FIREARMS OWNERSHIP — ASSAULT
356. Mr P.J. RUNDLE to the Minister for Police:
I
have a supplementary question. The incident happened in High Wycombe, which was
within the map. The minister has not answered whether he has had contact
with the victim. Can the minister update us on the victim's condition,
and will the minister apologise to both him and any future victims?
Mr P.
PAPALIA replied:
I do not know whether my office has
received contact from the victim—one of many—of gun theft that
the member is referring to. I can again address the stupid claim that the
member just repeated: there was no map and no possibility at all of that
individual's address being revealed by the maps that were published in The
West Australian that were provided by the Western Australia Police Force.
It is disgraceful, it is shameful and it is embarrassing that he should
continue to repeat that stupid suggestion. Do not do it again, member. As a bit
of advice, the member is directly attacking the Western Australia Police Force
and the member is suggesting that they have provided the address of this
individual. If that person was subject to the theft of a firearm, it is because
there are many firearms across the state. They are in many different locations
and they are very attractive to criminals. They are regularly stolen. That is
why we most recently amended the act to increase penalties for that very crime,
and we are intending to rewrite the entire Firearms Act. Right now we are in
the process of rewriting the entire act to make it far more challenging for
criminals to get their hands on firearms.
I just cannot understand why the
member sees any political gain or profit out of pursuing this stupid line of
questioning and encouraging ridiculous claims that suggest somehow a dot about
the size of three suburbs near High Wycombe
somehow led to an individual stealing these particular firearms. Understand
this: if a criminal went to any street in the metropolitan area, odds on
they will get at least one firearms owner, possibly as many as three, in that street. That is a fact. Virtually every
single street in the metropolitan area has a licensed firearms owner resident
within the street. People do not have to search very hard to find firearms
owners.