Captain Bligh Ups Gun Licence by 124% !!!

[csv8]

Gun buffs pay more, but can load up online
TONY MOORE
June 5, 2010 - 3:00AM
Fees for weapons licences in Queensland will more than double after Tuesday's State Budget, it was revealed late yesterday.

The fee increase was revealed in the last paragraph of a release from Police Minister Neil Roberts about a new online weapon licence system which starts in the second half of 2010.

"Developing the new online capabilities will allow members of the public to submit their details on the internet, freeing up police officers and civilian staff to undertake other functions," Mr Roberts said.

Despite trumpeting the new system as more effective, gun-owners will still have to pay 124 per cent more to renew their licence.

Until August 1, the cost for shooters would remain $93.95 over five years. After that date, the cost will jump to $210.75.

East Brisbane gun shop owner Dale Rodgers said he did not think the new system would make it easier for people who should not own a weapon to get their hands on a gun.

"It is not going to make it any more dangerous or less secure or anything," he said.

"From an industry point of view I see it as a good thing because it is going to assist dealers in providing a faster service than what there is available."

Police said the new online system would stop repetitive trips to the police station.

Currently, to get a weapons licence under Queensland's paper-based system now, gun-owners are required to:

- go through a firearms safety proficiency course and get a "certificate of competency in handling a firearm";

- apply for a "weapons licence" from the weapons registry at their local police centre; and

- go back to to the police and get "an application for a permit to acquire", which then goes back to the weapon licensing branch.

That application then gets vetted and then comes back as a "permit to acquire", at which point the prospective gun owner:

- goes back to weapons dealer and choose a weapon, at which point there is a requirement to provide a drivers license and the "permit to acquire"; and

- identifies the weapon on the "permit to acquire", which gives gun-owners a weapon's license.

Mr Rodgers said the new system would free up uniformed police, who have to cross-check work by civilian staff.

"It sure sounds like a price grab to me," he said.

A Weapons Licensing Branch spokesman said if the new online system worked as planned, most applications could be finalised within the 28-day cooling period.

"It takes about six weeks now, but can take up to 10 weeks," he said.

The WLB spokesman said he doubted there could be an increase in identity fraud.

"For us to issue a licence we have to validate the person, the address and the genuine reason why they want it, for example `shooting on their property' - and that property has to be on our system," he said.

"Then the person has to provide us with 100 points of identity, so a passport or a driver's licence as well as other ID that includes your address...

"So I would say it is very difficult to manage that identity fraud and if there is any suspicion that the person is not who they say there are, we have the power to require a person to provide us with fingerprints."

[Eleanor]

Queensland is going to be ruined before she gets voted out unfortunately.

Electricity prices are said to be rising again, the new smart-card drivers licence is going to cost double the current price, and there was the little gem in the Courier Mail on Thursday too about secret plans to possibly start charging a toll "by the kilometre" on a number of South East Queensland roads.
Who knows what else is in the works....

[grandpa_spec_F6]

So basically, they are upping gun license fees, making it harder for people to obtain their license under already tight-**** laws, in the name of what? Freeing up some time? It's not going to stop people who want a gun from getting one, legally or illegally.

If the new system was faster and required less work from the police force, thus reducing the staffing cost involved, why on EARTH is it going to cost MORE for a license?

Really... if there is logic behind this..... its beyond me.....

Novel thought for them, considering they want to tax everything in existence, lets take it one step further, stuff it, lets go the whole 9 yards:
Make it mandatory to have all firearms fitted with carbon emission and noise level detection devices connected via a 3G wireless card that tax us, in real time, on our firearms "carbon footprint" and "noise pollution" to the environment per round.

Too much coffee for me I think, need sleep, and less tax..... end rant

[buggerlugs]

Qld used to be supposedly the cheapest state to live in, boy not anymore. I feel for all the low income earners/pensioners with the likes of power and car rego to name but a few...............

[Trek]

Sorry to break away on a tangent here, but can someone please tell me how the hell did this sad excuse for a human being get into power? Never bothered to look into it, but it seems she's sure as hell determined to decimate whatever Queensland once had in regards to everything, remembering all the threads and articles I've read of past...

[paule11]

She was like a benign tumour hard to notice and then she became cancerous destroying everything around her.

She hid her evil intnentions before the election

I cant think of one good thing she has done she is worse than John Howard.

Wait till she rips the guts out of QR and all the rollingstock is privatised and the taxpayer has to start paying for replacement locomotives.

There will be so many trucks on the road due to not being able to afford rail freight that we will have to pay more for rego as the roads will need more repairs

[flappist]

Originally Posted by Trek

Sorry to break away on a tangent here, but can someone please tell me how the hell did this sad excuse for a human being get into power? Never bothered to look into it, but it seems she's sure as hell determined to decimate whatever Queensland once had in regards to everything, remembering all the threads and articles I've read of past...

Well 30 years ago QLD was a wonderful place to live where hospitals and ambulances were free, everything was cheap and life was easy.

THEN

The southern migration started with hundreds of thousands of Victorians and New South Welshmen moving up here bringing with them their "way of life" and "social attitudes". They voted for candidates that supported these southern ideals and the results you now see.

We are only doing here what VIC and NSW have already done and our society is becoming just like theirs.........

[Jim Goose]

Originally Posted by flappist

Well 30 years ago QLD was a wonderful place to live where hospitals and ambulances were free, everything was cheap and life was easy.

.........

Hmmm... 30yrs ago it was great was it? Such a short memory.
Im guessing you never lived "up north" where us poor hicks live.

Crap hospitals, the worst roads in the state, single lane bridges, lack of Police, no infrastructure, all the money spent on Brisbane and little elsewhere, schools in disrepair.......

Wow the Ambulance was free, shame it was so understaffed and underfunded (which it still is).

Not to mention the corruption of state pollititions.. short memory.

The only things thats changed is now we are all being EQUALLY ripped off, not just us poor old hicks....

But alas im sure once the LNP gets into power they will reverse all that wont they?? Oh wait, im sorry I thought the rules here in the forum say we arent allowed to discuss politics....

[grandpa_spec_F6]

Living in brisbane myself, I feel that the north gets the raw end of the deal, hell, northern region gets practically ignored. They are doing it tough and then one of their tools, a gun, becomes even more expensive to keep legally. If anything, this will only lead to people (in rural areas moreso but also suburban) hiding their unregistered firearms. Downside to this? Who's going to cop it on the chin for reporting a missing, unregistered firearm?

[flappist]

Originally Posted by Jim Goose

Hmmm... 30yrs ago it was great was it? Such a short memory.
Im guessing you never lived "up north" where us poor hicks live.

Crap hospitals, the worst roads in the state, single lane bridges, lack of Police, no infrastructure, all the money spent on Brisbane and little elsewhere, schools in disrepair.......

Wow the Ambulance was free, shame it was so understaffed and underfunded (which it still is).

Not to mention the corruption of state pollititions.. short memory.

The only things thats changed is now we are all being EQUALLY ripped off, not just us poor old hicks....

But alas im sure once the LNP gets into power they will reverse all that wont they?? Oh wait, im sorry I thought the rules here in the forum say we arent allowed to discuss politics....

Thank you for providing such a classic example of the mindset of those who have put Bligh in charge.....

[Keepleft]

Originally Posted by flappist

The southern migration started with hundreds of thousands of Victorians and New South Welshmen moving up here bringing with them their "way of life" and "social attitudes". They voted for candidates that supported these southern ideals and the results you now see.

We are only doing here what VIC and NSW have already done and our society is becoming just like theirs.........

How true is that!! NT as we know fell, back in 2006, now - from what I gather via CLP on FB, they remain committed to (//) return for some lengths of existing 130km/h highway.

I just can't abide Labor types anymore, heck, wifie is even more vocally anti labor, cranky as.

[DJM83]

Originally Posted by flappist

Well 30 years ago QLD was a wonderful place to live where hospitals and ambulances were free, everything was cheap and life was easy.

THEN

The southern migration started with hundreds of thousands of Victorians and New South Welshmen moving up here bringing with them their "way of life" and "social attitudes". They voted for candidates that supported these southern ideals and the results you now see.

We are only doing here what VIC and NSW have already done and our society is becoming just like theirs.........

Hey i moved north ease up, although only recently. Even i have noticed the difference and price hikes, almost makes a trip 'home' to live more and more viable.

[Revolver]

Once again fellas, off on the tangents again.....

So the shooters view...

As a gun owner & shooter (all types) I can see the process of logic in their thinking. There is method in their madness. However, being that it is a government thats implementing the system..... What should be efficient, & easy to use, will wind up being riddled with errors & all manners of problems that will cause a no-end of frustations with firearms owners that will use the computer screen (still showing the lodging program/form) as target practice for their next competition. Not to mention when you are directed to the help line that you call with a voice recognition computer that never understands what you are saying, & youll have a better chance of getting it to understand by speaking native american than what this westernised country calls "english".

Time saving??? HHMMMMM maybe from the point of me going to the cop shop (which is only 300m up the road from where I work), to get a PTA, or renew my licence (which I renewed my concealable last year, longarms in 2012). As for the cross checking, well that happens at weapons licencing branch anyway, they have all your details on file so i dont know where all this freeing up uniformed officers time has come from (we fill in the form & the recpeptionist checks it & takes the money). AFAIK, the receptionists simply fax it off to weapons branch, where its processed, & they arent uniformed.

What I fail to understand, is HTF can I lodge my licence renewal on line, if 2 passport photos are required (signed on the back [this is a true likeness of.....])& my signature? I dont own a scanner. & a PTA??? thats just as bad, being that it has to be signed by the disposing & recieving parties. Myabe I'm a bit too tired to see how they would get around this....... not to mention not everyone has a computer, let alone the time to use one.

SO..... To look at this skeptically: the price rise is simply to pay for the system, & grab the extra cash, in time the system will pay for itself. Of course, part of it would be to recover the implementaion of the new healthcare ripoff-roll system. I mean look at the tolls on our roads, the Logan Motorway has been paid for ????? times over. It is said, that the LM toll (& the rest) helps fund more roads. But I dont want to fund more roads, that road been paid for, it should be free now, toll the road your upgrading IMO. But the government wont because its a form of reccurring income, both for them & investors. To me the price rise is not a "true" figure for implementing & maintaining the system. Especially since we know (by previous efforts) how ballsed up it will be.

Now conspiricy wise, I'd say that this is simply another act to try & get more people to hand over their guns because they cant afford/wont pay that amount for a licence. & this will somehow cathardically dispell all the firearm commited crimes in QLD. Yep, same as speed cameras stop the road toll.

So cost of shooting for a year.... On top of my SSAA membership ($73), club membership ($25), range fees $7 (a shoot - 6 shoots p/y min for hanguns) & competition fees ($20 min) , its about $40 a year for ONE licence, 80 for my two.. Thats a grand total of $240 min a year to shoot. Phhwwoarr.....

Soon I will have to lodge a form that I cant lodge, & when I can, the system will promptly stick its finger in its ear, & the other at me while on the phone speaking American Indian to an electronic voice that says "I cant quite here what your saying, please repeat", before me unloading both my revolvers, my shotgun, & my rifle, practicing for the "Chisholm trail" Single action Australian Titles......

[Auslandau]

How much more politcal can a thread get .........