Central Coast store raid exposes 'loophole you can drive a truck through'
MORE GALLERIES
REPLICA guns that are marketed as children’s toys but look like the real thing – particularly to police in an emergency – are a recipe for disaster that the state must address, said NSW Greens MP David Shoebridge after a court decision following the seizure of more than 120 “toy” guns on the Central Coast.
Mr Shoebridge has called for the removal of a section of the Firearms Act that allows the sale of imitation firearms if they are produced and identified as children’s toys.
It follows a NSW Supreme Court judge’s decision on Thursday that stopped the return of more than 120 seized “toy” guns to a Sydney imitation firearms company, after the judge found they were too close to the real thing to be described as children’s toys. The case was returned to the local court for a fresh hearing.
Mr Shoebridge said the section of the Firearms Act that exempted children’s toys was “a hole you could drive a truck through”.
“This isn’t about banning toy water pistols or nerf guns. This is about limiting access to lifelike metal replicas that have the exact look and feel of assault rifles and semi-automatic pistols,” he said.
“It shouldn’t be this easy to purchase something that looks like exactly like a gun and can be used to threaten people as though it was a gun.
“If you were to see one of these ‘toys’ on the street, you’d be forgiven for being seriously anxious at what looks like a military-grade weapon.
“To anyone working in a petrol station late at night, or walking alone on a quiet street, these will look like lethal weapons, not toys.
“For police, there’s no way to distinguish these realistic imitation guns from the real thing, and that’s a recipe for disaster.”
Mr Shoebridge said the imitation weapons were readily available for legal purchase, “so they are readily available to be used for criminal purposes”.
“The Greens believe it is time this ‘toy’ loophole was firmly closed.”
Police seized 127 imitation firearms owned by Howard Silvers and Sons in December, 2015 from a Westfield Tuggerah homewares and collectables store. NSW Police defended the company’s application to Wyong Local Court to have the items returned.
Magistrate David Day found packaging identified the seized items as children’s toys, and “parliament must have intended that toy guns are not to be regarded as imitations despite varying degrees of realism”.
But NSW Supreme Court Justice Helen Wilson on Thursday said his conclusion “failed to give proper attention to the purpose of the legislation to protect the community from the illegal possession and use of firearms or imitation firearms”.
“To conclude that an item which substantially duplicated the appearance of a firearm was a children’s toy because of its packaging was to reach a conclusion contrary to the purpose of the legislation,” Justice Wilson said