States resist health check for gun licences

Every state and territory except WA is resisting calls from coroners and advocates to introduce mandatory mental health checks before gun licences are granted.

Licensed gun-owner Wayne Smith allegedly killed his son Noah and then himself. Picture: Facebook

Every state and territory except Western Australia is resisting calls from coroners and advocates to introduce mandatory mental health checks before gun licences are granted, as some experts warn the measure could overwhelm a stretched public health system.

Successive Victorian governments have ignored coroners’ demands to force mandatory mental and physical health checks before granting firearms licences, after a series of suicides by registered gun owners.

An investigation ordered by Victorian coroner Paresa Antoniadis Spanos last year found 418 Victorians had killed themselves with guns between January 2009 and December 2020; at least 40 per cent held a licence; 34 per cent had an unknown licence status.

Ms Spanos said that of the 125 licence-holders who killed themselves, 46 (or 37 per cent) had previously been diagnosed with one or more mental disorders.

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States resist health check for licences

Every state and territory except WA is resisting calls from coroners and advocates to introduce mandatory mental health checks before gun licences are granted.

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All states require weapons licence applicants to self-declare whether they have any physical or mental health conditions that would prevent them from safely using a gun. Only Western Australia has promised to introduce compulsory health checks, which Police Minister Paul Papalia said would mirror rules for heavy haulage truck drivers’ licences.

Ms Spanos recommended the Victorian government fix the “glaring issue” in weapons licensing, which she said “relies too heavily on the applicant being entirely honest and disclosing information against their own interest when they apply for a firearms licence”.

Despite the repeated recommendations of Ms Spanos and fellow Victorian coroners Rosemary Carlin and Heather Spooner after investigating gunshot suicides in 2022, 2020, 2016 and 2013, and state coroner John Cain’s inquiry into a licensed firearm murder-suicide in 2021, the Victorian government has ruled out introducing mandatory mental health checks.

The Wieambilla property where two police officers and a neighbour were killed in December 2022. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen/The Australian

The Australian’s Target on Guns investigation is examining inconsistencies across state and territory gun laws and the failure to develop a national gun register.

A fresh push for the national firearms database was sparked by the shooting murders of two police officers and a neighbour at Wieambilla in southern Queensland in December by three domestic terrorists, including a licensed gun-owner.

A second pre-inquest hearing into the murders will be held in Brisbane on Thursday, as the nation’s police ministers discuss the stalled weapons register reforms.

In May, Tasmanian coroner Olivia McTaggart said the state’s firearms registry should seek medical information for long-term licence holders to verify their mental health declarations, after it emerged officials repeatedly renewed a man’s firearm licence without knowing he had long-term depression and alcoholism.

It was only after he killed himself with a registered gun in late 2019 that it was discovered he had falsely stated he had no depressive illness when his gun licence was reviewed every five years.

In NSW, the murder-suicide in June of Wayne Smith and his son Noah, 15, will be investigated by a coroner. It was revealed Smith’s guns – including the firearm used to kill his son and himself – were seized in August 2021 when his licence was suspended after he said he was having suicidal thoughts.

His firearms were returned to him and his licence reinstated in December 2022, after a report from an independent psychologist.

But NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley said the government was “not at this time” considering changing the checks and balances, despite two well-placed sources close to negotiations with government insisting it was on the brink of announcing the reform.

Queensland Police Minister Mark Ryan. Picture: Regi Varghese

In Queensland, Police Minister Mark Ryan last year shut down a push by shooting advocates involved in his firearms advisory forum keen to remove any self-declaration of health issues for gun licence applicants.

According to Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, the use of firearms was the most common method of suicide for Australian men between 1907 and late-1980s. The rates of gun suicide “declined steeply” from 1987 and continued to fall from 1996, coinciding with gun control reforms following the Port Arthur massacre. Other methods increased.

Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine consultant David Wells said Australia was lucky to have a relatively small firearms problem, but people who wanted the privilege of owning a gun should be properly screened for domestic violence, substance abuse, and serious mental health issues.

Professor Wells – clinical forensic medicine head at the institute for 19 years – said an applicant should be seen by a doctor to screen for serious depression, suicidal behaviour, or psychotic illnesses. “If a doctor identifies any of those, then the issue of the licence would be seriously considered … and we desperately need a national approach. You can’t have states having separate disparate processes,” he said.

Professor Wells said there should be an expert committee of health professionals that can review more complex applications and direct that licences be approved, denied, or if further information was required.

University of Queensland honorary associate professor Samara McPhedran, an expert in homicide, suicide and gun control, said calls for mandatory mental health checks reflected a “profound misunderstanding of what mental health clinicians do”.

“The recommendations that (coroners) made may be very well-intentioned but not always supported by evidence,” Dr McPhedran said. “It is not only difficult to predict future behaviour, it is often impossible … The reality is assessing a person’s risk of suicide is incredibly challenging, even for people who are acutely suicidal … predicting the future likelihood of suicide is highly fallible.”

“Even the best and most experienced clinicians get it wrong.”

University of Queensland’s Samara McPhedran. Picture: Tara Croser.

Dr McPhedran warned that if mandatory mental health checks were introduced before gun licences were approved or renewed, it would put overwhelming pressure on public and private mental health systems.

“It’s been widely reported in the last couple of years that psychiatrists and psychologists are closing their books and not taking on new patients, they simply cannot keep up with the existing demand,” she said.

“If a measure is passed that requires all firearm licence applicants to produce documentation around mental health, whether those applicants would even be able to access an appropriate health care provider is an entirely different question.”

Dr McPhedran said firearms were only involved in about five per cent of suicide deaths in Australia, and other methods made up the vast majority.

Shooting Industry Foundation Association CEO James Walsh said mandatory mental health checks could stop people from seeking much-needed help for fear of being stigmatised.

“A farmer who has a bad season may need to seek some mental health assistance to cope, could be deterred from seeking assistance if by doing so (it) would rule them out of having the ability to access firearms that are necessary for their businesses,” Mr Walsh said.

Anyone experiencing a crisis can call the below helplines for support and advice: Lifeline 13 11 14 | Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800 | Beyond Blue 1300 224 636