Help - G1 Megatron nabbed by customs

[GoktimusPrime]

Good to see our tax dollars are well spent on keeping Australia safe

Unfortunately there have been instances where people have threatened others with replica guns. As usual it's always a stupid minority who have to go and ruin it for everyone else.

Examples from NSW:
25/7/1994 = replica pistol used to hold up clerk taking business takings to bank.
11/12/1995 = replica pistol used to rob bank taking $5650
1999 = 2 co-offenders entered video shop wearing balaclavas. Pointed replica pistol at victim and demanded money. $600 plus money and credit card taken.
15/5/2002 = pointed replica gun at 17 year old schoolboy and searched schoolbag for mobile phone
30/11/2004 = Replica pistol used to rob manager of club with co-offender, three employees bound, video tapes removed and $81,000 stolen
30/8/2005 = Replica gun used by gang who entered an elderly couple's home and stole the woman's handbag

...and these are just the more serious criminal offences. There would be lots more examples of minor offences involving replica firearms too.

[Ultra Mackness]

Actually Gok things changed half way through 2011 in Victoria check out the links in post 2:

http://www.otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php?t=11667

[GoktimusPrime]

Cool bananas!

[Demonac]

Unfortunately there have been instances where people have threatened others with replica guns. As usual it's always a stupid minority who have to go and ruin it for everyone else.

25/7/1994 = replica pistol used to hold up clerk taking business takings to bank.
11/12/1995 = replica pistol used to rob bank taking $5650
1999 = 2 co-offenders entered video shop wearing balaclavas. Pointed replica pistol at victim and demanded money. $600 plus money and credit card taken.
15/5/2002 = pointed replica gun at 17 year old schoolboy and searched schoolbag for mobile phone
30/11/2004 = Replica pistol used to rob manager of club with co-offender, three employees bound, video tapes removed and $81,000 stolen
30/8/2005 = Replica gun used by gang who entered an elderly couple's home and stole the woman's handbag

...and these are just the more serious criminal offences. There would be lots more examples of minor offences involving replica firearms too.

6 offences in 19 years. Yep, a real threat to our safety.
How many people were slashed with a knife? or a glass bottle?
Yet those actual weapons are legal.

[Oilspill]

Cheers for the info guys. I'll contact the WA police firearms division to see if I can get the license.

I haven't found that B1709A form online, so I've emailed them as to how I can get my hands on it.

I'm hoping it will apply retroactively so customs don't incinerate Megs - that's no way for the big guy to go!

[theshape]

"Wait...I still function! "

[griffin]

6 offences in 19 years. Yep, a real threat to our safety.
How many people were slashed with a knife? or a glass bottle?
Yet those actual weapons are legal.

Bottles can't be outlawed (except in controlled areas like sports stadiums), and knives are mostly only a threat in close space (have you ever heard on the news of someone throwing one instead of stabbing/slashing).
Guns are a threat from a distance (or across a counter in a store or bank), and the threat only needs to be potential... like nuclear weapons. The threat is there IF they are used, so the possession is just as serious as using them.
There might be a lot more instances that aren't publicised or known to be replicas... as I'm sure that people being robbed at gun-point don't go to the trouble of verifying that the gun is a real weapon.
Prohibiting something doesn't mean it is a common threat... nor should a crime become a common threat before it should be outlawed, as victims of crime (no matter how few there are) would advocate a preventative measure if there is one that doesn't require much in the way of resources to implement.

[Autocon]

The airport therefore customs is on federal land..I never stopped to think about that. Would it be better to import through air or water?


Hope you get your megs!!!

[Jetfire in the sky]

Unfortunately there have been instances where people have threatened others with replica guns. As usual it's always a stupid minority who have to go and ruin it for everyone else.

Examples from NSW:
25/7/1994 = replica pistol used to hold up clerk taking business takings to bank.
11/12/1995 = replica pistol used to rob bank taking $5650
1999 = 2 co-offenders entered video shop wearing balaclavas. Pointed replica pistol at victim and demanded money. $600 plus money and credit card taken.
15/5/2002 = pointed replica gun at 17 year old schoolboy and searched schoolbag for mobile phone
30/11/2004 = Replica pistol used to rob manager of club with co-offender, three employees bound, video tapes removed and $81,000 stolen
30/8/2005 = Replica gun used by gang who entered an elderly couple's home and stole the woman's handbag

...and these are just the more serious criminal offences. There would be lots more examples of minor offences involving replica firearms too.

The thing is a Replica won't kill or wound someone like the tonnes of handguns smuggled in illegally in various ways every year

[griffin]

It's unfortunate that people have used that in the past as an excuse to claim that replica weapons shouldn't be restricted or prohibited... without understanding how replica weapons are still able to achieve the same result of a real weapon in burglaries and muggings. (as a trained criminologist, I know that you need to be mindful of the mentality of an offender, to realise that a perceived threat can be just as effective as a legitimate threat)
Despite people not using them to kill or wound, the robberies they make possible leave people traumatised and often out-of-pocket of whatever was stolen. The ability to commit a serious offence, with or without violence, makes owning a replica weapon (toy or not) a big responsibility.

How would people here feel, if their Gen1 Megatron was stolen and you found out it was used to rob someone. What if that person died of a heart attack from the fright, or they were on a tight budget and couldn't afford to have money or possessions taken off them.
We may laugh at the thought of a Gen1 Megatron fooling anyone (in a well lit collection room), but when you are looking down the barrel of something that looks like a gun, in the dark, you don't ask if it is a real weapon or if it is loaded.
A replica weapon is the same as an unloaded real weapon - they still achieve the same result in a burglary/mugging as a loaded real weapon.