Licensed shooters who could once buy another firearm within a day or two are now waiting as long as 200 days for a permit, according to Matt Corkhill, who owns Southwest Shooting Supplies in Boorowa. Corkhill said the delays had brought sales to a standstill since NSW changed its firearm laws after the Bondi terror attack in December. The Terrorism and Other Legislation Amendment Act, passed on Christmas Eve, capped recreational hunters at four firearms and primary producers and sporting shooters at 10. Licence holders must apply for a permit to acquire (PTA) for each firearm, and from 1 July, police must also check safe storage before a permit is issued. Before the changes, Corkhill said, a licence holder's first permit took about 30 days, but later ones could arrive within one or two days. "Pre-Bondi, the system was fine," he said. "We've had existing firearms holders waiting on permits for up to 200 days." He said shooting was already the most heavily regulated activity in the country, and he did not oppose all change. "There's probably some firearms that needed recategorising, and that's fine," he said. "You just change things as you go along." But he said the new rules punished the wrong people. "It's like going to the pub, having too many beers and having a bad accident on the way home, and the police then telling the publican he's only allowed to serve four drinks per person," he said. "Instead of holding to account the guy that actually did the wrong thing, we all pay the price." Corkhill said each firearm sale, which typically earns a margin of about 10 per cent, also drove sales of scopes, mounts, slings, ammunition, bags and spotlights. "You don't sell the firearm, you don't sell any of it," he said. "We've got all this product just sitting there doing nothing." Industry figures suggest he is not alone. The Shooting Industry Foundation of Australia has put the statewide fall in sales at 60 to 80 per cent, and Clarence MP Richie Williamson said last month some licence holders had reported waiting more than six months for a permit. Corkhill said the rules also made life harder for farmers dealing with pests. He recently shot eight feral pigs on a property near Boorowa, and seven were pregnant sows. "So you want to restrict the firearms? How are you going to control the vermin, which leads to disease and everything else?" he said. He also pointed out that shooting was an Olympic sport, and that a serious clay target shooter could need six different shotguns for different events. "It's like you don't go and race a Formula One in a stock car," he said. Premier Chris Minns has said NSW will have the toughest gun laws of any state, and a buyback for firearms over the new limits starts on Monday 2 November.
