Firearms Amnesty

In reply to the Hon. T.J. STEPHENS (14 April 2016).

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety): I am advised:

1. South Australia Police’s Firearms Control System (FCS) holds records related to the status of firearms as reported to and/or investigated by police. The records held are updated as the status of individual firearms changes and is therefore specific to the date of enquiry and the system code interrogated.

The number of firearms reported as 'lost' and 'stolen' for each of the previous four reporting years has been extracted from the FCS for the same period as the data related to firearms recorded as 'missing' and released in relation to an FOI request and subsequently reported in The Advertiser article.

The information sought is:

Reported as 'lost'

Reported as 'missing'

Reported as 'stolen'

2. As at the date of the system enquiry, the figure of 2,294 supplied and reported in the Advertiser is correct for firearms reported on the FCS as 'missing'.

3. The current firearms amnesty allows for people to surrender unwanted, unregistered or illegal firearms to participating dealers or police. All firearms surrendered are checked against the FCS and their status updated from 'missing' (if that was the status at that time). Where firearms are ultimately destroyed as a result of surrender, the status of the firearm record is updated to 'destroyed' on the FCS. Some firearms surrendered during the amnesty have been identified as being recorded on the FCS as “missing” and ultimately updated to reflect they have been 'destroyed'.