Every state and territory in breach of National Firearms Agreement

Every mainland Australian state and territory is in breach of the National Firearms Agreement by failing to limit the amount of ammunition gun-owners can buy.

An investigation by The Australian has confirmed that there is no limit to how much ammunition licensed gun-owners can buy in any jurisdiction, except Tasmania. Picture: iStock

Every mainland Australian state and territory is in breach of the ­National Firearms Agreement – signed in the wake of the Port Arthur massacre – by failing to limit the amount of ammunition that gun-owners can buy.

The ambush murders of two police constables and a good Samaritan neighbour at a remote property at Wieambilla, west of Brisbane, in December has sparked fresh calls for tighter gun laws.

An investigation by The Australian has confirmed that there is no limit to how much ammunition licensed gun-owners can buy in any jurisdiction, except Tasmania, where the police commissioner decides individual limits based on personal circumstances.

In Victoria and South Australia, the amount bought needs to be “reasonable” but there is no definition or upper limit on how much that is.

In Queensland, licensed gun-owners can buy as much ammunition as they like for any kind of firearm, regardless of the type of weapon for which they hold a ­licence.

Under the National Firearms Agreement – signed by all jurisdictions in 1996 after the Port Arthur massacre that killed 35 people and then again in 2017 after the Lindt cafe siege in which two people died – states and territories promised to legislate to limit the quantity of ammunition that could be purchased. They also agreed to allow the sale of ammunition only for the specific firearms for which the buyer was licensed; the Northern Territory, Queensland, SA and Victoria all fail in that aspect as well by allowing licence-holders to buy any ammunition for the same category of firearm.

Graham Park, president of the Shooters Union Australia, said ammunition limits were irrelevant and impractical, and the issue was already addressed through other laws, such as explosives storage regulations.

Shooters Union Australia president Graham Park.

Ammunition was too expensive to stockpile, he said, and limits were impractical because different sorts of shooters had different ­requirements. “A single box of 50 is more ammunition than a maniac would need to commit the largest mass murder in history,” Mr Park said. “However, a single box is not enough for the average competition shooter to complete a Saturday afternoon competition … a competition shooter may shoot 1000 rounds every week of the year, to stay at a high level.”

“And if you have someone who’s a deer hunter in Victoria and goes up into the Victorian Alps after sambar deer, they might shoot five shots in a year. So how do you set a limit?”

Mr Park said the focus for governments should be on cracking down on criminal misuse of firearms and ammunition, rather than licensed gun-owners.

Australian Gun Safety Alliance convener Stephen Bendle said after the Port Arthur massacre, it was horrifying that so many states and territories were still in breach.

Australian Gun Safety Alliance convener Stephen Bendle. Picture: Supplied

“We think that Australians expect all governments to uphold their commitments – especially when it comes to community safety,” Mr Bendle said.

“Given the bipartisan support for the National Firearms Agreement as recently as 2017, we are disappointed that not a single jurisdiction is fully compliant with the NFA nearly 27 years after Port Arthur.

“Given the pressure that all ­jurisdictions are under from the firearm industry, we think the community deserves better.”

The Australian Federal Police Association is calling for ammunition limits to be introduced across Australia, as well as an ­effective national registry of gun ­licence-holders.

There is also pressure on the federal government to ban the sale and importation of ammunition for handguns that were outlawed in the 2003 firearm buyback.