Keith H. Burgess. Wychwood
Forest, MSF 2007, Armidale 2350.
Dear Sir,
I have written to you before
regarding the matter of antique flintlock muzzle-loading firearms versus modern
made flintlock firearms. But as nothing has been done to amend the legislation
I thought it worth writing you again.
Antique flintlock muzzle-loading
pistols & long arms do not require a firearms licence, registration, or a
permit to purchase. Modern made copies of the exact same gun do require a
firearms licence, registration, & a permit to purchase. This makes no
sense, & the requirement of licences, registration & permits to
purchase also means more work for the NSW Firearms Registry & the Police.
The extra work & costs involved in separating 18th century
muzzle-loading guns from 21st century muzzle-loading guns is simply
not sensible.
This is not the only problem. A
few months ago I was subject to a firearms check. The police sergeant attending
was ignorant of the content of the firearms legislation. He did not know what a
muzzle-loading gun was & told me he would have to report me for having
illegal firearms that were not registered. These were antique muzzle-loading
guns made before 1900ad. By law he should have confiscated these guns if he
truly believed they were breech-loading firearms that required licence &
registration, but he did not. I then at my own expense had to take my guns to a
gunsmith in Arding so that he could verify that these guns were in fact
muzzle-loading firearms & that they were in deed antiques.
Recently I purchased what was
supposed to be an antique flintlock pistol. This pistol however turned out to
be a copy. The person who sold it to me broke the law be posting this firearms
through the mail, because it was not an antique. By law I had to turn this gun
over to the police, so I took it to Armidale police station. The police did not
want it! They had never seen a muzzle-loading gun before & were not
interested. They told me to forget about it & take it home again!
Due to
this ridiculous legislation I could not do this & so had to insist that
they take this pistol, log it & give me a receipt. The point here is that
the police themselves don’t care whether or not anyone owns a muzzle-loading
pistol, so why is such a gun restricted by law? There is no difference between
a flintlock muzzle-loading pistol made in 1750ad & the same identical gun
made in the 21st century. It is not as if the guns made now were
actually breech-loading & just made to look like a muzzle-loader, this is
not the case. These modern made flintlocks are in every way the same as the
originals. They need a piece of rock to create sparks to ignite the priming
powder which in turn has to ignite the main charge. No wonder the police are
not interested in these guns.
([2] Section 6A Exemption for certain firearms
manufactured before 1900
Omit section 6A (1). Insert instead:
(1) A person is exempt from any requirement under this Act to hold
a licence or permit in respect of the possession of an antique
firearm.
An antique firearm is defined and
one made before 1900, with the same commercially available ammunition
requirements as before . A
functioning copy of an antique firearm is a replica firearm and is treated the
same as modern firearms, regardless of the availability of commercial
ammunition. The corresponding clauses of the Firearms Regulation 2006 are repealed, moving control of
antiques to the main act from the reg.
To take all flintlock muzzle-loading
guns, including flintlock pistols, off licence, off registration & off
permit to acquire would save the Government a lot of money & free up Police
service staff for more important duties.
Your assistance in getting this
legislation amended would be greatly appreciated.
Yours very sincerely,
Keith H. Burgess.
New England Colonial Living
History Group 1680-1760. N.E.C.L.H.G.
Member of: Australasian Living
History Federation. A.L.H.F.
Registered with: Australia
Register of Living History Organisations. A.R L H.O.
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