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 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
