Australia -(Ammoland.com)- On February 9th, 2019, Australian police officers swarmed a man walking along a busy, coastal, pedestrian walkway in Brighton, Australia. Police took down the man because of reports that he was armed with a rifle.
In a video from 7 News Adelaide, you can see the toy gun next to a female officer’s boot. Use the tiles/bricks the officer is standing on for scale. Video link on facebook.com:
The toy appears to be about a foot long, less than one/third scale. No reasonable person could mistake it for an actual, functioning rifle.
Brighton is an upscale, urban, coastal suburb of Melbourne, Australia, in the state of Victoria.
It is illegal in Victoria to own a replica or imitation firearm without a firearms license.
The following information is from the Victorian police website. The last update is given as 18 May, 2018. From police.vic.gov.au:
Differentiating between an imitation firearm, replica firearms, and other firearm paraphernalia and toys:
There are a wide variety of firearm-themed items available on the market aimed at children or firearm enthusiasts. Depending on the overall appearance and function of these items, some may be classified as a registrable firearm, a replica firearm or an imitation firearm. These require an authority to possess, carry or sell in the State of Victoria regardless of the intent of the manufacturer.
The information contained within this page and downloadable Quick Guide to Imitation, Toy & Other firearm paraphernalia has been published to assist you to recognise the distinguishing characteristics of an imitation firearm as opposed to a toy or other firearm paraphernalia to assist you to comply with Victorian laws in this area.
Generally, if an item cannot be mistaken for a working firearm by a reasonable person and does not have the function of a firearm, it will be treated as a toy firearm or other firearm-themed paraphernalia and can be owned without a licence or other authority.
However, items that have the appearance of a working firearm, even where they do not function as one, are classified as imitation firearms. As imitation firearms can cause public alarm, only people with a Chief Commissioner’s Weapons Approval or Governor in Council Exemption can possess, carry or offer them for sale in the State of Victoria.
Replica firearms are not the same as imitation firearms. They are working copies of an original firearm and anyone in possession of a replica must register it and be the holder of the appropriate firearms licence.
Not surprisingly, 7 News Adelaide gets the legal definition wrong.  They reported it was not a rifle, but a replica. It is not a replica because it is too small and is not a working copy. It is not an imitation firearm, because it is too small.
The man was not arrested on a criminal charge. It was reported he was taken in for a mental health evaluation.
A citizen opined to the 7 News Adelaide reporter that:
“The public doesn’t know if it is real or not. The police have to assume that it is real.”
I disagree. If you are so ignorant about a technical matter, you probably should not be calling the equivalent of 911 about it.
Firearms have been successfully demonized in urban Australia, indeed, in much of the world. The demonization has been so complete that citizens feel no one can be trusted walking in a public area with a toy gun. Australian media railed about a slightly larger, obvious toy AK being carried by a child, in 2015.
A soldier, training for a military exercise, in uniform, was caught up in the hysteria in Australia for carrying a very crude mock-up of a rifle, that would be impossible for a reasonable person to mistake for a working firearm.
Much of the purpose is to make the private carry of firearms socially unacceptable. Australian crime has been exceptionally low for decades, both before and after their extreme gun laws.
In the United States, because of the Second Amendment, we are moving in the other direction. Open carry is becoming more and more acceptable. It was ruled as a core part of the Second Amendment in the Ninth Circuit, although the case as been appealed to the full Ninth Circuit, en banc.
I fear Australians, as with the English and Canadians, have allowed their traditional right to arms to be slowly and successfully legally ignored into nothingness.
As a consolation, the police in Australia were uniformly polite and easy to deal with when I was there, in 2017 and 2018.
As a foreigner, I earnestly worked at not breaking any laws.
About Dean Weingarten:
Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of constitutional carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and recently retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.
Sheeple. They better hope no one ever decides to take over their country, but then again who would want it?
What we have here is a bit of hysteria from the city folk here in Melbourne, they follow the comrade Andrews all the way, unfortunately here in Australia we do not have written in our constitution the right to bare arms, as you do in the USA, after the American revolution the Poms got a little worried that the same would happen here in Australia, so they put the clamps on frearm ownership, even when Australia finally became a self governing country, the constitution still did not have the right to bare arms, What the media do not let on… Read more »
Socialism, liberalism, communism, democrats–all the same. If you surrender your right and GOD given mandate to keep and bear arms, this will be coming to America. Even toy guns scare the politicians and police because they are afraid the people might revolt. When a government is destructive to those ends, it is in the right of the people to change or abolish it…Please tell me you recognize those words! Gun control is NOT about gun control–it is about people control, maybe even thought control. That is what happens when you surrender your rights for a little security. You wind up… Read more »
Does anyone see a similarity between: California vs the rest of the US, and the USA vs the rest of the world? … Go to the Down Under and get a boot jacked psychiatric evaluation for carrying a toy gun lol Trump is onto something, take the high speed rail away from California, and leave them stuck in traffic all day to leave us alone… What about all the people here in the US, who want to take away our toy soldiers/guns, violent themed anything, now anti 2A… Do you still remember what happened to Rosanne Barr, John Schnatter, and… Read more »
“The man was not arrested on a criminal charge. It was reported he was taken in for a mental health evaluation.”
I’m immediately reminded of the Soviet Union determining dissidents were “mentally ill” and shipping them off for treatment at mental health facilities . . . which bore a striking resemblance to Siberian gulags.
Just a note on this story, and no disrespect to the author, as I have enjoyed his articles in the past. But you have listed all the laws and by-laws for Victoria, but this incident took place in Adelaide, South Australia, a totally different state with their own gun laws. I am not sure on their requirements regarding replicas and toys but I am more than happy with what the cops did to this F)(#W!T roaming the streets waving anything around because all this does is trigger some LIBT4&D leftist feminist to jump on every form of media outlet and… Read more »