Australian gun shop closes as licensing delays strangle legal sales
A family-owned gun shop in New South Wales, Australia, has closed after eight years, not because the owners broke any law, but because new firearm restrictions and a backlogged licensing bureaucracy made the business impossible to run.
Snapshot
Badlands, owned by Zac Kirwans, shut its doors after new firearm classifications and limits combined with slow-moving government licensing to choke off ordinary trade, according to Bearing Arms. Robert Borsak Jr. of the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party detailed the shop's story, and Kirwans said the delays turned a once-viable business into something worth almost nothing.
Key points
- Stuck inventory: Kirwans said he had new firearms priced at what he paid suppliers and still couldn't sell them, facing a future loss on remaining stock.
- Licensing gridlock: Delays from the firearms registry on licenses and permits to acquire slowed ordinary sales to a crawl, Kirwans said.
- Ripple effect on gear: Kirwans said a shooter who can't get licensed doesn't buy scopes, ammunition, camping gear or boots either, calling it "a complete system."
- Insulting buyout offer: Kirwans said a government grant of up to $25,000 to help him restart is too small to matter.
- Family heirloom at risk: Kirwans fears a Winchester lever-action .22 Magnum his grandfather bought decades ago, held in the family 60 to 70 years, could be swept up by new restrictions because it holds 11 rounds.
Quick take
Bearing Arms writer Cam Edwards argues that no criminal was disarmed and no one was made safer by Badlands closing, calling it proof that gun control advocates don't need outright confiscation when red tape and restrictions can simply squeeze lawful gun owners and dealers out of existence. He points to California, New York and Massachusetts as places already seeing the same slow pressure on gun culture.
Read the full story: bearingarms.com