Today Police is alerting firearms dealers to the next round of the Arms Legislation Act 2020 changes that impacts the current dealer licencing regime.
One of the key changes is the expansion of the types of activities that require a dealer licence.
This now includes those displaying arms items as the director or curator of a bona fide museum, and the business of repairing or modifying arms items. A full list of the dealer activities can be found here.
These changes will not impact dealer licences currently in force on 23 June 2021.
Dealer employees can continue to possess their dealer’s firearms (firearms refers to pistols, restricted weapons, prohibited firearms) and prohibited magazines in their capacity as an employee subject to them:
• holding a valid firearms licence and F endorsement (if handling endorsed firearms) on 23 June 2021; and
• remaining employed by that dealer; and
• until their employer’s dealer’s licence expires or is renewed.
People who are not licensed dealers, but who want to carry out any of the range of dealer activities, must from today (24 June 2021) onwards apply for a dealer’s licence to lawfully conduct business.
Police are conscious that, immediately prior to 24 June 2021, some people will have been lawfully carrying out activities that did not previously require a dealer licence – for example, displaying arms items as the director or curator of a museum, or repairing arms items. Police are providing 60 days (by 23 August) for these people to submit an application. During this time, they need to be otherwise compliant with the law. Public interest consideration will point strongly against any compliance action being taken for carrying out dealer activities without a dealer licence, until a decision is made on their application.
To avoid any issues, Police is strongly urging people to check out the expanded list of dealer activities and lodge the required applications, to ensure you are continuing to comply with the law.
Details can be found here.
Police are committed to maintaining our good partnership with the dealer firearms community, and we will continue to work with them to ensure they understand their new compliance responsibilities.
ENDS
Issued by Police Media Centre