The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) have reclassified lever action shotguns with capacity of greater than five rounds into Category D at their meeting today.
COAG also reclassified lever action guns with a capacity of less than 5 rounds into Category B. Both were previously available to gun owners with a Category A licence.
COAG were due to debate the classification of lever shotguns as part of a review of the National Firearms Agreement (NFA).
The move is expected to spark fierce reaction from some National Party MPs and gun enthusiast and NSW Liberal Democratic Senator David Leyonhjelm who previously warned the nation’s gun laws were already tough enough.
Writing for the Australian Financial Review today, Senator Leyonhjelm said the import ban “achieves nothing and is not preventing the ownership and use of seven-shot lever-action shotguns”.
“Not that there is anything to fear from seven-shot lever-action shotguns,” he said.
A poll that ran on Fairfax Agricultural Media this week also saw respondents overwhelmingly opposed to re-classified the Adler as a Category D weapon.
Of the 6109 total votes received, 6012 respondents voted ‘no’ and a mere 97 voted yes’, on the question “Should the Adler 110 lever action shotgun be re-classified as a Category D weapon?”
That amounts to 98.41 per cent voting against placing the gun in the toughest classification category and only a minuscule 1.59pc agreeing its access should be tightly limited.
More details and reaction to come.
