Federal police have renewed their plea for a proper national firearms database in the wake of the Texas school shootings, a reform that successive Australian governments have struggled to implement since it was first recommended 30 years ago.
Australia’s gun control laws, introduced by the Howard government after the Port Arthur massacre, have been widely celebrated for their effectiveness at reducing gun deaths, massacres, and suicides using firearms.
But significant gaps remain in Australia’s regulation of firearms, including the lack of a genuine national firearms database. Each Australian jurisdiction maintains its own register of firearms, creating inconsistent data holdings and gun classifications.
The creation of a national firearms registry was first recommended more than 30 years ago, following Victoria’s notorious Queen and Hoddle street mass killings, which led to the establishment of the National Committee on Violence in 1987.
That committee recommended the “establishment of a computerised national firearms registry”.
The recommendation has been repeatedly made, including after the Port Arthur massacre in 1996, and efforts to create a national database were fast-tracked after the Lindt cafe siege in 2014.
But early attempts to establish a national system have struggled.
The first system – initially known as the National Firearms Interface, but now called the Australian Firearms Information Network – was hoped to create a single shared record for each firearm in Australia, tracking them from “foundry to furnace”, and giving authorities across the country universal access to a firearm ownership history, details of suspected criminal involvement and an indication of whether it had been reported as stolen.
But the Australian Firearms Information Network, run by the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, has been undermined by the inconsistent and often incomplete or inaccurate data held by the various states and territories on firearms in their jurisdictions.
The Australian Federal Police Association (AFPA) told Guardian Australia it has been lobbying for the creation of a true national firearms database for the past three years.
AFPA’s president, Alex Caruana, said a national database was critical for the proper tracking of guns across the country.
“One of the most important legislative reforms in recent memory was the Howard government-led reform after the Port Arthur tragedy,” Caruana said.
“While a lot of excellent work was done in these reforms, Australia is still waiting, some 25 years since its recommendation, [for] a true national firearms database.”
The AFPA are also calling for a ban on importing ammunition for firearms that cannot be privately owned in Australia.
It also wants laws to restrict ammunition purchases by licensed firearms owners, so they can only buy ammo for the guns they are legally licensed to possess.
“An example would be a person who legally owns and possess a .22 rifle and wants to buy shot gun or 9mm ammunition,” Caruana said.
“Under our proposal, the person could not purchase this ammunition as they don’t hold a licence to possess a shotgun or firearm that fires 9mm rounds.”
Horrendous scenes in the US from #TexasSchoolMassacre.
— David Pocock (@pocockdavid) May 25, 2022
Very grateful for John Howard's leadership on gun reform to make 🇦🇺 a safer place. Difficult reform at the time but the right thing to do.
The AFPA’s proposal has the political support of at least one incoming crossbencher, the independent David Pocock, who is poised to win the Australian Capital Territory’s second Senate seat.
Pocock said on Twitter Howard-era gun reforms could be strengthened by heeding the AFPA’s “call for a national firearms register and banning the import of ammunition for firearms that are already illegal in Australia”.
The AFPA say they have no intention of impinging on legitimate and licensed gun owners.
“The additional regulations the AFPA would like to see introduced are aimed at restricting access to the weapons and ammunition that are either imported illegally, or the person has no requirements to hold ammunition for a firearm they aren’t legally entitled to own,” Caruana said.
