{"id":541478,"date":"2026-03-15T06:54:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T06:54:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/541478\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T06:54:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T06:54:20","slug":"plea-from-tasmanias-police-commissioner-for-limit-on-gun-ownership-knocked-back-by-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/541478\/","title":{"rendered":"Plea from Tasmania’s police commissioner for limit on gun ownership knocked back by government"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tasmania’s police commissioner wrote to the state government urging it to adopt tougher laws on the number of firearms a person can own \u2014 but to no avail.<\/p>\n

Right to Information documents obtained by Labor show Commissioner Donna Adams wrote to Police Minister Felix Ellis on February 5, citing the Bondi massacre in December<\/a>, the Port Arthur mass shooting in 1996 and the murder of Tasmanian police officer Constable Keith Smith<\/a> in June 2025 as evidence of the “devastating” consequences of the misuse of firearms.<\/p>\n

“The murder of Constable Keith Smith \u2026 was a confronting reminder that the presence of a firearm can change the outcome of even the most routine policing task,” she wrote.<\/p>\n

“You stood with us in the aftermath of the tragic murder of Constable Smith, and we now seek your support as we confront the growing risks posed by firearms in our community.”<\/p>\n

Three weeks after the letter was sent to Minister Ellis, the Tasmanian government ruled out including a cap on the number of guns people can own.<\/p>\n

“We will not be introducing caps,” said Premier Jeremy Rockliff at the time.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Jeremy Rockliff (right) and Felix Ellis at a press conference following the death of Constable Keith Smith. (ABC News: Mackenzie Heard)<\/p>\n

Firearms laws revisited after Bondi massacre<\/p>\n

Following the Bondi terror attack,<\/a> national cabinet endorsed a proposal for the states to consider a range of reforms to strengthen firearms laws, including caps on individual gun ownership.<\/p>\n

In February, the Tasmanian government announced its response to the terror attack with new firearms laws, but didn’t include limits on individual gun ownership.<\/p>\n

At the time, Minister Ellis told ABC Radio Hobart a cap on guns would “punish” responsible firearms owners in Tasmania.<\/p>\n

He said the reforms introduced by the government, which involve a buyback scheme, citizenship requirements for buying guns, and the reclassification of high-powered firearms, would focus on “taking firearms out of the hands of terrorists and criminals”.<\/p>\n

“One firearm in the hands of terrorists is more dangerous than 100 firearms in the hands of our farmers,” he said.\"Rifles<\/p>\n

In Tasmania, there are 157,022 registered firearms, owned by 36,598 licence holders. (Facebook: Tas Guns and Ammo)<\/p>\n

More than 150,000 registered firearms in Tasmania<\/p>\n

In her letter to Minister Ellis, Commissioner Adams said legally owned firearms still posed a risk to the community.<\/p>\n

“Firearms theft means that even legally registered and stored firearms can fall into the wrong hands, enabling serious criminal activity, including family violence,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Public safety must take precedence over the privilege of firearms ownership.”<\/p>\n

She said many Australians remained unaware of the “sheer number” and types of firearms that could be legally owned and used in the country.<\/p>\n

In Tasmania, she said there were 157,022 registered firearms, owned by 36,598 licence holders.<\/p>\n

Almost 9,000 licence holders owned six or more firearms, Commissioner Adams wrote.<\/p>\n

Commissioner Adams said the buy-back scheme following the Port Arthur Massacre was a “watershed moment” in Australia’s approach to firearm safety, but that the impact of the reforms had diminished over time.<\/p>\n

\"Keith<\/p>\n

Keith Smith (left) and Leigh Sushames, who has pleaded guilty to the constable’s murder. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

Minister ridicules mandatory caps<\/p>\n

In his State of the State response earlier this month, Opposition Leader Josh Willie said Labor would work with the crossbench to push mandatory caps through parliament.<\/p>\n

“Tasmania should not be an outlier on these national reforms because this Liberal government lacks the courage to act,” he said.<\/p>\n

Since then, Minister Ellis has ridiculed the policy proposal in a series of videos and posts shared to his Facebook page.<\/p>\n

He has urged his followers to sign a petition “opposing Labor’s caps on law-abiding firearms owners”.<\/p>\n

“They’re going to be putting caps on Tasmanians. That’s anti-farmer, it’s bad for Tassie, and it’s got no evidence behind it,” he wrote.<\/p>\n

\"Firearms<\/p>\n

Almost 9,000 licence holders own six or more firearms. (AAP: Joel Carrett)<\/p>\n

In a statement this morning, Mr Willie said Tasmanians deserved leadership on community safety.<\/p>\n

“The Liberals want unlimited guns in the community. Labor does not support that, and Tasmanians don’t support that either,” he said.<\/p>\n

“If the Liberals won’t listen to police and act, Labor will.”<\/p>\n

Advice was ‘taken into account’<\/p>\n

In a statement, Felix Ellis said the Tasmanian government “looked at a range of gun reforms that targeted terrorists and criminals”.<\/p>\n

“We took a careful, measured and consultative approach,” he said.<\/p>\n

“All feedback received, including the Commissioner’s, was taken into account.”<\/p>\n

Mr Ellis said, “What is clear, is Labor has turned its back on regional Tasmanians.”<\/p>\n

“Labor is targeting law-abiding farmers, hunters and recreational shooters, instead of criminals.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tasmania’s police commissioner wrote to the state government urging it to adopt tougher laws on the number of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":541479,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,268257,7172,75586,92792,4634,268258,44,7170,48214],"class_list":["post-541478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-donna-adams","tag-felix-ellis","tag-firearms","tag-gun-control","tag-guns","tag-keith-smith","tag-news","tag-rockliff","tag-tasmania-police"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=541478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541478\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/541479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}