Monday, February 12, 2018

Owen Guns Bulletin February Edition 141, 2018

Thoughts For The Week.
“What you do in your lifetime will echo down through eternity”,
Marcus Aurelius
For the last two weeks our NBN, (No Bloody Network) has been causing us immense disruptions to our normal business. Apparently, it has affected our whole area. We only went to NBN due to the threat that if we did not we would be cut off from our service that we had enjoyed at these premises since 1986, so September 2017 was when we had a month of problems at its inception and now again it has reared its head.
What makes it worse, our old Australian suppliers, betrayed us and sold out to a company that runs its technical support from somewhere near India. Every day we get another different Indian expert that want to re configure our computers and fix the problem, due to English not being their first language communications are confused. Each expert is unaware of the changes that were made on the previous day and adds to the confusion. The Telecommunications Ombudsman has not helped, Telstra say they can help, but as they are having problems in the area with NBN they say we have to wait 10 weeks.
So we have a new Mobile Number 0427 943 677,
Please call, 07 54 825070 this number is still working,
07 54824099 has been diverted to the Mobile number.
Our Internet and Email owenguns@spiderweb.com.au is working, but
Our Fax line 0754824718 is Not working.
This has caused immense problems for PTA’s (Permits To Aquire) and exposed another problem with our firearm legislation and the police policy that they additionally impose on us.
Immediately we knew that the Fax machine had stopped we contacted Weapons Licencing and asked them to stop sending faxed copies of Permits to Acquire we asked them to hold them until we have it working again. A few days later I phoned Weapons Licencing again and asked them to email the PTAs as attachments, in .pdf or any other format, they refused.
As that refusal affects all licenced shooter in the State of Queensland. Here below is a report and request for action to my local Member of the House of Representatives Mr Tony Perrett.
“Dear Tony
On behalf of our long patient customers that have been waiting for PTA Permits To Acquire, could you please direct a question in the house to the Police Minister,
As you are aware the time taken for Weapons Licensing to issue the Permits to Acquire is in most cases many weeks, sometimes many months, their phone robots when answering enquires tells people not to phone them for 12 weeks as they are busy.
For people who have to wait 28 days cooling off period after they have already waited 28 days extended to six months waiting for QPS to process their card its intolerable, but its takes many weeks longer than this in most cases. For those who already have a firearm on there licence the regulations state “the period is the remainder of the day on which the applicant lodged the application” This leaves Weapons Licensing in breach of the Act and Regulations and if this was a dealer and they did not process their information back to QPS on time they would charge us.
Weapons Licensing to attempt to process this disaster a little quicker have over the last few years taken to faxing the PTA forms to the Gun Shops.
Due to the un reliability of NBN and phone lines in general sometime they do not arrive. Weapons Licensing have in the past refused to send them again, and even local Policemen have been forced to re apply and send the money again.
Since last Monday this area (Gympie) has had a huge problem with NBN and the Fax is the first to fail. It became so intermittent and haphazard we asked Weapons licensing to stop faxing PTAs. On Monday (last) Weapons Licensing emailed an attachment with a letter Authorising them to release 15 firearms to a Customer. We complied with this and today with customers asking if we had their PTAs, I phoned Weapons Licensing and spoke to Steve, I asked him, as we have no NBN fax could you please email the PTA s as an attachment, he refused and I asked who was in charge He said AP Guild Inspector, I asked to speak to him he said that was not possible, but that they would not email the attachments . So I asked him to post all of them out as the fax is not reliable.
Weapons Act 1990
Section 39
(4)A permit to acquire must—
(a)be issued in the approved form for a single weapon; and
The Attachments for Email can do this just as good as a fax.
I have included This section of the Weapons Act so that you can see that for most people there should be no waiting period they should be emailed out on the remainder of the day the application is lodged. They (Weapons Licencing) are in breach of the Weapons Act 1990 and should be charged.
101 Waiting period for decision on application for permit to acquire
(1)This section prescribes the period for section 42 of the Act .
(2)The period is 28 days after the day the applicant lodged the application for the permit to acquire the weapon.
(3)However, the period is the remainder of the day on which the applicant lodged the application for the permit, if—
(a)the applicant already holds a firearm under a licence; or
(b)an authorised officer is satisfied there are exceptional circumstances.
Could you please ask the Minister why this has not happened as yet.
Your Ron Owen JP (Qual)
Please phone 07 54 825070 if you need any further information.
Ron”
End the PTA system.
Every licenced shooter that has had any dealing with Weapons Licencing Branch quickly becomes frustrated and secondly comes to the realisation that the whole process is a useless waste of human endeavour. Registering Long Arms has caused a bureaucratic nightmare that has never operated effectively. Shooters constantly ask for their up dated lists of firearms registered to their names, as they have paid for their PTA they want to naturally know and have it in writing that they have a legal right to own and use the firearm that they have purchased. After many weeks and regular phone calls they finally get their up dated list. Then in most cases they find that the information that they have given has not been recorded properly on their lists, sometimes they can have the wrong name of the Firearm Owner on the, sometimes it’s the wrong licence number, sometimes, it’s the wrong firearm name, model, calibre or serial number, or sometimes the firearms are missing or sometimes there are firearms on the list that they have never heard of. Worse than this is that the list might have the wrong address of it and it never gets to the person who is pleading for it.

Two Years Behind.
Of course any mistakes are blamed on the licenced shooter or the dealer. This information is supposed to be the Police ‘Commissioners Register’ that the legislation demands that he keep, it is plain knowledge that it is a mess, information that is sent by Dealers every week is still un processed a year later, Dealers are constantly asked on the phone for information about I year or older transactions and when queried and reminded that the information has been already sent to them within the 14 days allowed, the honest answer is that ‘those Form 10s a in a great big pile that have not been processed yet, so its easier to find the information if we phone the dealer. The Dealer quickly realises that his register, his books are the only real register in the state. This becomes apparent to licenced shooter when the local police turn up, to do and audit of his security and check his firearms. Its either there are some on the list he has never heard of or, firearms that he has duly registered that are not on the policemen’s form and if he does not have the original copy of the PTA or his police receipt the policeman will want to take them away. That’s why its important for all licenced shooters to get current, correct upto date lists from weapons licencing. So if you do not have one contact them and get them to post out your latest. You are entitled to it, don’t let the staff on the phone put you off, if they refuse contact your local State MP and ask him to get it corrected with the Police Minister.
All this effort, and it’s a mess of incorrect information that increases in its misidentify by passing through many hands. Like Chinese whispers, or monkeys the error is magnified at every point.
What is worse crime on the licenced shooter is the issuing of the PTAs in the first instance, as in the above sections of the act and what is shown in the letter when the authorised officer can send a letter to a dealer and a customer takes charge of 15 firearms, without a PTA, without a special form. The Shooters Licence is the lawful authority and everything beyond that, is the Police imposed policy. Yes, there is a provision in Section 35 of the Act for Permits To Acquire, but it is an optional process for people who do not have an other lawful authority, such as employee’s on farms who need to purchase a firearm and the farmer holds the licence.
Lot’s of examples of this are ‘Like for Like’, exchange on firearm for another Police Policy removes the imposition for this and for ‘Warranty’ and the thousands of registrations that were done in each Amnesty, Police Policy is relaxed, the Weapons Act and Regulations are un altered in these sections the only difference is that the Police do not impose the PTA.
Division 2 Acquisition, sale and disposal of weapons
35 Acquisition of weapons
(1) A person may acquire a weapon only if—
(a) the person is a licensed dealer; or
(b) the person is the holder of a permit to acquire the weapon and acquires the weapon—
(i) from or through a licensed dealer; or
(ii) through a police officer in circumstances prescribed under a regulation; or
(c) the person acquires the weapon under other lawful authority, justification or excuse.
and the lawful authority, justification or excuse is
Division 1 General
49A Authority given by licence
(1) A licence authorises a licensee to possess and use a weapon or category of weapon endorsed on the licence for any lawful purpose.

Summary.
When the Police Policy duplicates and adds the imposition of PTAs on to the licenced shooters of Queensland, when they make them wait for many weeks of additional time , when they have already forked out hundreds of dollars and waited for many times six months to get licence, over six times the additional days of waiting period, then be submitted to another bureaucratic nightmare of waiting periods 28 days plus weeks of waiting, then refusing to email a PTA as an attachment which costs again 4 days to a week in country Queensland.
This is all an abuse of power, power that we the people put into their hands.
In fact the only way the Queensland Police could satisfy and not be in breach of Section 101 of the Weapons Act 1990 would be to email out the Permit to Acquire as an attachment to the licenced Shooter who has lodged his application
(3)However, the period is the remainder of the day on which the applicant lodged the application for the permit, if—
(a)the applicant already holds a firearm under a licence; Anything slower than that, then the Police Commissioner and or his staff are breaking the Laws of Queensland.
Go to this address link and find the email address of your local State Member of Parliament
and just ask them to contact the Minister of Police and remedy this aberration of justice. Just a few lines, it will take just a few minutes of your time and it will all help to make a difference.
Remember Albert Einstein said
“The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch and do nothing.”
Go on have a go, its easy, become a voice for justice, a voice for freedom, lets seize the day, we have nothing to lose but our chains. Write a letter or send by email, no other group or association is going to do it for you. We are it. We are the Firearm Lobby.
There is no Spring without Winter, without Mistakes there is no Learning. There is no Life without Death, without Doubts there is no Faith. There is no Peace without War, without Fear there is no Courage. For without Mistakes, Doubts and Fears there are no pathways to Wisdom.
Ron Owen


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