The New South Wales firearms registry gave John Edwards a permit which allowed him to gain membership to a gun club in western Sydney, despite having warned other clubs not to let him near firearms only months before.

Edwards, the 68-year-old who shot dead his two teenage children in Sydney last week, was given a “commissioner’s permit” by the NSW firearms registry in 2017.



The permit meant Edwards was able to begin a gun training program at the St Marys Indoor Shooting Centre, and eventually get access to the two “powerful” handguns he used to murder his two children.

On Tuesday the NSW police minister, Troy Grant, and police commissioner, Mick Fuller, held talks to discuss potentially tightening gun regulations in the state.

Guardian Australia previously reported that Edwards had been refused membership of the Ku-Ring-Gai pistol club and at least one other gun club after he ticked “yes” on a form asking if he had previously been “prohibited” or “suspended” from holding a firearms licence.

When Edwards approached the Ku-Ring-Gai club in January last year, it sent the form – known as a P650 – to the firearms registry. The registry advised the club not to give Edwards access to a firearm.

But sources have told the Guardian that later in the year Edwards approached the registry itself and applied for a commissioner’s permit, which under the Firearms Act can be granted “to authorise the possession or use of firearms in such circumstances as the [police] commissioner considers appropriate”.

This time, despite having told other clubs not to make Edwards a member only a few months earlier, the registry gave him the permit.

It meant that when Edwards approached the St Marys club and again ticked “yes” on the question about his previous dealings with guns, he was given membership. He undertook the necessary training courses at the club and was eventually approved for a probationary gun licence.

A source within the firearms industry told the Guardian it was “highly unusual” for a prospective gun owner to approach the registry before trying to obtain a gun.

“It shows how determined he was to get a gun,” the source said.

The firearms registry sits within the state’s police force and is responsible for issuing firearms licences and permits, the registration of firearms and monitoring compliance with the Firearms Act.

NSW police declined to comment on the permit. A spokesman said police had provided “extensive and sufficient information” to the media since the shooting and would make no further comment.

On Tuesday afternoon Fuller appeared on the Sydney radio station 2GB and said the shooting murder was “not a firearms incident”.

“My main concern [is that] we don’t lose that this was a domestic and family violence incidence. Now, it’s probably the worst incident one could imagine, but it’s not a firearm incident,” he said.



“If it wasn’t a gun it may have been some other instrument. I just need to make sure whilst a healthy debate around gun laws is important … that we don’t lose sight that this was a domestic and family violence incident.”

But the NSW upper house MP Robert Borsak from the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers party, called for an independent investigation of the circumstances surrounding the shooting.

“On face value, I believe that the New South Wales Police firearms registry has a lot of questions to answer,” he said. “We are told that the police will issue a report on events surrounding these terrible deaths and the government will consider a response.

“I call on the government to make the investigation independently of the NSW police force and to guarantee the findings will be made public. The last thing we want is the agency potentially responsible for any oversights investigating itself, then hiding the findings from public view.”

The St Marys indoor shooting centre is owned by the Sporting Shooters’ Association of Australia, the country’s largest member-based gun lobby group.

In a statement the SSAA said it was “providing information to assist police with their investigation of this matter”.

“The centre provides facilities for SSAA members, visitors and clubs to participate in their chosen sport,” a spokesman said. “The St Marys pistol club, as well as other clubs, utilise the facilities of the centre to undertake their club activities.”

“As the matter is the subject of an ongoing police investigation neither the centre or SSAA NSW are able to make further public comment.”



