Father who killed his children had been refused by one club over a background check but was accepted by another

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

When John Edwards tried to join a Sydney gun club in January of last year he ticked “yes” on a form asking if he had previously been “prohibited” or “suspended” from holding a firearms licence.

On Sunday Fairfax Media reported that the 68-year-old had been refused membership from the Ku-Ring-Gai Pistols Club before eventually being accepted by another group.

John Edwards murders: NSW Labor calls for review of gun laws after killings Read more

The Ku-Ring-Gai club knocked back his membership application after it sent a copy of his P650 form – a document which requires aspiring gun owners to answer questions about their criminal and family law history – to the New South Wales Firearms Registry.

The registry told the club that Edwards should not be given access to a gun.

Police have said that Edwards, who used two “powerful” handguns to murder his two teenage children last week, was previously known to police but did not have an “extensive history”.

“We don’t have any what we would call contemporary information in recent years,” Det Supt Brett McFadden said last week.

But the Guardian can reveal Edwards was knocked back by the Ku-Ring Gai club after he ticked yes on the first question on the P650 form, which asks applicants whether they have previously “been refused or prohibited from holding a firearms licence or permit or had a firearms licence or permit suspended, cancelled or revoked?”

An official from the Ku-Ring-Gai club told the Guardian on Monday that Edwards had been refused membership by at least one other gun club. The Ku-Ring-Gai official, who did not want to be named, said Edwards had continued to come to the club after he was told he was “not welcome”.

“He was not happy,” the official said. He wanted to know why he was not being accepted. In our constitution we don’t have to give a reason why we refuse membership to someone. In my experience first impressions are usually the right ones and having met that person immediately my first impression was a no.”

The official said that eventually the club raised Edwards at a committee meeting and adopted a recommendation to “cut all ties” with him. They sent a letter to him by registered post and “didn’t hear a thing from him again”.

Australia’s John Howard-era gun law reforms require people applying for a gun licence to have a “genuine reason” for owning the weapon. For many people, that is membership of an approved shooting club.

Edwards was eventually allowed to join the St Mary’s Indoor Shooting Centre. The centre is owned by the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia, Australia’s largest member-based gun lobby group.

Under NSW law, gun clubs are required to inform the registry if an applicant ticks yes on any question on a P650 form. The SSAA has declined to answer questions about why Edwards’ membership was accepted, but the Ku-Ring Gai official told the Guardian that it was possible for a person filling in a form to “just tell a lie”.

But to obtain a gun Edwards would still have needed to have his application approved by the NSW Firearms Registry. Gun control groups says Edwards’ case raises questions about how diligent the registry is in checking licence applications.

“Obviously Ku-Ring-Gai have sent his form to the firearms registry and they’ve said ‘don’t give him a gun’, but then that raises the question of what role the registry plays in ensuring this person doesn’t acquire a firearms in another way,” said Samantha Lee from anti-gun lobby group Gun Control Australia.

“Why was his permit to acquire a gun approved by the registry when they initially raised a red flag?”

'You just don't know': suburb in shock after John Edwards kills his two children Read more

The shooting of Jack, 15, and Jennifer Edwards, 13, by their father has prompted calls for changes to gun laws in NSW.

The state’s opposition leader, Luke Foley, has raised the idea that people be alerted or have a say when their partners or former partners apply for a gun. On Sunday he suggested reviewing the state laws surrounding gun clubs.

However, while the NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, said the case “shocked us all”, she stopped short of committing to new regulations.

“I’ve already been in touch with [the] commissioner and minister for police and if there is something we need to do sooner, we will, but we need to get all the facts,” she told reporters on Monday.