Police Minister Paul Papalia declares buyback for domestic violence thugs’ guns is ‘money well spent’

The State Government has defended using its gun buyback to take firearms out of the hands of domestic violence thugs, saying it is “money well spent” taking a deadly weapon out of a violent coward’s hands. Amid questions over firearm owners who would soon be banned from owning guns due to previous convictions receiving payouts, Police Minister Paul Papalia emphatically defended the program, which has seen almost 20,000 guns removed from the community. After revealing WA Police had already used laws to seize 34 guns from nine people, Commissioner Col Blanch encouraged firearm owners who would soon be subject to a mandatory disqualification order could be paid to hand in their guns before they were seized. While the new laws are yet to come fully into force, police have begun seizing guns using a revised interpretation of the former firearm laws, based on a new weight of community safety. “For decades, WA Police have been seizing firearms from serious offenders only to have them returned on appeal. That’s why we changed the laws,” Mr Papalia said. “All gun owners licensed under the current, outdated Act have had access to the buyback for five months, well in advance of the Police Commissioner being able to apply a more aggressive threshold for seizures since our new legislation passed Parliament. “Ensuring a potentially deadly weapon is out of a violent coward’s hands is money well spent.” With less than a month until the Government’s $63 million buyback ends, Mr Papalia said more than $8.3 million had been paid out to firearm owners, with the program closing on August 31. Mr Blanch said the window for those who wanted to be reimbursed for losing their gun was closing soon. “I want to be clear about 34 guns (seized), they can also participate in the gun buyback so those who have gone online, which is what we’re encouraging people to do today, and they may fit into the category of having a mandatory disqualification offence to go and take advantage of the gun buyback,” Mr Blanch said. “We are pointing everyone who may not be eligible to have a firearm under the new law to go and take advantage of the gun buyback. “But where you’re exhibiting decisions not to do that, we’ll start putting in processes to take them from here from there.” The new laws are expected to reduce the number of legal firearms in WA by a quarter — or 90,000 guns, according to police modelling. Under the new laws to be fully implemented by March, firearm owners will face limits of between five and 10 guns — depending on the licence held. Owners will also face tougher health and mental health checks, storage requirements and changes to the property letter system. Property owners will now be limited to the number of letters they can issue for their property, with a focus on genuine regional use. As part of the laws, all existing property letters will become invalid and will need to be reissued. Property owners will also no longer be able to sell them for profit.