Search the list: The 514 South Australians not allowed to own a gun
There are now 514 South Australians banned from owning a gun – a rise of 131 people over the past 12 months. Browse the blacklist of people too dangerous to own a firearm here.
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- LAST YEAR’S LIST: The 389 South Aussies that can’t own a gun
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These are the most dangerous 514 South Australians banned from owning guns to protect the community.
Cautious police and the courts have added 131 people to their firearms prohibition order banned list in the past 12 months, while deeming only four have been reformed enough to be removed.
The bans mean hundreds – from those who have accidentally shot friends to acquitted terrorism suspects – must now stay well away from firearms for the safety of the community.
Today The Advertiser publishes the full name-and-shame list of those banned, searchable online, including the 88 added by police and 43 by courts in the past year.
The numbers added to the list are rapidly escalating, from 52 in 2015, 98 in 2019 up to 131 in the past 12 months.
Officer in charge of the firearms branch Superintendent Stephen Howard said police took compliance with the orders very seriously.
“Two hundred and sixteen compliance searches were conducted in the past six months,’’ he said.
“Seventeen firearm order holders were arrested or reported for a total of 21 offences under the Firearms Act over this period.”
Superintendent Howard said law changes meant the large increase in people on the list may not reflect a trend of increasingly dangerous or more common offending.
“The Firearms Act was enacted in 2017, and SAPOL has used Section 44 Firearms Act to issue FPOs to those who are risk to the community, and those who are or have been members or participants of a criminal organisation,’’ he said.
“It is too early to determine if this is a trend.”
Police can decide without referral to courts that someone should not be allowed to own a gun.
Many of those considered too dangerous are bikies, with the display of an insignia enough proof that they are members of a banned organisation.
One person added to the list this year is Zainab Abdirahman-Khalif, 22, who was convicted and then acquitted of being a member of the terror group ISIS.
She was the subject of the state’s first terrorism trial, with the strict firearm protection order system still allowed to ban her from owning a gun despite not being guilty of anything.
The jury heard she had downloaded more than 1500 images and 127 videos of Islamic State propaganda, which included executions.
Courts can impose a firearm protection order if a person is convicted of a firearms-related offence and also if they consider a defendant “not a fit and proper person to have possession” of guns or associated equipment.
Penalties for breaches of the order range up to $50,000 or imprisonment for 10 years.
Originally published as Search the list: The 514 South Australians not allowed to own a gun