I've owned and operated guns for many years and am licensed to do so. My unrestricted license permits me to own every type of firearm from shotgun, rifle, revolver, semi-automatic handgun to black powder, paintball, gel-blaster and everything in between. Like most I'm not permitted to have a semi-automatic rifle or shotgun though, the Port Arthur massacre in 1996 in which 35 people were killed put an end to the ability to own semi-automatic rifles in this country - They are permitted for certain people only. That's ok, I can live with that.
That event brought about great change to firearms laws including a gun buy-back scheme in which people would hand in their non-compliant guns in return for a fair price. Most received more than they paid for the firearm in the first place. The guns were thrown in huge piles and destroyed. I, like most others, dutifully complied and handed in guns for destruction despite it breaking my heart.
Part of those reforms revolved around firearm storage and in the intervening years the storage requirements have become even more stringent, a condition I don't have too much of an issue with.
6.5mm Creemoor on left and .22 CZ 515 on right.
Here in my State the storage laws are quite straight forward. Depending on the number of guns a particular grade of safe is required, the safe must be fixed to the building, so bolted from the inside to the floor or walls, unless it exceeds 150kg in weight with no guns inside. That seems pretty straightforward. The grade refers to the thickness of steel used, it's locking mechanism and so on.
That's for rifles and shotguns. If a person also has handguns like me then a higher grade of safe is required. Again, as the number of firearms increases so does the security meaning the addition of monitored alarms and security cameras and so on.
I agree with the storage laws and think it's better to have guns locked in this scenario than leaning in the hallway or stored in a lightweight locker or some such cabinet.
Furthermore, ammunition is not allowed to be stored in the safe with the guns. Again, I'm ok with that. It means a thief can't easily get hold of both and a looney-bird gun owner can't so easily grab guns and ammunition in a fit of range and shoot someone. Great.
I've got a lot of guns, let's call it somewhere between one and way more than one. I have to have a fairly high level of storage and security and I take it seriously. As part of having a firearms licence here I cannot deny the firearms branch of the police force access to check that the guns I have licensed to me are present and accounted for, and stored correctly. So, I do the right thing of course, I'm not a criminal. They do random spot checks and non-compliance is taken seriously. (fines, loss of license and guns and sometimes jail time.
But here's the thing...Faith, my wife, is unlicensed. That means she is not permitted access to my guns. Ever. If I was to give her the codes/keys/combinations and security access to my safes she would be deemed as unlawfully in possession of firearms. If caught it's an offence and she would be charged, as would I for allowing it. I'd have my guns and license removed and would never gain them back. So, Faith doesn't know my codes et cetera.
But what if I died and she had to sort my guns out? Same. She is still not allowed access and anyway, she doesn't know how to access them. No one does. It's a problem right? I mean she'd need to sell the guns, thousands and thousands of dollars worth of them, but she can't access them.
Of course, this sort of thing happens and they simply cut the safes open with an appropriately licensed person there, a mate of mine for instance, or the police firearms branch, but it's still problematic.
Also, should Faith decide to get licensed...Let's say she obtains the same sort of licensing I have...She still can't access my guns! They're mine, registered to me, not her. Same problem right?
So, if she were to have guns, legal and registered to her, she would need her own safes that I cannot access otherwise I'm in possession of her guns and vice versa, despite both of us being licensed in this case. It's a bit silly really. I have friends that both shoot, husband and wife, and they need to have his and hers safes which is just plain ridiculous.
I don't mind gun control to some degree, restricting certain firearms and people isn't a bad thing, but some of the restrictions and laws are pretty retarded and ill-conceived. I'm not saying people should be able to hand their partner access codes or combinations to safes, that's stupid, but I'd like to see some sort of mechanism in place to deal with the issue in the advent of a firearms owner dying and their partner having to deal with the firearms; I think they could deal with the his and hers scenario a little better too.
Anyway, with Faith now keen to get her license, it will mean she'll have registered guns requiring storage as above...It's a bit of a headache to have to bring in another safe just for her, one I can't access and so the problem goes round. All of this because some asshole wanted to shoot some people.
Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default - Tomorrow isn't promised.
Be well
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