I am a bit worried about where this thread it heading. Here is a summary of my concerns:
1. Police do have a discretion, but we are dealing with Customs first. They are much more strict.
2. I visited the Commissioner of Police in Sydney when MP05 was happening and the Firearms people showed me an impressive number of pistols comparable to MP05. Some were larger, some the same and some smaller. MP05 (or any gun former) could be mistaken for a firearm very easily, especially if you are working a petrol station or some other high risk job. There is also a risk that someone else thinks it is real and uses their own real weapon to attack back.
3. The Registry is aware of the $2 shops and could absolutely do something about it if they chose to, but the majority of those are clearly toys, unlike the much higher quality of the Megatrons.
4. The law is the law. Weighing up the risks of getting caught is not advisable and neither is suggesting such an approach in a public forum. The Registry has reviewed this forum in the past, and much of the work I did early on was trying to show the Registry and Customs that we were just normal people interested in collecting toys, and not habitual law-breakers.
5. When MP05 hit, many people received a summons to Court. I assisted in having some of those cases initially adjourned, and then dismissed. Confiscation/destruction was a given, but the charges were much more serious than that. Some people may not care about a criminal record, but I do, as do many others, whose livelihood may be severely compromised.
6. If Customs stops your Megatron, local cops will have no power to do anything. Customs is a Federal body, and work with local cops for the licensing, etc. (I also have a number of police friends and clients).
Please let us all take this a bit more seriously so that we don't undo the work that has been done. We can all have our thoughts about common sense, more important "crimes", etc, but we must deal with what we are given.
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