No1Mk3 wrote:Specific data was not collated in Victoria, and I doubt it was in any other State. As for what was handed in, all semi-auto in this State was required to be handed in a decade before the 1996 buy-back, ever since Queen St, and they could only be registered and owned under very limited circumstances which were cancelled in 1996. A friend of mine who worked "behind the jump" mentioned skip loads of semi-auto rifles and semi and pump shotguns being sent to Sims Metal for shredding with only a few kept back for the Police Museum and the Forensic "library". Even so, a fair number of rifles and shotguns were never registered or handed in after Queen St and continue to turn up under Amnesty.
That’s not my recollection.
Until 96 in Victoria I was allowed to own semi auto rimfire and shotguns without any special circumstances outside of what was normally required. For a centerfire semiautomatic I needed a property letter with permission to shoot.
Of course I followed everything properly and lawfully
However I will add at the time add QLD and Tassie we’re far more relaxed. And you could buy a semiautomatic centerfire there with a vic licence. Which was fairly common because of the cheap adds for an skk with a crate of ammo in QLD. And they would post it to your door. I also remember a lot of cheap adds for old 303’s but nobody wanted them then
I don’t have any first hand knowledge of the 80s though as I never owned any guns of my own before I turned 18.
I might also add throughout my youth most of the people and places i went shooting with/at didn’t have firearm licenses.
They just had guns on the farm or would borrow dads.,
Anyway I handed mine in for 96. But I knew plenty of people who didn’t and not because they were dodgy people, they just genuinely didn’t believe it was a good idea, didn’t agree with it.
Overall from the perspective of people I knew socially and locally the buy back was voluntary surrender and many took the opportunity to hand in the 22 or air rifle in the cupboard because they never used it anyway. And some people didn’t hand them in. Mostly rural people in my opinion because they had more frequent use.
I think there was an explosion of urbanisation around that period as cities grew and farmland became suburbs and people with a new house in the burbs didn’t have as much interest in shooting as they do today
If someone can dig it up there was a police statement recently where they estimated approx 260,000 semi automatic we’re not handed in and remain in the community today.
I believe the estimate was well researched relative to the history of imports
I dream of a world where chickens can cross the road without having their motives questioned