Australia may ease restrictions on silencers.

http://ift.tt/1pfTF46

Quote:

Tens of thousands of shooters in NSW can now apply for silencers on their weapons after the NSW government opened permit application forms to hunters and sporting shooters, a move gun control advocates have condemned as dangerous. The Shooters and Fishers Party says it has successfully lobbied the NSW government to expand the reasons which shooters can cite on a form when seeking a permit to use a silencer. Seeking silencers for use in "sport" shooting or recreational hunting has been added to the form. Previously there was only space for government employees or licensed contract animal shooters to apply.

Interesting. I thought silencers were prohibited by Australian federal law except to police, military and those few who could wrangle a permit of some sort. A bit of reading shows me this; http://ift.tt/1pfTHZJ

Quote:

NOTE: When the silencer is attached to a firearm, the firearm is classified as a prohibited firearm under clause 10 of Schedule 1 of the Firearms Act 1996. Therefore, the applicant must apply for a Prohibited Weapons Permit for the Silencer and a Firearm Permit to authorise the possession and use of a prohibited firearm, being a firearm to which a silencer is attached.

It seems "prohibited" means something else indeed.

Quote:

Shooters must pay an application fee of about $120 to police and send a form outlining their reasons for wanting a silencer and undergo extensive checks.

$120! Welcome to part of my pain; I'm paying $200 to make each silencer in my garage even though it may cost as little as $40 in material.



Of course no article on gun control would be complete without letting the other side have a chance to show how stupid they are;

Quote:

The head of Gun Control Australia, Sam Lee, condemned the change of application form as a "gift to shooters". "The Baird government has done a deal with the gun lobby," Ms Lee said. "Silencer[s] are banned in 11 states in US because they are considered too dangerous".

Actually silencers are not banned in any state, even MN recently allowed the police to actually train with them. An FFL/SOT is all that is required in the nine states that restrict them more than requiring registration. Also as far as I know not a single state in the US ever banned unlicensed civilian silencer possession due to any crime associated with them. Those states appear to have restricted silencer just because they could.

Quote:

Greens MLC David Shoebridge said he was concerned the relaxing of rules would lessen safety in parks. "It's deeply troubling," Mr Shoebridge said. "Sometimes the only thing that can alert a bush walker [to hunters] in state forests is the sound of gun shots".

What's deeply troubling is that this guy appears to think a silencer eliminates all sound. Unless hunters are in the habit of using subsonic rim fire ammo while hunting, those hunters are going to be clearly audible to anyone nearby.

Quote:

"There's no reason, other than Hollywood mythology, why you wouldn't have these legally and easily available," he said. "If criminals were going to use them they'd be making them in their backyards and using them now."

I've seen comments on this forum about how pervasive American culture is in Australia; seems they could have done without this little piece of nonsense.

Ranb

via International Skeptics Forum http://ift.tt/1SJpX3o