By David Zielinski



The Federal Government and the State Governments have agreed to impose further restrictions on law abiding firearms owners by reducing the maximum magazine capacity down to 5 rounds.

The agreement will be ratified at this month’s Police Minister’s conference as part of their ‘review’ of the National Firearms Agreement.

Don’t panic! No such agreement has been reached . Not yet anyway.

I wrote this to grab your attention on a matter of importance to EVERY shooter.

At risk; the humble Lee-Enfield .303

While I’m not privy to the original reasoning behind allowing us to have 10 shot magazines under the original NFA, it could be partially related to a firearm that we all know and love, the good old Lee-Enfield .303 rifle, and it’s many variants which all had 10 round magazines (the jungle carbine versions had 5 and 10 shot ones).

Should the Federal and State Governments decide to reduce magazine capacities down to 5 via the NFA, every single firearms owner that owns an Enfield .303 would automatically be in breach of the law for possessing a 10 shot magazine. We would have to hand the magazines in yet another confiscation, otherwise you could go to jail.

This would virtually render the firearm useless and would lose its value, especially for those of us who collect these rifles, as no one would buy one without a magazine.

The Short Magazine Lee-Enfield (SMLE) .303 was the standard issue firearm to rifle companies of the British Army and other Commonwealth nations in the First and Second World Wars. This was the case in Australia, New Zealand and Canada amongst others.

These rifles are part of Australian history and Culture, and you could say they defended our way of life, values, freedom and democracy.

Our government has forgotten its own history

Now the Federal and State Governments are getting together in a totally undemocratic way for the NFA, negotiating in stealth, cloak and dagger without consultation from sports shooting and hunting clubs. They have ignored the firearms industry and most importantly from YOU, the people who voted for and put these people into power.

This is not democracy; it’s an authoritarian dictatorship.

You can do something about this

So what can we do about this to make sure we can keep our Enfield .303’s?

The NFA is being kept private, amongst various Federal and State Police Ministers, Department of Justice representatives and Attorney Generals, not even are Cabinet Members privy to the details, let alone your local Federal and State Representatives.

They are locked out of this process and unaware of the details as well.

You need to write to them and ask them why they are being locked out and get them to find out these details for you. And most importantly, you need to do this now!

What you can do

If you have already written to your local MP, then you’re a champion. However if you haven’t written, then become one – but you need to do this in the next couple of days.

It’s easy. Just send an email to the Police Minister at lisa.neville@parliament.vic.gov.au. If you’re interstate then find out who your Police Minister is by clicking here.

Here’s the suggested content for your email:

Dear Minister

I understand you will be meeting with the other Police Ministers in the next few days to consider proposals relating to the National Firearms Agreement, in particular the categorisation of some firearms, storage requirements and magazine capacity.

These proposals have been developed under a shroud of secrecy to avoid consultation with the shooting community. This is divisive and can only lead to bad policy outcomes.

Good policy outcomes come through proper consultation processes which support a “no surprises” approach.



Policy development without consultation leads to significant errors. Earlier this year the Tasmania Police published guidelines (without consultation) which inadvertently advocated a ban on the Olympic target sports: they later withdrew their guidelines. Last year the Victoria Police issued guidelines (without consultation) on the transportation of firearms which misinterpreted the Firearms Act: these required significant correction, to their embarrassment.

Behaviour like this is inexcusable and helps no-one. It certainly does not help make your job easier.

As a constituent directly affected by the National Firearms Agreement, I would like to suggest that the full suite of proposed changes to the NFA be referred to state and commonwealth firearms consultative committees for proper and open consultation with the shooting community.

I believe the Police Ministers should consider implementing a new and permanent model of policy development which takes facts and data into account, and supports the “no surprises” approach. The “gotcha” approach we have now is a disgrace.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely

It’ll take you just five minutes to send this email, and be the best investment you can make in our future today.

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Recently we ran a poll on Facebook which said 78% of you don’t trust the government on this, and they’ll try to ban our lever action shotguns. 66% of you said they’ll also try something with our lever-action rifles.

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