when it comes to community safety.” 

Despite admitting that one of the guns was unregistered, both in fact were; Senator Paterson and journalist Jessica Wang seem to fail to realise that a database of registered firearms will not have a list of unregistered firearms. It does not magically list unregistered firearms, and which criminals are in possession of them, let alone send an alert to the authorities that a couple of them are about to get drunk and rowdy at an Australian football game attended by 80,000 fans. 

If only one of the alleged culprits had been given a prohibited firearms order, I hear the ‘antis’ cry. Oh, one of them was on the prohibited firearms list and the other was on bail. It is unclear whether the arrested men were barracking for Collingwood or Carlton, but I have my suspicions. 

So, what will the National Firearms Register actually do? 

I have met with the Attorney-General’s Department several times and I am pleased to say they have continued to consult with SSAA Queensland’s Australian Shooters Alliance (ASA). Its evolution, since first agreed to, after the Wieambilla terrorist, sovereign citizen and religiously inspired murders has been slow, but there is now more clarity on its capabilities. 

A few facts first. It is touted to cost more than $160 million dollars. Much of the money will be spent on fixing up the eight state and territories inaccurate firearms databases, which in some cases are still paper based and stored in filing cabinets. About $30 million of the budget will be given to the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) to develop what they call the Australian Firearms Information Network (AFIN) to build the register. It is expected to be operation by mid-2028. 

At the early stages it was unclear as to whether the federal government was building a ninth firearms database made up of all the data of the eight states and territories or whether it was a connection system that linked the various databases. The Attorney-General says it will be a connection system or register. It is not a free-standing registry. 

Perhaps the most productive outcome of this register is that it will finally force the states and territories to clean up and rebuild their databases into accurate recording systems. The databases have stored inaccurate information of shooters through no fault of their own for decades. Often the shooters have been blamed by the authorities and accused of not acting in accordance with the law and at worst had their licence threatened to be cancelled. Licensed shooters can tell many stories of the police at inspection time claiming that they have no record of them either disposing of a firearm or even purchasing some, let alone having the correct firearm identification details. The police of all states have always been in denial about the shabby state of their databases.  

At a federal meeting of senior police from across Australia, one state declared to the meeting, “Our firearms database is 100 per cent accurate!” The silence around the table was deafening. It didn’t help that one small dealership of that state had recently reported being inspected and accused of missing 50 firearms only for the database records to be revealed as badly corrupted. The small dealership didn’t even have a storage room large enough for 50 firearms. 

The other thing the register will do is stop the deliberate and indeliberate disappearance of firearms when sold or transferred interstate. Some, as I said, were deliberate slight-of-hand by dodgy firearms dealers, one instance being a New South Welshman who is now serving time at His Majesty’s pleasure. He was found to have sold handguns to serious and organised crime figures. He claimed to have sold them interstate and they just fell off the NSW radar until one handgun was left at a Sydney crime scene.  

In another instance a SSAA target shooter who moved from Western Australia to South Australia had a world of pain convincing the authorities that she had registered her firearms in her new state and conversely that they no longer were registered in her old state. It took almost a year to rectify. In Victoria it was rumoured that the firearms database had a field with the initials ‘NFI’ – a field to indicate the storage address of the firearms and who they were being held by was currently unknown. We have also been officially told that the current pool of databases had 30 per cent more firearms then are actually in the nation. That’s a lot of dead wood in the system. 

Will the register stop another Wieambilla? Probably not. Could it aid public safety? Possibly, but the fact remains much of police work is done after the fact and is not preventative. Registered firearms, thankfully, are rarely used in crimes, nor are they carried out by licensed shooters. Informed shooters know that there is little public safety benefit in a firearm’s database tracking air rifles, 22s, under and overs and everyday hunting rifles, but the reality remains firearm registration is not going away. It also won’t harvest any new information on firearms or the owner, just the current information the state is meant to hold.  

We may disagree with the belief that a firearms database magically solves firearm misuse, particularly by criminals using illegal firearms, or is a wise outlay of public tax dollars, but, if we are going to have firearms databases, at least make them accurate so they cause less grief for firearm owners then they have in the past! And while they are at it, please work out the very best way of keeping our private information safe and in the right hands. It’s all about public safety, right?