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Shotgun under review as Port Arthur anniversary looms

The weapon at the centre of debate.

The weapon at the centre of debate.

A decision on the fate of the controversial Adler A110 lever-action shotgun has been delayed and may no longer be handed down before a temporary ban on its importation expires.

The decision was expected this month, which would have coincided with the 20th anniversary of the Port Arthur massacre, the event that led to the tightening of firearm laws.

Last year a survivor of the shootings, Carolyn Loughton, launched a petition calling for heavy restrictions to be placed on the gun, a lever-action firearm capable of shooting eight rounds in as many seconds.

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Ms Loughton lost her 15-year-old daughter Sarah in the Broad Arrow Cafe at Port Arthur on April 28, 1996, and was terribly injured herself. She still requires surgery 20 years later from a bullet wound to the shoulder.

Until recently she had not given much thought to gun control, thinking the issue had been dealt with in 1996.

It was only after seeing a story on the ABC’s 7.30 about the imminent arrival of the Adler shotgun in Australia that she was galvanised, starting her petition and contacting politicians.

“The news report stopped me in my tracks,” Ms Loughton said.

“The person firing that gun had earphones on, it was very, very rapid fire. You can’t run that fast. It was truly, truly frightening.”

Deal with Leyonhjelm puts automatic expiry on ban

Weeks after the story aired, the federal government placed a temporary ban on the shotgun.

A short time later however, in exchange for Senator David Leyonhjelm’s vote on border control legislation, the government put an automatic expiry date on the ban of August 7 this year.

The ban does not extend to a version of the gun that can fire six rounds. It remains available as a Category A firearm, the least restrictive category, and more than 7000 have been imported into Australia in the past six months.

Supplied/ABC

Lever-action guns like the Adler A110 are not referred to in the National Firearms Agreement 1996. Photo: Supplied/ABC

A decision on the fate of the banned gun, and lever-action shotguns in general, is part of a wider review into technical aspects of the 1996 National Firearms Agreement, the deal pushed through by then-prime minister John Howard following the Port Arthur shootings.

The review, underway since late last year, is being overseen by the federal government and conducted by Commonwealth, state and territory law enforcement and justice agencies.

Last month a group of senior officials considered a draft of the review and asked for more time to consider how to implement possible changes.

This potentially pushes any decision beyond the expiry of the Adler ban, something the government would not have anticipated when it made the deal with Senator Leyonhjelm.

The review is politically sensitive and whatever the decision on the Adler, it is guaranteed to upset one side of the bitterly divided gun control debate.

Gun control advocates consider the Adler’s availability a significant weakening of Australia’s gun control regime, which they argue has put a stop to mass killings and reduced firearm deaths in this country.

For those on the other side of the debate, the gun simply updates century-old technology and they consider its ban an overreaction.

Howard will not support any watering down of laws

The problem is that lever-action shotguns are not specifically referred to in the 1996 agreement.

Adler

The result from the review is guaranteed to upset one side of the gun control debate. Photo: Adler

The agreement places tight restrictions on semi-automatic and pump-action rifles, putting those with a magazine capacity of up to five rounds in Category C (prohibited except for occupational purposes) and those with a magazine capacity of more than five rounds in Category D (prohibited except for official purposes).

Firearms that are not specifically mentioned in the agreement tend to be consigned by default to the least-restrictive Category A, which is how both versions of the Adler ended up in this category.

The review of the National Firearms Agreement is looking into the classification of lever-action shotguns in general and is expected to clarify the situation.

It remains unclear what happens if a decision is not reached by the time the ban on the eight-shot Adler expires in August. A Government spokesperson could only say that “no decision has been made regarding the ban”.

Mr Turnbull said he would replicate John Howard's 'gold standard' process.

John Howard said he was ‘dubious’ of claim to allow Adler imports. Photo: AAP

One person watching the review process with interest is John Howard.

He said he was “pretty dubious” about claims the Adler lever-action shotgun did not have the lethal capacity of semi-automatic weapons.

“I’ll naturally wait and see what the inquiry recommends,” Mr Howard said.

“But anything that to me looks as though it waters down the laws that are in place now, I won’t support and I will argue that the Government shouldn’t support.”

Mr Howard is proud of the gun control measures he fought to achieve in 1996 and is concerned to protect his legacy.

“This ban has been so successful, and is so widely respected around the world, that I would not want any government in Australia to do anything that would weaken it,” he said.

On Friday, Mr Howard lent his support to a petition launched by Walter Mikac, who lost his family at Port Arthur, calling on state and territory governments to maintain strict gun laws.

-ABC

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