https://ebusiness.police.wa.gov.au/LED/FLS/default.aspx

PLS have sent out several similar invitations in the past.  Unfortunately, they received minimal feed back.  Their latest attempt has resulted in less than 5000 shooters responding.  PLS have no choice but to assume that those who did not reply do not have errors on their license – this assumption is almost certainly incorrect.  The only sure fire way of ascertaining that all firearm license details are correct is to have everyone respond to the request, even if that response is “Everything is Correct”.
We are usually not shy of putting the boots in to FLS, but credit where credit is due. They WANT to fix the errors in the system.  Fixing these issues is solely for our benefit – reducing the hours that PLS staff spend on fixing issues means that their staff can dedicate more of their time on the licensing of firearms, reducing wait times.  Reducing non-productive man hours within PLS can only reduce the costs of applications as well.

Why Should I Spend My Time Fixing Their Problems?

If we project ourselves forward 12 months and pretend that the new licensing system has been rolled out and firearm licensing is continuing as usual –  Undoubtedly an issue will arise (as it has with every introduction of a new licensing system in Western Australia).  Only one of two versions of this future can exist;

1. A large proportion of shooters submitted their responses to firearms licensing and helped minimise errors that existed prior to the new system rolling over.
2. A small number of shooters submitted their responses to firearms licensing, with a vast majority making no attempt to help mitigate future issues.

In the first case, when an error occurs, shooters have the high moral ground – any issues that exist can only be a fault with the system itself or the people administrating it.  In this version of the future, shooters have every right to point fingers, complain to their local members of parliament and the Police Minister.

In the second instance, shooters leave themselves open.  The Police will blame us, highlighting our unhelpfulness with eliminating errors as the reason for the faults.  Loss of productiveness within firearms branch is written off on fixing issues; issues that we will be blamed for.  This will cause further delays and further fee increases and everyone will be pointing the finger at us.

We wont have any ground to complain about the faults because we were the cause of the faults.  We become Politically vulnerable and Politically unattractive, which is very important since there are two elections coming up – both State and Federal.  Both sides of politics will use the errors we caused with the new system as reason enough to further restrict licensing.  Even if the errors are not our fault – there is no place for truth in Politics.

I prefer the first option though – the one where shooters take it upon themselves to let Firearms Licensing know that everything is correct on their license and is ready to be rolled into the new system.  Or where an error is found, that the licensee and PLS work together to solve the problem, rather than continuing the bitter, spiteful feud.  We look better in the public’s eye as members of a sport and will curry political favour easier as a result.

I do urge all shooters in Western Australia to follow the link or to mail back the survey to the Police to demonstrate that we all sensible people who are members of a great sport.

–  Zaine Beaton

Partner/Manager of Beaton Firearms

If you wish to comment or provide feedback on Zaine’s blog you can contact him via the email address – zaine@beatonfirearm.onpressidium.com

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Please keep in mind that these are Zaine’s personal comments – they are not a reflection of the opinions of any other staff or directors of Beaton Firearms.