Hi Griffin,
just had a read through of this topic and I think you are pretty much nailing all the relevant points. Basically when it comes to criminal law an innocent person needs to focus on two things:

A) "in good faith"

In other words, get all your documentation sorted out before hand, each item held at customs will be assigned to the particular person that seized it and they WILL get constant reminders to clear storage.
Not doing your homework makes life harder for someone else, who in turn may just decide to make life harder for you.
You are much less likely to be prosecuted for something if you can prove you acted "in good faith" that you had done all you could.

B) "Intention of law"

The law is prosecuted to the intent of what the court "interprets" as the intention of the law as it was drafted.
For instance there is an extra penalty in SA if you are found selling drugs within 500m of a school. If this were to make it to court and it was discovered that all deals were made at 2am within a private building, the magistrate may decide (highly likely) that this was not the intent of the law, which is to protect schoolkids, and dismiss those extra charges.
So anyone who was found with one of these items, so long as they weren't being an idiot should be fine.


By and large the people that will deal with these items are border protection and state firearms branches.
If you have a normal patrol officer see one in your house, he will see a mountain of paperwork for a toy, he may notify firearms branch or at worst seize it whilst inquiries are made (If he has the authority) but both of those situations are unlikely unless you are the type of person who shouldn't have one in the first place.

In terms of QLD PF response, I'm not surprised at that response, firearms laws are liquid at the moment and hopefully one day it will come under a federal regulation instead, which will significantly help people moving interstate, cattle droving etc. (And toy collecting). Most cops will steer clear of getting tied up with it, which is likely how Firearms sections want it and training may instigate a few heroes to go searching.

Police deal with between 1-2% of the public 90% of the time, if that's not you you're golden

Well done on a comprehensive datasheet on a muddy topic.