The LNP stabbed shooters to get some awful amendments through

The LNP Opposition Leader Tim Nicholls has already broadcast his backstabbing of law-abiding shooters by failing to support Robbie Katter’s motion to stop the Queensland Labor government reclassifying (read: banning) lever-action shotguns with a capacity of 6+ shells.  What the LNP leaders might not understand is that they are playing with fire.  They have agreed to a range of amendments that could put farmers in breach of the law for their Category C rim fire rifles.  We asked the Weapons Licensing Branch whether they’re planning to use this as a new tool in their war on farmers.

Correspondence to Weapons Licensing

13 October 2017

Dear Weapons Licensing Branch,

We write to ask whether you’re intending to use the new Weapons Regulations to ban a range of Category C rim fire rifles used by farmers. You were, presumably, heavily involved in the drafting of the Weapons Regulation (debated in Queensland Parliament this week). We’re concerned about the effects of a new definition that was added to the Regulations, as follows.

In this regulation—
magazine capacity, for a firearm, means the maximum number of rounds of ammunition of a particular calibre that are designed to be held in the receptacle from which rounds are fed into the chamber of the firearm.

Rimfire rifles used by farmers, such as the Ruger 10/22, are categorised as either Category C or as Category D depending entirely on their magazine capacity.  A Category C rim-fire rifle is:

(a) a semiautomatic rim-fire rifle with a magazine capacity no greater than 10 rounds;

Note that the key elements in the definition are that the rim fire rifle has a magazine capacity no greater than 10 rounds.  When read in combination with the new magazine capacity definition, we find that a firearm’s magazine capacity is the maximum number of rounds that can be put in a firearm’s receptacle (magazine).

There are many magazines with a capacity over ten rounds available for the Ruger 10/22, which is a rifle popular with farmers.

Do Weapons Licensing intend to start denying farmers category C rim fire rifles where there are box magazines available with a capacity over 10 rounds?  Do you intend to begin confiscating such rifles?

Given the events of this week and your demonstrated willingness to take firearms off farmers who’ve held them safely for decades, nothing would surprise.

Yours faithfully,

[Signed]

For LAFO Inc.