by NorthWester » 27 Jan 2023, 6:06 pm
In over 30 years of firearms ownership in WA, which has seen my firearms stored at over 8 locations, I've only ever been inspected once.
This was in Karratha in the early 90's when I got a knock at the front door around 10pm to be confronted by a torch beam in the face asking to inspect my safe.
Back then the keys were in a safe place, so I retrieved them, let them in, opened the safe, and in 2 minutes they were gone. Got the feeling they were just ticking a box at the time.
Nowadays my firearms are not stored at my residence but elsewhere as I got sick of moving the safe between rentals and having to get permission (sometimes) by the landlords to mount the safe. Whilst I own the home, I'm in now, I have left the safe elsewhere and just pick up the firearms when needed (only 5min away).
I thought WAPOL would have an issue with this, but when I sent in the form with all the details and an explanation as to why, they didn't seem to have any issues. The form actually accommodates the different storage location.
So, in my case if they want to inspect the safe, they will need to contact me first and I'll need to meet them at the alternate location with my keys. I actually have a sign on the front of the safe that states the keys are stored elsewhere. Afterall I'd be in trouble if I left the keys with owner of the residence.
My understanding is that it is likely new laws will be introduced to state the need for a keypad or similar instead of keys to avoid the key in the safe or near it issue. The thing is these all come with override keys too..... so won't solve much...