IN 1987 Bob Brown introduced the Dangerous Weapons Control Bill into the Tasmanian Parliament to toughen Tasmania’s gun laws and, particularly, to ban semiautomatic rifles and shotguns.

Dr Brown’s Bill was modelled on the then Western Australian Firearms Act, and was aimed at achieving a high level of public safety.

The Bill was howled down by the Liberal and Labor parties, who in turn were beholden to the gun lobby.

Nine years later, legislation in a similar form and called the Firearms Act 1996 was introduced into State Parliament under the national spotlight in response to the Port Arthur massacre.

Fast forward to 2016.

Tasmanian Greens MP Dr Rosalie Woodruff introduced a Bill into the Tasmanian Parliament to limit the availability of the Adler lever action shotgun.

The Bill was defeated by a combined vote of the Labor and Liberal parties, again backed by the gun lobby.

Labor and Liberal should know better.

type_quote_start It took the Port Arthur massacre to clean up Australia’s gun laws and to set our nation up for a safer 21st century. Sadly, our political leaders have short memories. type_quote_end

The gun lobby tolerates no good policy for gun control. They never have. Easy access to the Adler lever-action shotgun is a case in point.

The Adler is one of three lever-action shotguns developed over the last 10 years or so.

It is currently available in Australia with a magazine that can carry up to five shotgun cartridges.

Models with magazines of greater than seven cartridges have been banned from import into Australia. Presumably, these were regarded by Justice Minister Michael Keenan as too dangerous to be available in this country.

Given the five-cartridge version can be so readily modified into a seven-, nine- or 11-cartridge magazine, we must wonder what on earth the Minister was thinking when he allowed – and continues to allow – the Adler with a five-cartridge magazine into Australia.

Gun Control Australia doubts the Minister was thinking at all, and we have called for his resignation.

Here is the problem – all traceable to a loophole in Australia’s state gun laws brought in after the Port Arthur massacre.

It is all about the definition of shotguns.

The word “action” refers to how a gun is loaded. Rifles can have bolt action, or lever action (think of Westerns and John Wayne) or semiautomatic (self-loading) actions.

Shotguns can load by pump action or semiautomatic action. And now, courtesy of Adler and others, we have lever-action shotguns.

Most shotguns available in Australia are single- or double-barrel shotguns and do not have magazines. They are neither semiautomatic nor pump action or lever action.

The magazine in a gun holds the ammunition. In a rifle it holds the rounds of ammunition.

In a shotgun it holds the cartridges.

In 1996 Australia introduced uniform national gun laws at a state level after the Port Arthur massacre.

Tasmania led the way. Rifles and shotguns were designated as falling into one of four categories.

Shotguns were designated by whether they had a self-loading action and also by their magazine size.

Shotguns that were rapid-fire – meaning pump action or semiautomatic actions – were designated as category C or D weapons. Category C or D weapons are not easy for most shooters to get permits for, and neither should they be. These are, in the main, for farmers and professional shooters working in pest management.

Shotguns with magazines were taken out of general circulation.

Unsurprisingly, the largest importer of the Adler is a major donor to a federal political party. All the while we receive the usual assurances that everything is OK. Well, everything is not OK.

At one stage, we had a debate about crimping, meaning restricting magazine sizes. If this was permitted, pump-action and semiautomatic shotguns would have been allowed as Category A firearms, and readily available (though with magazine capacity restricted to two cartridges). Then prime minister John Howard said no, and that was it.

Single-shot and double-barrel shotguns fall into category A or B. They are most common, and most firearms are Category A or B.

Imports of firearms into Australia were, and still are, under the control of the Commonwealth government.

In 1996 the lever-action shotgun with large magazine did not exist. Now we have a lever-action shotgun that does not clearly fit into any of the four categories of gun.

It does not have a semiautomatic action and, because the classification is based on the magazine size, lever-action shotguns with magazines or five or less cartridges fall into Category A.

There is absolutely no need for these firearms. They are playthings for men wanting rapid-fire guns. They pose a significant risk to the community.

There are 7000 of these weapons in the hands of shooters across Australia. That number is increasing each month.

They are being modified – quite legally – to have extended magazines. The modifications are readily available.

We are witnessing a terrible failure of government in two ways. The Commonwealth Government had the opportunity to ban the import of the Adler and similar lever-action shotguns (whether five-cartridge magazines or more) while State Parliaments updated gun laws at a state level to shut the loophole through which the Adler and other lever-action shotguns have slipped.

However, the Commonwealth failed to act, and the five-cartridge shotguns streamed into Australia, all available to shooters as Category A firearms.

At another level, we have seen our Commonwealth Government manipulated by the shooting lobby into a deal in the Senate.

Unsurprisingly, the largest importer of the Adler is a major donor to a federal political party.

All the while we receive the usual assurances that everything is OK. Well, everything is not OK.

The gun lobby has no interest in public safety.

In the decade before 1996 the gun lobby opposed every reform to gun laws in Tasmania, and they still do.

The Shooters and Fishers Party wants the 1996 National Firearms Agreement revoked completely, and they have not announced what they say should replace it, if anything.

While the Federal Government and the State Government delude themselves that the Adler presents no risk to the public, shooters are busy promoting the shotguns on YouTube.

They are promoting modifications to the magazine size so that five-round magazines are increased in size to hold eight or ten cartridges.

One gunsmith describes the Adler as a “tactical” weapon. That means it has a military application. It is promoted for use in “Practical Shooting”, which is an activity where shooters play out fantasy combat scenarios like domestic hostage situations with real guns and live ammunition.

It took the Port Arthur massacre to clean up Australia’s gun laws and to set our nation up for a safer 21st century. Sadly, our political leaders have short memories.

The aim of the National Firearms Agreement was to remove rapid-fire weapons from the general community.

The Adler lever action did not exist in 1996. If it did, it would have been tightly restricted. It exists now. It needs to be taken out of the hands of the general community. It must be banned from import into Australia until state firearm laws designate it a Category C firearm, and our state politicians need to hurry up and amend the Firearms Act.

Hobart lawyer Roland Browne is vice president of Gun Control Australia.