The Firearm Blog

Murdoc @ GunPundit reports:

Since there has been a rash of weapons related incidents recently, the Provost Marshals Office has made it a priortity to emphasize safety among the Marines, Sailors and civilians aboard the Tri-Command area.

According to Randy Walz, the services officer with PMO, numerous weapons to include a Russian AK-47, rifles, shotguns, assorted ammunition and large knives were confiscated during the past weekend.

Photos of the confiscated guns at GunPundit.

My understanding of Australian guns law is that unless you are a farmer, professional shooter (such as professional competition shooter or professional pest hunter) or collector you are only allowed paintballs markers, air guns and non-semi-automatic rimfire/centerfire rifles and shotguns (pump action shotguns are subject to same restrictions as semi-auto shotguns). Pistols can only be owned by target shooters and the caliber is restricted in most cases to .38 (9mm).

Things just got worse for our Australian gun owning brethren:

The Federal Government will change import regulations to tighten controls on firearms that have a “military-style appearance”.

…

Mr Debus said that there was “absolutely no reason” for anyone to own a shotgun that looked like a semi-automatic rifle.

Now any rifle, shotgun or even paintball marker looks like a semi-automatic is will be destroyed by customs. This will limit the import of pump-action rifles into the country. Apparently they have been importing the Romanian pump-action AK pattered PAR-3/PAR-1 rifle.

From the above article. Looks like a
AU legal PAR-3 or PAR-1 (top).

I am sure they will ban the pump action Remington 7600 rifle pistol grip and M4 style stock as well. I believe the 7600 is popular in Australia. The politicians must have forgotten to ban pump action rifles.

Over the past 10 years the Swiss conscript army have had 4300 firearms lost or stolen from their homes (the army issues firearms to citizens to keep at home). Although it should be pointed out that an estimated 1.5 million army firearms are in circulation.

In that year 82 rifles were stolen from an army depot in Marly in French-speaking Switzerland, bringing the 2006 total to 84 rifles plus 15 pistols.

Endrich told the Swiss news agency that the army did not keep statistics that made a distinction between lost or stolen weapons. Those that simply disappear are categorised as lost, he said.

Under Swiss law, all able-bodied men aged 20-30 are conscripted for about three months and are issued with a rifle. They are required to do up to four weeks of army service a year until they have served 260 days or are aged 34.

Throughout this time they keep the rifles – but no ammunition - at home. According to some estimates there could be as many as 1.5 million army weapons in circulation.

SIG SG 550: Swiss standard service rifle

More here.