WITH gun shops reopening last week, some in the industry have questioned why the businesses were closed in the first place.
Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party Agricultural Region MLC Rick Mazza said he was pleased the State government had reopened the industry and that applications could continue to be processed for firearms owners and applicants.
"The information I have is that those applications that were declined during the closure will be regenerated in the system, so those applicants won't have to go back through Australia Post - all they do is return their money that was refunded and the processing can continue on as it was before," Mr Mazza said.
However he said the closure of the businesses for six to seven weeks had taken its toll on many family-owned businesses and that he struggled to see where there had been a threat to public safety that forced the closures.
"Of course there are a number of businesses that had to close, which I can understand from a social distancing perspective, but I really have to question whether it was necessary to close gun shops in the interest of public safety," Mr Mazza said.
With the purchase of firearms and approval of applications under the control of the Western Australian Police Force (WAPOL), Mr Mazza said less drastic measures could have been taken.
"WAPOL can either suspend applications, slow them down or scrutinise them more - so they could have done that instead," Mr Mazza said.
"As far as ammunition sales are concerned, all of that is recorded, so if someone is hoarding ammunition police would be able to identify them, or they could have restricted the ammunition sales - the same as they did with alcohol, where there was a limit for each person.
"It could have been handled a lot better if you take into account the impact on those small businesses and their staff - it's a lot of jobs that have been put at risk because of this and there might have been other ways of dealing with their concerns rather than just straight out closure."
WA Firearm Traders Association (WAFTA) president and owner of Steelos Guns and Outdoors Bevan Steel said although the impacts of the closure had been quite significant on businesses, he was "stoked" to be back in business.
"All this time, the bills have still been coming in, like they have for all the other businesses and we've had to receive products we ordered three months ago, so it has put massive amounts of stress on these families," Mr Steel said.
He commended WA Police on actively consulting with the industry on the reopening process.
Sporting Shooters Association of Australia WA president Ron Bryant said he was glad common sense had prevailed and the industry, which was "already suffering from over-regulation and red tape", could operate again.
However with the annual co-ordinated community predator management event, Red Card for Rabbits and Foxes, cancelled due to restrictions from COVID-19, Mr Bryant said there would be an increase in predators for livestock farmers to deal with.
"Every other year about 5500 foxes are culled and at the moment we are at about 3500 - so we are way down on the normal figures and the lambing rate is going to be terrible," Mr Bryant said.
"There's about 2000 foxes that are still running around based on the averages from the past few years."
The Sporting Shooters Association of Australia (WA), which usually sponsors the Red Card event, donates up to $20,000 annually to the Regional Men's Health Initiative.
"At the moment we have about $10,000 in the kitty, so we will probably top it up anyway, because it's a really good cause that the money goes towards," Mr Bryant said.
"We will be encouraging all of our members to get out there, while complying with the regional boundaries the State government has in place, to try and cull the foxes that are doing so much damage to the rural community."
Mr Mazza said he had raised concerns about increased vermin in State Parliament about six weeks ago.
"With the lambing season imminent certainly there would have been reduced numbers of foxes culled this year and that will impact on producers," Mr Mazza said.
"Now the directive has been lifted, as long as they live in the area and don't have to go past a checkpoint, recreational shooters can assist farmers and try to keep those numbers under control."
