60 guns stolen every week
Arsenals sitting in our homes
ORDINARY Australians are building huge private arsenals of guns with one, living in a ritzy Sydney suburb, holding more than 350 firearms.
There are 100 people across NSW who own more than 70 registered guns each, according to the statistics for 2021.
The largest number of guns held by a single owner is 352 in Cremorne. The second largest is 305 guns held by a single owner in the Matraville area, followed by an owner of 299 guns in Goulburn and 298 in the Macquarie Hills area.
The figures obtained under Freedom of Information from NSW Police by The Greens are said to relate to individuals and exclude businesses, gun collectors and arms dealers.
Vice-president of the National Shooting Council Peter Zabrdac said on paper the figures look disturbing but deserve a closer look.
Mr Zabrdac believes the owner in Cremorne is a wealthy gentleman with a very extensive, high-value collection concentrated on military grade World War II guns – and many may be deactivated.
He said there are a number of similar collectors who would have historic guns in thematic collections that would have had their barrels plugged up.
The potential issue with gun hoarders was illustrated by a murder-suicide case in Victoria. Charles Bisucci, 69, murdered his partner Marilyn Burdon, 70, before killing himself at her home in 2017. Bisucci had been banned from owning a gun for more than a decade and forced to part with his 15 firearms after police became aware of his family violence against another partner in 2004.
But he got to keep his guns by transferring ownership to friends and acquaintances.
The Winchester rifle he used to murder Ms Burdon was officially owned by a mate.
NEARLY 60 guns are being stolen a week across Australia – many of them funnelled into the underworld.
Disturbing figures show firearms theft has almost doubled in a decade, prompting calls for reforms.
Almost 30,000 guns were reported stolen between 2007 and 2017, according to lobby group Gun Control Australia.
And, during the same period, the number of murders using stolen firearms was about 39 every year.
The rise coincided with a significant rise in gun
ownership, with more than 3.5 million firearms now registered.
“An alarming number of firearms have been stolen from legal gun owners across Australia and will likely never be recovered,” Australian Federal Police Association president Alex Caruana said. “These firearms are being used to commit crime across Australia. Gun theft is one of the main sources for guns being subsumed into the illicit gun market.”
In 2007, 1740 guns were stolen around the country with most taken from owners in Queensland (353). By 2017, the number of guns stolen had jumped to 3282 and the most came from NSW (761).
But Mr Caruana believes the number of guns reported as stolen is only a fraction of the actual number.
He said legitimate owners
were likely to be reluctant to report firearms as missing.
Mr Caruana said the association was also calling for tighter gun reform as an election issue, including the introduction of the national firearms registry, agreed to after the Port Arthur massacre but never implemented.
Mr Caruana said they were not targeting legal gun ownership but asking for reform including stopping people being able to purchase ammunition for weapons they don’t legally own.
“The lack of consistent reporting frameworks makes it easier for criminals to access dangerous weapons,” said Mr Caruana.
“There are no limits to the number of firearms an individual can own. As a result,
firearms are proliferating in urban areas across the country, posing a significant public safety risk when these guns are stolen by criminals.”
Last year in NSW detectives charged five people and seized 39 guns that were allegedly stolen during a series of break and enters across the state’s western region.
Gun Control Australia spokesman Tim Quinn said: “We know that stolen firearms are on our streets and are used by criminals.”
Mr Quinn said the lack of national data about stolen firearms meant “we are flying blind on a critical public safety issue”.
He wants funding for the Australian Institute of Criminology to report on trends in firearm-related crimes.