Control of weapons Act in Victoria

[erron]

The following was an alert emailed to me by:

Dennis La Varenne
acting Secretary
SSCV

Dennis, feel free to expand on this and maye give a little background if you feel it is appropriate. some Glossary might be useful for those who don't know what SSCV and VicNats are, for example. Like me,

Folks,

Due to the excellent nature of the response from individuals and organisations regarding the proposed Control of Weapons Regulations, Police Minister Haermeyer announced in the Parliament on Tuseday a one month extension to the consultation period, which will now close on Friday 10/10/03. The consultation extension will be published in the newspapers shortly, and the astute ones amongst you will instantly note that by the time people find out about it the extension is in reality only three weeks or less. Time is therefore of the essence!

The purpose of the extension is for persons or organisations who have not yet had the opportunity to make a submission to now make one, and for persons who have already made a submission, to be able to lodge a supplementary submission with additional comments and/or information. I would encourage you all to do so. Submissions can be a simple one-page document simply stating that you do not want Swords and Crossbows made Prohibited Weapons and that Inert and Imitation Explosives should not become Controlled Weapons, and attach a few good reasons why.

Every submission counts!

I would also encourage you all to make delegations to the Minister and try to arrange a meeting with him to express your concerns directly. This can be done by contacting Steve Cusworth on 9651 6900. It is very important that Swords and Crossbows are not made Prohibited Weapons and that Inert and Imitation Explosives do not become Controlled Weapons for reasons that are outlined in the VicNats submission. I have again attached a copy of the VicNats submission for your information and distribution.

We have had many callers from interstate about this matter who are concerned about the flow-on effect, in that once made Regulation in Victoria, the same will occur in other states and territories. This is, of course, highly likely, so it must be nipped in the bud in Victoria. Please send this information to your interstate counterparts and encourage them to also make sensible, polite and reasoned submissions about the matter.

Some people have asked about the role of the Srutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee (SARC) in the current process. It should be made clear that the SARC does not enter into issues of policy, ie: the SARC will not address the policy decisions or issues that are behind the establishment of an Act or a Regulation. The SARC generally only considers areas where the proposed Act or Regulations may be in legal breech of other Acts or Regulations. Nevertheless, there may be some scope for persons to make representation to the SARC under section (a) clauses (i) (ii) & (iii).

The SARC website can be found at http://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/sarc and I have attached a copy of the SARC Terms of Reference for your information.

The Control of Weapons Regulatory Impact Statement is available at http://www.justice.vic.gov.au and is listed on the home page. Also attached is Bill's Media Release about the extension of time, and a copy of the Proof Hansard of the dabate in the Parliament on Tuesday night.

This email can be circulated widely.

Go to it!

Regards,

David Barton
Electorate Officer to

Bill Sykes MP
Member for Benalla
Ph: 5762 2100 Fx: 5762 4478

In the same email, Dennis notes:

PS: The contact details of the Council's new Secretary who will be taking
over a little later this year are -

Mr Rob Hodder
10 Lambeth Street
Kensington VIC 3031
Ph: 03 9376 1153
Email: robhodder@optusnet.com.au

- Erron

[Dennis La Varenne]

To all -

The above quoted document warning about the intentions of the proposed Control of Weapons (Amendment) Regulations 2003 is from the office of the Spokesman for Police and Emergency Services of the Victorian Nationals Party, Dr Bill Sykes, MP.

SSCV stands for Shooting Sports Council of Victoria of which I am Secretary till later this year when Robert Hodder takes over.

SARC is the acronym for the Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee of the Parliament of Victoria whose job it is to review all intended legislation, basically to make sure that it is legal in itself.

The proposed regulations endeavour to prescribe certain items as prohibited weapons incurring a penalty of approximately $12,000 and or 6 months gaol for possession without a licence costing $135 for 3 years and mandating that they be held in a Firearms Act approved gunsafe costing a further $200 - $300.

Significantly, there is little or no evidence that they are any kind of weapon of choice used in crime except in very very rare instances like that of the NSW schoolboy who took one to school and shot one girl and wounded another. Instances of their abuse are so rare that the Australian Institute of Criminology doesn't have a category for them in its database, but includes such cases as 'other'.

Taking crossbows out of citizen possession or licencing their possession will not make the slightest difference to the crime rate because their criminal use is so small that nothing can be achieved by doing so. However, the licencing programme will have a very serious affect upon those in our community who own and use them quite lawfully and without harm for no community benefit except to generate funds for the Police Licensing Services Branch.

The claimed licence fee is proposed to offest the cost of a service to the community, but, in fact, no service is being provided to anyone, least of all to the crossbow users themselves.

The commonest abuse of crossbows is of a vandalism nature such as their being used to shoot the local pets or birds which is highly saleable news. Howeve, the sad situation exists that because of the antagonism towards them based on very challengable grounds by mainstream archery organizations, juveniles who can obtain them legally have nowhere to go to be trained in their safe and responsible use.

Unfortunately, the only organization supporting them specifically - Crossbow Australia - is in its infancy and does not have the facilities in most states to offer much in the area of training.

Being a shooting discipline, the SSCV will put in a submission arguing against their reclassification as prohibited weapons from their present status as controlled weapons.

The quality of the reasoning in justifying their reclassification in the RIS (Regulatory Impact Statement) is astonishingly poor, and it is of considerable concern that this level of justification may be allowed to set some kind of standard in law making.

One other serious matter has been brought to our attention also. Victoria Police, in its submission to the RIS, has recommended that all conventional bows be included as controlled weapons requiring lawful excuse for their ownership without proof of which a person can incur a penalty of $6000 or 6 months imprisonment.

Dennis La Varenne

[Guest]

Hmmmmm,This seems to ring a bell.I saw what happened to gun owners
because they were so apathetic.Looks like it,s now going to happen to archers as well.Tell me whats the difference between an MSSA and a crossbow.? Whats the difference between the gun owners who didn,t have the guts to support their brothers,and the archers who will do the same.
Your Govt, is going to show you.THE LUCKY COUNTRY.
As a gun owner and an Archer Hunter I feel lucky I don,t live there anymore.Dennis can,t do it all,get off your A,s and do something before
it,s to late.Iv,e sat back and watched this post for a week and still no real input from the people it most concerns. Hey maybe I should move back to OZ an become a polly,.Gota be a sweet job aye!!!!.
A hunter for ever,,Don,t know about you guys but,,Jack.

[Mr_X]

What can we do to stop bows from becoming controlled weapons?

[Mr_X]

Also, what is considered a "lawful excuse"?

And how many Bow/crossbow/sword related crimes are there anyway?

[erron]

First, apologies for not getting back to this sooner.

Dennis, what is the best, quickest, most effective way we can each voice a succint opinion on this to the people who matter?

I guess I'm asking for a petition-like answer to something that is much more complex, but if you can suggest one quick channel for folks to follow, I can send that out to all the members, and everyone else on my mailing lists, asking them to take a few moments to take the action, and to pass the information on to others.

Thanks for the feedback, Jack and Mr_X.

Guys, let's not sit like stunned mullets on this one. It's time to do something. Dennis, so we can be most effective, please tell us the one most important thing we can do!

Cheers all,

Erron

[Dennis La Varenne]

To all -
On this matter of the regulatory impact statement (RIS) put out by the Justice Department of Victoria, proposing to make crossbows, all manner of swords and imitation explosives as prohibited weapons, you can read all about it in the RIS document which can be downloaded under the Justice Department website at www.justice.vic.gov.au .

However, the Victorian Nationals Party (VicNats) has prepared and sent in its own quite brilliant submission on the matter. The VicNats submission completely refutes all of the justifications of the RIS for the proposed regulations whic are a serious worry because of the astonishingly poor quality of the Government's arguments in favour of its own proposed laws. I can supply the sit moderator with a copy of this public document for anyone to download and read.

You can perhaps obtain a soft copy of the VicNats submission document by emailing to - bill.sykes@parliament.vic.gov.au or david.barton@parliament.vic.gov.au and asking for one, mentioning that you heard about it via the Shooting Sports Council of Victoria.

Importantly, anyone should write to -

Mr Chris Shea
Policy Officer
Justice Policy
Level 3. 55 StAndrews Plact
East Melbourne VIC 3002
Ph: +61 03 9651 6988
email: chris.shea@justice.vic.gov.au

no later than 10th October, and refer to the VicNats submission which we support and the fact that it has come to your attention that Victoria Police have submitted that ordinary bows should be treated as Controlled Weapons and that there is no statistical basis to demonstrate that there is any kind of problem with the misuse of these kinds of bow that needs remedying by regulation.

Keep it very short and make sure that you provide personal contact details on anything you write because that is the only way to validate what you write.Otherwise, it will be ignored.

All submissions of any kind are public documents and are open to the public to read in hard form only within the constraints of the Victorian Privacy Act protecting the divulging of personal details.

Dennis La Varenne

[erron]

Dennis,

thanks mate! A few things:

I can supply the sit moderator with a copy of this public document for anyone to download and read.

- send it to me and I'll have it up straight away Dennis. I will publish it as a separate post, along with a small suggested form letter that people can copy and send to the address you provided. On that subject, I think i noticed a typo in the address:

Level 3. 55 StAndrews Plact

- should that be St Andrews Place?

Lastly, would it be okay for everyone to just send their protest to the email addy you supplied, i.e. chris.shea@justice.vic.gov.au?

If we can get this going, I'll email everyone and get them to send the email protest - this will make it easy for the inclined to be slack among us (me included) to voice our concern.

Thanks again,

Erron

[Dennis La Varenne]

Erron,

Yes, the postal address should be St Andrews Place, and yes, you certainly can email your submission to Chris Shea at his email address.

I will email you the VicNats submission tonight, Wednesday.

Dennis La Varenne

[erron]

Thanks Dennis.

Folks, I've attached the submissions mentioned by Dennis in his previous post for your perusal.

I'll get a little suggested email together and post here later.

cheers,

Erron

[erron]

Dennis,

here's the first cut of the email I'll be sending to Mr Shea, and which I'll be asking members to send their own version of. Please let me know if you think it's okay in this form.

Should I send it as a private individual, Administrator of Ozbow, or both?

thanks,

Erron

ATTENTION:
Mr Chris Shea
Policy Officer
Justice Policy
Level 3. 55 St Andrews Place
East Melbourne VIC 3002

Mr Shea,

I am writing to you on the matter of the regulatory impact statement (RIS) put out by the Justice Department of Victoria, which proposes to classify crossbows, swords and imitation explosives as prohibited weapons.

In this matter I whole-heartedly support the VicNats submission – which has been brought to my attention by the Shooting Sports Council of Victoria - which I feel completely refutes all of the justifications of the RIS for the proposed regulations. In light of the points made by the VicNats submission I have come to the conclusion that the Government's arguments in favour of its own proposed laws are extremely poor.

I would also like to draw your attention to the fact that Victoria Police have submitted that ordinary bows should be treated as Controlled Weapons. I feel this is an outrageous proposition: there is simply no statistical basis to demonstrate that there is problem with the misuse of these kinds of bow that needs remedying by regulation.

Yours Respectfully,

Erron Adams

[Dennis La Varenne]

Erron,

What you have posted here is fine. I suggest the following small amendments.

2nd para -

which has been brought to my attention by the Shooting Sports Council of Victoria. I consider that it completely refutes all of the justifications of the RIS for the proposed regulations.

and later;

I would also like to draw your attention to the fact that Victoria Police has submitted that ordinary bows should be treated as Controlled Weapons. I feel this is an outrageous proposition: there is simply no statistical basis to demonstrate that there is problem with the misuse of these kinds of bow that needs remedying by regulation, and the proposed remedy itself has no possibility of improving community safety where there is no demonstratable public harm from their current use.

Erron, it is best to send it as a private individual. The bold bits are my suggestions for rewording.

Dennis

[erron]

Thanks mate, I'll get this going tomorrow!

Erron

[erron]

Okay, here's my final version which I'm about to email:

ATTENTION:
Mr Chris Shea
Policy Officer
Justice Policy
Level 3. 55 St Andrews Place
East Melbourne VIC 3002

Mr Shea,

I am writing to you on the matter of the regulatory impact statement (RIS) put out by the Justice Department of Victoria, which proposes to classify crossbows, swords and imitation explosives as prohibited weapons.

In this matter I whole-heartedly support the VicNats submission, which has been brought to my attention by the Shooting Sports Council of Victoria. I consider that it completely refutes all of the justifications of the RIS for the proposed regulations. In light of the points made by the VicNats submission I have come to the conclusion that the Government's arguments in favour of its own proposed laws are extremely poor.

I would also like to draw your attention to the fact that Victoria Police has submitted that ordinary bows should be treated as Controlled Weapons. I feel this is an outrageous proposition: there is simply no statistical basis to demonstrate that there is problem with the misuse of these kinds of bow that needs remedying by regulation, and the proposed remedy itself has no possibility of improving community safety where there is no demonstratable public harm from their current use.


Yours Respectfully,

cheers all, and thanks Dennis,

Erron

[Mr_X]

Thats an excellent submission Erron.

I am submitting a similar letter by mail and hope that all members of Ozbow can do the same before it's too late.

With the way things are going we will soon need to have a licence (which costs $300 a year) to use public toilets

[erron]

Thanks Mr_X, but the credit for both the initiative and the content of the email goes to Dennis La Varenne. Thanks again, Dennis!



I quite agree with your assessment, and hope all Ozbowers will act on this.

In fact, I think I'll put up a poll to see what sort of response we can expect!

cheers,

Erron

[adam]

very good Erron I feel it is my responability as a bowhunter as well as yours and many others to email
Mr Chris Shea
Policy Officer
Justice Policy
Level 3. 55 StAndrews Plact
East Melbourne VIC 3002
Ph: +61 03 9651 6988
email: chris.shea@justice.vic.gov.au

and help step in the right direction.
Adam

[erron]

Good on you Adam!

Feel free to circulate this on BGA, btw!



Erron