This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Gun control advocates have called for the Australian government to ban imports of new types of firearms, saying they cannot be categorised under a 22-year-old system.

On Wednesday the ABC reported that a new type of fast lever action rifle, the Speedline, by the French gun manufacturer Verney-Carron, has been available for purchase in Australia as a category B firearm since 2017.

A bid to import a second Verney-Carron gun, the Veloce shotgun, which has a fast fire and reload mechanism, is awaiting judgment before the federal court.

The chairwoman of Gun Control Australia, Samantha Lee, said both weapons had capabilities more akin to a semi-automatic firearm than a traditional lever or bolt-action rifle, and should be banned.

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Lee said the Speedline had slipped through because the category system put in place in the national firearms agreement in 1996 had not been updated to keep pace with rapidly changing technology. Political pressure from the pro-gun lobby is also increasing.

“These guns that are coming into the country now are so different to the ones that existed in 1996 when the laws were drafted,” she told Guardian Australia. “Legislation has not kept pace with technology.”

Lee said the new firing mechanism, which Verney-Carron describes in advertising material for the Speedline as providing “an unequalled rate of fire”, approached the speed of a semi-automatic and should be banned on that basis.

“The basis of the national firearms agreement is that rapid-shot firearms should not be available for civilian usage because of the risk to the community,” she said. “That foundation has not changed.”

She spoke to the federal law enforcement minister, Angus Taylor, about it on Tuesday.

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Rick Casagrande, an importer, told Guardian Australia that describing either of the Verney-Carron weapons as close to semi-automatic speed was “just totally inaccurate” and said it was similar in speed and action to the Adler A-110.

He said the firing speed in promotional videos was unrealistic in real-world conditions.

The federal government suspended imports of the Adler lever-action shotgun in 2015 after it was categorised as a category A weapon, the lowest possible classification. It has since been reclassified as a category B, the type used by most hunters and sports shooters.

Casagrande, who owns the firearms and munitions distributor Australian Sporting Agencies, has been distributing the Speedline rifle since 2017 after a 12-month approval process. He told Guardian Australia he obtained an import permit from Victoria police for the shotgun version mid last year but it was stopped by border control who said it was a restricted weapon.

He applied to the federal court to have that assessment, which was made by the Australian federal police, reviewed, and said that it should also be a category B weapon because it used the same firing mechanism as the rifle.

“If I have to change categories, I don’t care,” he said. “Just make it clear. But I have got a shotgun that I would like to import that is no faster than the Adler A-110 that we have just been through.”

Casagrande said he had 60 pre-orders on the shotgun and suggested it could be placed in category H, alongside handguns, if authorities wanted to ensure greater control.

New South Wales MP David Shoebridge disagreed with Casagrande, saying the Speedline had a faster action than the Adler and should be placed in category D alongside semi-automatic firearms, which are effectively banned.

Queensland police approved import of 2,000 Adler shotguns in 2015 Read more

He said firearms should be classified based on the rate of fire and suggested that imports should be based on a whitelist of approved firearms rather than a blacklist that may not catch new models.

“If it has a rapid fire similar to a semi-automatic, it should be banned,” Shoebridge said.