Public safety is at the forefront of the Firearms Act 2024 and the Firearms Regulations 2024, which implement restrictions on the number of firearms individuals can own, mandatory offences and orders, mandatory safety training, health assessments and strict new storage requirements.
The WA Police Force has undertaken extensive communication with every firearms licence holder in the State to ensure they are aware of the requirements under the new legislation and prepared for when it takes effect. This includes direct communication via SMS and email, as well as more than 230 stakeholder and public consultation meetings, undertaken in every region of the State.
Firearms licence holders have been supported through the changes, and this support and guidance will continue with transitional arrangements in place from tomorrow. Under these arrangements, all existing firearms licence holders will be automatically granted a transitional authority (effectively a temporary licence) and will have at least 90 days to transition to their new licence.
The WA Police Force has a dedicated transition team to assist in transferring all existing licence holders to the new licence types. This team will contact licence holders before their licence expires to inform them of what they need to do to comply with the legislation.
To facilitate the transition to the new laws, the WA Police Force will contact each and every firearm licence holder in WA before their current licence expires to provide specific compliance instructions.
This includes:
• The number of firearms they are legally able to own
• Their ability to obtain a written authority (previously described as a property letter)
• Any changes to their firearm storage requirements
A dedicated web page contains all relevant information for firearms owners, as well as fact sheets and information sheets for specialised cohorts. Additionally, the WA Police Force has established a dedicated call centre to assist firearms licence holders, who can call 1300 894 474 to ask any questions they may have about the changes.
FURTHER BACKGROUND:
The prohibition of certain types of firearms, including Rapid Release Action firearms, takes effect from 31 March 2025. Affected firearm licence holders have already been contacted and received instructions on how to lawfully dispose of these firearms. Possession of prohibited firearms after this date is an offence, and anyone in possession of a prohibited firearm after this date will need to immediately surrender it to a Police Station under the permanent firearm amnesty.
The group of Firearm owners with a Rapid Release Action (RRA) firearms received specific written communication in the first week of February 2025 and again or either 26 March or 27 March 2025 instructing them to lawfully dispose of these RRA firearms prior to 31 March 2025.
Separate to this, every single firearms owner in the state received a written communication on 25 March 2025 informing them on how they will transition their firearms licence and their firearms to comply with the new law. This gradual transition to the new legislation ONLY applies to firearms that are still legal in WA. This does not include the RRA firearms.
