Do I Need A Firearm Dealers License To Work In a Gun Store?

[sbd850]

Hey all,

I'm interested in starting some sort of career around firearms as I'm rapidly losing interest in my current self employed job, which I've done for the last 10 years.

Anyway, I figured that potentially working in a gun store would be a good place to start. I'm curious on whether I need a Dealer License to work for someone else who has one.

Any information will be very appreciated. I haven't been able to find anything on google about working for someone else who has a dealer license.

Thanks!

[alexjones]

No you don't. The dealer(store owner) has the dealer licence.

You just have to be eligible to have a firearms licence(fit and proper person) and you will work under the dealers licence.

[sbd850]

No you don't. The dealer(store owner) has the dealer licence.

You just have to be eligible to have a firearms licence(fit and proper person) and you will work under the dealers licence.

Thank you very much,

I have my firearms license so all good on that front.

[alexjones]

Having a dealers licence allows you to possess a lot of cool stuff so if it was a simple as being an employee 'on paper' than a lot of people would work for free as a casual once a month at a gun store to be able to get a dealers licence.

[deye243]

In Victoria if you get the job you then have to go down to the police station submit your fingerprints and submit to a national background check same procedure as getting a pistol license that will allow you to work in a gun shop

[alexjones]

In Victoria if you get the job you then have to go down to the police station submit your fingerprints and submit to a national background check same procedure as getting a pistol license that will allow you to work in a gun shop

What? They take fingerprints in Victoria for a pistol licence? Really? That is insane.

[No1Mk3]

In Victoria if you get the job you then have to go down to the police station submit your fingerprints and submit to a national background check same procedure as getting a pistol license that will allow you to work in a gun shop

What? They take fingerprints in Victoria for a pistol licence? Really? That is insane.

Worse than insane, when I did it you fronted your local cop shop, they got the form and the ink pad and all was done, no probs. Now you have to go and get a digital scan in the City or a regional Centre (much cleaner) but you have to PAY for it!! Over $230!! Bloody robbery.

[alexjones]

That's madness. I don't see how how it makes someone a fit and proper person. But only for pistols. Unless it is just to make pistol ownership more arduous.

[deye243]

That's madness. I don't see how how it makes someone a fit and proper person. But only for pistols. Unless it is just to make pistol ownership more arduous.

You got it right there I call it hassle factor ...... your supposed to give up.
Just like the registry it has never solved a crime and never will .

[bladeracer]

Worse than insane, when I did it you fronted your local cop shop, they got the form and the ink pad and all was done, no probs. Now you have to go and get a digital scan in the City or a regional Centre (much cleaner) but you have to PAY for it!! Over $230!! Bloody robbery.

Rose and I did ours two weeks ago, $231 each. The real pain was they could only take payment from a phone, which I don't do.

Edit: When I asked how they deal with people that don't have mobile phones she said they send you to the bank to get a money order

[Oldbloke]

That's madness. I don't see how how it makes someone a fit and proper person. But only for pistols. Unless it is just to make pistol ownership more arduous.

You got it right there I call it hassle factor ...... your supposed to give up.
Just like the registry it has never solved a crime and never will .

Spot on. And blade said only via mobile. Clearly just making it difficult.

Even FAL can only be paid in person at Westpac bank with cash or a wespac card. And it isn't going to get easier.

[bladeracer]

Spot on. And blade said only via mobile. Clearly just making it difficult.

Even FAL can only be paid in person at Westpac bank with cash or a wespac card. And it isn't going to get easier.

As already mentioned, you don't need any firearm licence to work in a shop, but you must be eligible to apply for a CatA/B licence, ie not be a prohibited person, etc. I would expect any such employer though would prefer you hold a firearm licence though.

The whole (Victoria) pistol licencing is most definitely designed to weed out anybody that's not quite sure they want to do it, and those that simply don't have the patience. Because they're taking so long to process applications currently it's more difficult to maintain new members' interest while they wait endlessly.

At the moment they're running way behind on processing licences, which is really only a problem due to the NORI system. As an unlicenced person, every time you handle a handgun you have to fill out a Notification of Receiving Instruction, which the club sends to Police, every time. The catch is, you can only do _13_ NORI's in total, forever, without exception. A club will generally want you to prove you're interested by doing at least a couple of shoots before accepting you as a member, which burns a couple of your NORI's before you even have a club membership (an ISSF club might expect a couple of air-pistol shoots before moving you into rimfire and centrefire shoots). Then you have to do a Safe Handling Course before you can make an application for your provisional handgun licence. I would think the SFC would also burn a NORI but I just looked through our logs and it doesn't appear that we did NORI's specifically for it, but we did it after a shoot so I guess the one NORI for the day covered the safety course as well. So you are at least three NORI's down before you can apply for your licence. So the remaining ten NORI's, or more likely six or eight if you shot several times before deciding to pursue it, have to see you through the processing period, which is currently taking eight to ten weeks. Meaning there is a period where you won't be shooting at all because you have none left or you want to save them in case you find some interesting discipline you'd like to try while you're waiting. For myself and Rose, rather than just stay home, or attend and just watch, we've been going around other clubs and seeing what else is happening that we might find of interest. Rose's brother has also decided to get into it so I've been supporting him when he shoots (he shot two Rimfire matches on Saturday).

So, after some months (probably at least three or four) you finally receive a provisional licence. This does not allow you to borrow a handgun, or buy a handgun, but it does allow you to buy ammunition (if you don't already have a CatA/B licence) and it allows you to continue shooting under supervision without requiring NORI's. As long as you know somebody that owns handguns, and can organise to attend the range with them outside of competition times, you can shoot to your hearts content using other people's handguns under their supervision, or you can use the club's handguns when they're available. After holding a provisional licence for six months, and logging at least five shoots, and having your fingerprints taken, you can apply for the full handgun licence, which takes another eight to ten weeks to process. When you finally receive the full handgun licence you can finally buy your first handgun, and wait another 28 days to collect it. Theoretically it should be possible to be fully licenced in about nine months, but it's much more likely to be closer to twelve months before you have your first handgun in your hands. Now, all the clubs I've attended have said you can buy two handguns initially, provided one of them is an air-pistol - you can buy an air-pistol, or a rimfire pistol, or a centrefire pistol, or an air-pistol and a rimfire pistol, or an air-pistol and a centrefire pistol (centrefire includes blackpowder). But I was asked about the law for this restriction just last week and I haven't been able to find any such restriction in the Act so perhaps that's just a VAPA restriction? After you've held the full licence for six months you can finally buy additional handguns.

You just have to put your head down and stick with it

And it's not cheap (I'm sure the expense is also aimed at weeding out potentials). Club membership is likely to be around $500 including a joining fee (future years will be significantly cheaper), and family membership saves the joining fee (for myself and Rose it was $780 to join), plus the fingerprints of $231 each, plus the provisional licence of $62.70 (we took out 12-month provisionals at $112.90 each), then the licence fee at the end - $225 each for three years.

Personally, I don't like having to borrow other people's gear, or rely on other people being available to supervise me, so I don't see me doing a great deal of shooting on the provisional licence. But I already spent years shooting a decent variety of handguns and already have a fairly clear idea of what I do and don't like, but for most people the provisional licence period is when you'll be trying to borrow and try as many different firearms as possible to determine which you should look at buying eventually.

Be aware that clubs vary enormously, but to start the licencing process the law merely requires you to be a member of a club, and it probably makes sense to start with your closest club (if you do decide to change clubs later on though you'll be up for another joining fee (around $250). My local club only shoots rimfire/centrefire on two days of the week, and even when they give you keys to the range you can only practice on those days...while they are shooting competitions...on the same range...which is not great. Other clubs might allow you to shoot 24/7 with minimal restrictions so you can spend hours doing your own practice without interfering with other shooters.

[alexjones]

Man that sounds terrible. This must be the only state to take fingerprints yes?

In QLD pistol licence requirements is to be a pistol club member for 6 months and in that 6 months do 3 shoots then you can apply for a licence. In the first 12 months of having a licence you can only possess one pistol(can also have an air pistol but they are gay) than after the 12 months you can buy unlimited subject to your genuine needs. Only bad thing about pistol licence is it lasts for 5 years where a firearms licence for A/B is 10 years.

No finger prints required just a normal police background check. And none of this 13 unlicensed shoots either. It is unlimited.

[bladeracer]

Man that sounds terrible. This must be the only state to take fingerprints yes?

In QLD pistol licence requirements is to be a pistol club member for 6 months and in that 6 months do 3 shoots then you can apply for a licence. In the first 12 months of having a licence you can only possess one pistol(can also have an air pistol but they are gay) than after the 12 months you can buy unlimited subject to your genuine needs. Only bad thing about pistol licence is it lasts for 5 years where a firearms licence for A/B is 10 years.

No finger prints required just a normal police background check. And none of this 13 unlicensed shoots either. It is unlimited.

I don't know if we're the only state doing fingerprinting for pistol licences, but I think we're the only state with a limit on pistol instruction. Our CatA/B licence is five years here. One weird thing here is that we have required attendances but they only apply if you actually own pistols, if you're happy to shoot your mate's or club pistols you never have to shoot any required attendances. As soon as you own one pistol you have to shoot at least ten attendances.

I don't have an issue with the background check and fingerprinting, it's pretty much the same as getting your Working With Children ticket.

[Oldbloke]

"I don't have an issue with the background check and fingerprinting, it's pretty much the same as getting your Working With Children ticket."

Na, not required mate.

[bladeracer]

"I don't have an issue with the background check and fingerprinting, it's pretty much the same as getting your Working With Children ticket."

Na, not required mate.

You sure? I was told it's essentially the same background check? So much so that they discount the fingerprinting if you already have the WWC card?

[Oldbloke]

Well,,,wasn't required abt 3-4 years ago. It may have changed since I guess.

Edit:
Can't see a mention of finger prints here. Just documents to prove ID.

https://www.vic.gov.au/application-proc ... or-a-check

[Flyonline]

Nope, I did my Wwc last month, no fingerprinting needed.

They’re not worth much anyway as the states don’t talk to each other.

[deye243]

I just got my pistol licence back and no finger prints were taken because I had one back in the 90s so that saved me som coin .

[bladeracer]

Well,,,wasn't required abt 3-4 years ago. It may have changed since I guess.

Edit:
Can't see a mention of finger prints here. Just documents to prove ID.

https://www.vic.gov.au/application-proc ... or-a-check

Sorry, I wasn't saying the WWC check included fingerprinting.

[Oldbloke]

Yes,
I'm saying WWC does not need finger prints.

[bladeracer]

Yes,
I'm saying WWC does not need finger prints.

Bloody phone
I wasn't saying that the WCC requires fingerprinting, just that the background check, which is part of the fingerprint exercise, is essentially the same as what is required for the pistol licence. I was told that if you already have the WCC then they discount the fingerprinting because you've already completed the background check part of it thus you only pay for the fingerprinting. Whether that's correct I don't know, I have been told some strange stuff about "laws" since getting involved with pistol clubs. I do know somebody with the WCC, he's a month or so off for the fingerprinting, but I should find out then.

[Oldbloke]