The Firearms Bulletin |
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Volume 3, Thursday 16 July 2020 |
Welcome to the third edition of the Firearms Bulletin!
The Licensing and Regulation Division would like to take this opportunity to thank the firearms industry for their continued understanding and cooperation during this uncertain time.
We appreciate that with the evolving nature of COVID-19, there are added complexities to our business as usual. However, we can assure you that the decisions that have been made throughout this State of Emergency, have been considered whilst keeping in mind the health and wellbeing of our stakeholders, our people and our communities.
We continue to actively evaluate our processes based of the reality of their effectiveness and are guided by advice from the Chief Health Officer.
To stay up-to-date with current information, please refer to the Victoria Police website.
Please take care and continue to practice good hygiene.
Firearm Safety Courses now online
Due to the current situation in Victoria, firearm safety course material is now available on the Victoria Police website.
You will be able to find the following resources:
- Firearm safety code booklet
- Firearm safety video
- Firearm safety information
Once the applicant believes they can pass the examination after going through the above information, we are asking that these people contact their local DFO to arrange to take the test.
Handgun participation requirements
Due to previous and current restrictions, we’re aware that licence holders were not able to attend and participate at shooting clubs during this time and may have been unable to meet participation requirements.
As a result, the Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police has issued a variation of conditions for all general category handgun licence holders who possess handguns for target shooting by reducing the number of shoots required for 2020 by 50 per cent.
This means that, effective immediately, annual participation requirements for general category handgun licence holders will be applied:
| Number of specified classes of handgun possessed, carried or used | Total number of handgun target shoots or matches (or combination of both) required for the participation year 2020 |
| 1 | 5 |
| 2 | 5 |
| 3 | 6 |
| 4 | 8 |
In addition to the above requirements, general category handgun licence holders must meet the following conditions:
- The total number of shoots or matches must take place on at least 5 separate days; and
- Of the reduced number of matches or shoots, that the holder of the general category handgun licence is required to participate in for the 2020 calendar year –
- at least 3 must be approved handgun shooting matches; and
- at least 2 must be participated in for each specified class of handgun;
- participation may be either as a competitor, supervisor, competition judge or range officer but at least 3 must be participated in as a competitor.
The Notice of Variation and supporting information can be found on the Victoria Police website.
Permit to Acquire applications
We acknowledge that over the last year we have averaged a reasonable turn around period of 3 days for Permit to Acquire (PTA) applications.
We would like to use this opportunity to assure you that we are continuing to make assessment and determination on PTA applications well within the 28-day period.
Despite the delays COVID-19 have presented, it is important to remember that PTA’s can take up to 28 days to process in general and on the rare occasion where a PTA application may exceed the 28 days processing time, please feel free to contact us.
Application time frames now on the Victoria Police website
We have recently included individual application time frames on the Victoria Police website.
This content is updated weekly to ensure the industry and applicants can access information about the status of their application(s).
We encourage people to refer to the website in the first instance and if more information is required, to contact us via email.
NORI’s, provisional licences and lodgement of applications
Notice of Receiving Instruction (NORI)
The health, safety and wellbeing of the community is paramount as we continue to navigate through COVID-19.
As you know, restrictions have been reinstated in Victoria due to a surge in virus cases.
These restrictions have been implemented for the next 6 weeks so, it is vital that we continue to follow the guidelines set out by the Chief Health Officer with regard to social distancing.
Given that a person who shoots under a NORI is managed by direct supervision and has to be within the designated 1.5-meter distance requirement, the NORI system cannot be used until this social distancing guideline is eased.
Provisional Licences
The Licensing and Regulation Division (LRD) is also well aware of the impact the unfolding pandemic has had on provisional licence holders.
As the circumstances of each individual provisional licence holder are unique, we encourage anyone who is concerned about the expiry of their provisional licence to contact LRD by email so that we can assist them directly.
Lodgement of Applications
LRD encourages all licence holders who are renewing their licences to submit these applications and any supporting documents via email.
Scans should be of sufficient quality to ensure they are legible and should consist of a single file and not multiple pages – please avoid using photographs of documents.
Please email your completed renewal application to lrd@police.vic.gov.au
New applications should continue to be sent in by post.
