

Podcast - Full Program Podcast - Individual Items
Not sure what this is? Find out more

The World TodayThe World Today
Correspondents ReportCorrespondents Report

More Current Affairs:



Police ministers meet to discuss guns


PM - Tuesday, 5 November , 2002  00:00:00

Reporter: Anne Barker

MARK COLVIN: Australia's police ministers spent Cup Day focused on whether to ban handguns. The issue has gained prominence since the shootings at Monash University in Melbourne last month, in which a handgun was used to kill two students.

Federal, State and Territory ministers are meeting in Darwin today and tomorrow to discuss a Federal Government proposal to restrict the use of handguns except for use by sporting shooters.

But as Anne Barker reports, any national agreement seems a long way off.

ANNE BARKER: John Howard's rhetoric on handguns since last month's fatal shootings at Monash University is the toughest stance he's taken in six years, since he negotiated the ban on semi-automatic weapons and shotguns after the Port Arthur massacre.

This time the Prime Minister is proposing an effective ban on 250 handgun models, which would exempt only those owned by legitimate sporting shooters, along with stricter screening measures to ensure even shooters are worthy of a gun. But the devil, it seems, is in the detail, and state and territory ministers, while supporting the broad principle of reform, are having a devil of a time agreeing on the tin tacks.

MICHAEL COSTA: There's been a document distributed which seeks to build on the priciples that were outlined at COAG [Council of Australian Governments]. The fact of the matter is it doesn't provide much detail. Many of the matters that are in that are already in place in many of the states.

What we do need to know is what the Commonwealth is proposing in relation to ban on firearms, what categories they're proposing, we need those details. We also need to know the details in relation to the regulatory regime they're proposing.

ANNE BARKER: The New South Wales Police Minister, Michael Costa, was the only minister talking this afternoon about the slow progress in talks. He says the Commonwealth hasn't even spelt out yet which handguns it wants banned.

MICHAEL COSTA: We haven't even seen the list of what the 250 are at this stage. We're still working through the details. It is very critical to any outcome that we understand exactly what the Commonwealth's proposing in relation to a legitimate sporting shooter and their access to guns.

What we've put is an alternate complimentary proposal, in a sense, that we look at some immediate steps, one of those being giving the powers to all police commissioners to revoke gun licenses based on intelligence or information that comes to them, without an appeal process.

We believe that's an important measure, we already have that in NSW, we'd like to see it nationally. We've also asked for a graduated system of access to sporting firearms so that we know who's got the firearms and we know that they've got experience and they are actually participating in events.

ANNE BARKER: The gun lobby believes a ban is misplaced, arguing that the vast majority of handguns used in crimes are obtained illegally, and licensed owners should not be penalised. But Samantha Lee, Chair of the National Coalition for Gun Control, says nothing less than a blanket ban will work:

SAMANTHA LEE: We cannot tell who is going to commit a massacre in this country. The majority of massacres are committed by people that don't have a mental or criminal background. The only thing that we can do is eradicate the object that causes the most amount of danger, which is the semi-automatic handgun.

ANNE BARKER: But isn't it true that illegally obtained handguns are responsible for the vast bulk of crimes involving handguns, so what impact would a ban have?

SAMANTHA LEE: Well, ther's no proof that illegally obtained handguns are the ones most used in crime. They may have flown into the hands of those who commit crimes through them being stolen from legitimate gun-owners' homes. Also what happens when guns move into the black market is the serial number gets eradicated, and so we don't really know the source of where these guns are coming from.

MARK COLVIN: Samantha Lee, from the National Coalition for Gun Control, ending Anne Barker's report.