Top police officers and civil servants on both sides of the Queensland-NSW border have called for gun laws to be reformed after two police officers were shot dead in what was later described as a sick ploy to attract authorities at his death on a rural property in Queensland.
As they prepare to send a large number of NSW officers to the funerals of their slain colleagues Rachel McCrow and Matthew Arnold, NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb and her deputy Dave Hudson called for a “commitment to synergy” to to standardize gun laws, which are currently mostly set by states and territories, at the national level.
Australia’s gun laws have remained relatively unchanged since a massive overhaul more than a quarter of a century ago, when the Port Arthur massacre sparked a national reckoning on gun ownership.
One of the train shooters believed that Port Arthur was a hoax, among other twisted conspiracies.
“Greater national coherence is something we would support, there needed to be a commitment to national synergy,” Hudson said. The Daily Telegraph.
“Each state has their own laws and things they have to take into account, but as long as the intent is the same, we’re in a better place. States can come up with their own framework, but come together, improve and learn from each other of the others”.
Hudson said NSW had more than a million licensed guns and 240,000 license holders, plus countless unregistered ones.
NSW was engulfed in tragedy last week when it was revealed a member of the murderous Train trio had illegally crossed the state’s border into Queensland in a vehicle packed with weapons less than a year ago year.
The sources also said investigators were looking into whether one of the trains called NSW police to report a sighting of Nathaniel Train, who had an active missing person case and was a former resident, to lure the agents in the Wieambilla property.
“They are looking into that possibility of them calling NSW Police and saying ‘they think they know where he is,'” the source said.
“NSW Police acted on this and asked their counterparts in Queensland to look into it as part of a routine missing persons investigation.
“He was the bait.”
Mr Hudson said NSW had worked hard to introduce safer gun laws, such as confiscating gun licenses from people with mental health problems until they were proven fit to carry and revoking licenses for people facing domestic violence charges.
NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb said she would support anything that meant improvements in firearms control.
“I would support anything that ultimately protects our community and looks after our police and saves lives,” he said.
Queensland Police Minister Mark Ryan said his state had some of the strictest gun laws in the country but was open to discussing changes at state and national level. State Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said she “absolutely” supported more consistency at the national level.
Ms Palaszczuk said she would be “happy to raise” the issue in the national cabinet when it meets next year and voiced her support for more mental health checks.
Read related topics: Brisbane