The Greens will move to amend the government’s Firearms (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill 2015 to provide police with the specific authority to make enquiries of partners and ex-partners when assessing gun licence applications, Greens Leader and Police spokesperson Kim Booth MP said today.

“The state’s laudable awareness campaign to tackle the blight of family violence would be strengthened by requiring a spouse, or partner in a significant relationship, to be informed of an individual’s application for a gun licence,” Mr Booth said.

“It is common-sense to have greater harmonisation between the state’s gun laws and our push to stamp out family and domestic violence. I urge both the Liberals and Labor to consider the Greens’ amendments seriously when the Bill is debated.”

“Available data indicates that firearm misuse is worse in domestic violence situations than in any other area and that Australians are more likely to be murdered in a domestic situation with a firearm than in any other.”

“Nationally during the period between 2010–11 and 2011–12, approximately one in 10 homicide incidents involved the use of a firearm, and at 39 per cent of the sampled evidence, the most common relationship between homicide offender and victim throughout 2010–11 and 2011–12 was domestic.” [1]

“A recent US study revealed that guns were used in 65 per cent of all domestic homicides of women, and other studies also reveal that when a gun is involved in domestic violence, the chance of a woman’s death increases by 12 times when compared to other forms of violence.” [2]

“It is also widely recognised that the threat of a firearm is over-represented in reported domestic violence cases as a tool of intimidation, physical or psychological violence.”

“The Greens’ believe we need to look at models such as that in the Canadian Firearms Act which requires as part of the necessary background checks, that current and previous spouses, over the previous two years, must be notified of an individual’s intent to acquire a firearm licence.”

“The Canadian experience shows that the rate of firearm-related spousal homicides in that country decreased by nearly 50 per cent from 1997 to 2006.” [3]

“The Canadian model does not provide for veto by spouse’s or ex partners, but their feedback is then utilised where necessary during the applicant’s guns licence assessment.”

“The UK and some US states are also currently looking at this provision as a mechanism to tackle domestic violence and the misuse of guns in those situations.”

“Requiring Tasmanian wives, girlfriends, boyfriends and husbands to be notified when their partner applies for a firearms licence is an important investment in strengthening the current gun laws screening processes, while also doing something tangible to forward the campaign to stamp out family violence,” Mr Booth said.

Mr Booth also said that the Greens’ Party Room was still considering the government’s Amendment Bill and that while there are some provisions which improve the current Act, the Greens’ still hold serious reservations over others, including lowering the supervised minor’s age to 15 years.

References:
[1] Homicide in Australia: 2010–11 to 2011–12: National Homicide Monitoring Program report; W. Bryant and T.Cussen.
[2] Post and Courier: “Senators propose gun ban, stiffer penalties to reform South Carolina’s domestic violence laws”; D. Pardue and G. Smith, December 2014;
[3] Disarming Domestic Violence: An International Campaign to Reduce Gun Deaths in the Home; 2010.
Kim Booth MP | Greens Leader