Recently, U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump fell victim to an assassination attempt during his speech in Pennsylvania. The bullets barely missed his head, leaving him wounded in the ear.
Today I thought I’d take this opportunity to discuss the Victorian gun laws with you all.
To own a firearm in Victoria, there are three things on your checklist:
- First of all, you will need to complete the Victorian Firearm Safety Course, which you can typically sign up for at your local police station.
- The second thing you’ll need to do is prepare your application materials and submit them to Victoria Police. You can find detailed information on the police website. If all goes well, you’ll get your firearm license.
- Congratulations, you just got your gun license. BUT guess what, you can’t buy a gun yet! That license only allows you to OWN guns but not to BUY them. To purchase a firearm, you must apply for a Permit to Acquire.
Now, with those three things out of the way, you can officially go get your own gun!
But you may ask, what if I don’t want to bother with all that?
Well, carrying, possessing, or using firearms without a license is illegal. If you’ve got a longarm, you can get up to 2 years of imprisonment. For pistols, you are looking at up to 4 years.
Without a licence, you can’t even own ammunition! You can get fined up to $7,800 for simply possessing ammunition.
Obviously, Australian gun laws are much stricter than in the U.S. Things were a bit more relaxed until the shooting in Port Arthur in 1996. That tragic event really pushed the federal government to tighten up on gun control.
In the States, the right to bear firearms is a hot-button issue. The Second Amendment gives folks the right to keep and bear firearms, and it’s a big part of their national conversation. Down under, though, our constitution doesn’t even touch on that.
Alright, that wraps up today’s discussion. Catch you next time!
