The Greens have accused a band of Coalition senators of ‘kowtowing’ to the gun lobby by calling for more lenient firearm regulations in direct contradiction of a Senate inquiry.

The inquiry into illegal firearms initiated by the Greens recommended tighter gun controls and more funding to curb gun-related crime.

Liberal senators Linda Reynolds and Ian McDonald and National party senator Bridget McKenzie accused the small left-wing party of demonising lawful gun owners, and issued a dissenting report with pro-gun Senator David Leyonhjelm.

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“The Coalition has kowtowed to the gun lobby,” said Greens Senator Penny Wright in response to the minority report.

Despite many of the recommendations being neither “controversial or radical”, the dissenting senators had refused to agree, Senator Wright said.

“They are refusing to acknowledge the evidence presented to the committee that theft from registered owners is a major source of illicit firearms.”

In their dissenting report, the Coalition senators and Senator Leyonhjelm agreed to a nation-wide gun amnesty, but called for a reduced regulatory burden on the gun industry.

“The reality is, this isn’t a space for the Commonwealth to be getting involved in,” Nationals Senator McKenzie said.

“It is a long-standing policy of the Greens to be attempting to get, particularly, pistols off the streets and more highly regulate that,” she said.

“We simply recognise the legitimate role that legal gun ownership has in Australian society from a social, economic and environmental perspective.”

The Australian Crime Commission (ACC) estimates there are more than 260,000 firearms in the illicit market — 250,000 long-arms and 10,000 handguns.

Senator McKenzie said she and her Coalition colleagues doubted the Greens’ claim that ‘most illegal guns are stolen from registered owners’, believing instead the bulk of black market weapons were illegally imported.

—with ABC.