There is always a fly in the ointment.
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News.com.au - Guns smuggled in the mail (By CHRISTOPHER DORE, TRUDY HARRIS and MARK WHITTAKER, )Click
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Guns smuggled in the mail
By CHRISTOPHER DORE, TRUDY HARRIS and MARK WHITTAKER
24Aug01
HIGH-POWERED guns are being routinely mailed from overseas in pieces and
reassembled by Australian criminals, making a mockery of efforts to
control firearms and limit violent crime.
Police officers have been told to be on alert for hand guns that have been
transformed into powerful machine pistols using imported parts that could
be delivered through the regular mail system.
A memo to NSW police officers warns that hand guns seized during a major
investigation of weapons-trafficking can fire up to 20 rounds in seconds.
A police commissioner has alerted The Australian's Dossier team to the
ease of skirting Australian gun laws with imported parts, sometimes as
small as an envelope, stating: "You don't need too much imagination to
import these things into the country.
"If you said, `here's a bunch of Ford Falcon parts', most Customs
inspectors wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a carburettor
and a part for a gun."
The number of guns and their parts undermines the Howard Government's
strengthening of firearms laws after the Port Arthur massacre in 1996.
State, territory and commonwealth governments only recently moved to
tighten hand-gun laws, restricting their importation, sale and movement
around the country.
Shootings have dramatically increased recently, doubling in the past two
years to about 100 in NSW alone.
"One of the problems is that the gangsters ... are very young and, whereas
a few years ago they were rolling people in parks and taking their Reeboks
and mobile phones, now they are shooting them," one officer said.
National Crime Authority general manager of operations Adrien Whidett said
cheap parts were imported from South-East Asia and then sold for hiked
prices after being reassembled. Mr Whidett told The Australian some gun
parts were now plastic, making detection even harder.
"There are a lot of counterfeit firearms made in Asia of popular weapons
that the Americans churn out. They are probably not as sophisticated, but
they kill nevertheless," Mr Whidett said.
The NCA's concerns are echoed by NSW Crime Commission chairman Phillip
Bradley, who said gun-smuggling was becoming more financially attractive.
"The mark-up is such that it is more profitable than drugs and less risky
because of the penalties involved," he said.
Last week's warning in NSW Police Weekly said Glock pistols were seized
during the investigation into gun trafficking. The pistols had a slide
with buttons inserted in the end -- holding down the lock that stops the
weapon firing automatically.
"They'll put 14 rounds into you in two seconds," one senior officer said.
"It's scary stuff."
The NSW Firearms Trafficking Unit has seized more than 440 guns since
1999, including 151 pistols, four machine guns and a rocket launcher.
This report appears on news.com.au.