MAKE no mistake, the strategically timed press conference on January 20, led by Premier Roger Cook and photo-bombed by assistant WA Police Commissioner Peter Healy, was deliberately
set in motion to gloat on the numbers of guns handed in and how many licences have been put to the sword.

It was not by chance. Politically motivated to perfectly align with the textbook Labor tactic of ramming totally illogical firearm legislation through our State and Federal Parliament, it is no wonder that comments on Police Minister Whitby’s Facebook page, regarding his public statements on the WA buybacks, are far from glowing.

A quick snapshot of the 4000 comments, taking particular disgust with the inflammatory statement, “we know that virtually every illegal firearm begins its life as a licensed firearm”, is more evidence that everyday Western Australians are not believing the hype.

If ever there was a statement beyond its’ use by date, and without a thread of evidence to back it up, this is it.

Recent tragic shootings in the rural towns of Mullewa here in WA and Lake Cargelligo in New South Wales prove yet again that criminal intent knows no boundaries when it comes to accessing a firearm out in the bush. Clearly, the hide-and-seek champions of 2026 missed the memo that if you have an unlicensed firearm, you were supposed to hand it in. Given these criminals can’t be found, perhaps their addresses should also be published on the front page of the West Australian, so police know where to start looking, as they did with us. Quite frankly, the WA licensed firearm owning community is sick and tired of the jab that firearms used in these crimes started off as licensed firearms.

As noted in the recent article by John Maxwell in the February 2026 edition of SSAA’s Australian Shooter, there are hundreds of thousands of grey-market guns left over from the 1996 buyback, as well as a flood of illegally imported guns that successive governments and the media never mention.

Let’s get this straight, we didn’t participate in six buybacks in WA, we were forced. They were not voluntary; we had no choice. We gave them back after three years of being vilified in the media, threatened and accused of being a danger to the community and the total manipulation of the parliamentary process with the rewriting of the WA Firearms Act.

It is also universally accepted that when a firearm is banned, prohibited, restricted, forbidden, or outlawed by successive governments, the only people who reluctantly hand them over are licensed and compliant individuals who don’t engage in illegal activities. Government knows it, and we know it; licensed shooters are easy to find, along with our guns that are locked up in ever-increasingly heavy gun safes.

Don’t victim-blame us when we are the targets or criminal elements who know where we live because you told them.

Then, when they commit heinous crimes with a gun, you can’t find them. Instead of wasting $35 million on reducing the number of licensed firearms and punishing licensed firearm owners who do everything possible to legally use them and safely store them, maybe the next big media moment can be the WA Labor government announcing a $64.3 million program to hunt down the source of illegal firearms and the gangs that pay for stolen guns.

WA Labor does a fantastic job of convincing their mindless voting cult, dulled into believing they live in Labor utopia with an $1m mortgage, that $50m swimming pools in Ellenbrook, skate parks under train line bridges and wait for it… Full-strength beer at the Perth stadium is just what they need to keep voting for them.

Following the passage of Federal firearm laws, the big question on everyone’s mind is: what’s next for WA? Will we see more guns banned in WA based on the actions of terrorists in NSW and criminal acts with unlicensed guns in the bush? At this point, we just don’t know. Any amendments to the regulations we have been negotiating are now being shelved while we wait for the States and Territories to agree on additional restrictions.

Here’s a tip for the media pack: instead of drinking another three years of the WA Labor Kool Aid, get in contact with Tasmania’s Police Minister, Felix Ellis, a plumber from Kununurra who clearly knows the value of respectful engagement with the law-abiding firearm community and refuses to sympathise with the Federal government’s lame attempts at firearm restrictions to stop terrorists.

By PAUL FITZGERALD
State President Sporting Shooters’
Association of Australia (WA)