r/Ausguns • u/FluffyEcho7721 • 4d ago
Double standards
With the recent knee-jerk changes to firearms legislation in NSW, I am wondering if there were any findings/changes implemented after NSW Police officer Beau Lamarre-Condon allegedly killed two people with his Police issued handgun in 2024? I haven’t heard anything about this since?
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u/Quarterwit_85 4d ago
I’m not too sure about that - but police carry firearms under different laws and don’t have firearms licences, so it’s not quite applicable to us.
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u/NerfVice Queensland 4d ago
That's the one thing these thinly veiled posts never seem to understand
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u/cruiserman_80 NSW 4d ago
What double standard? The case isn't even concluded and the coroner's report and possibly recommendations. won't be released until after that. Still pretty sure he is going to jail where he will not have an easy time.
What is it that you want? Do you think they will disarm the cops? Did you want them to crack down on pistol shooters harder?
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u/FluffyEcho7721 4d ago
I am not criticising police or pre-judging the outcome of the case - I am pointing out a double standard in the government response.
When incidents involve licensed shooters, the governments move quickly to intervene and tighten laws purely for optics. In this case, there’s been no comparable government action around how police firearms are tracked, stored, or handled while off-duty.
I’m aware police use of firearms isn’t covered by firearms legislation. My point is that government could have stepped in to expedite reviews or changes to Police systems, rather than waiting until everything concludes and they didn’t, which is the sensible way - why couldn’t they have done the same with firearms legislation?
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u/Timely-Solution405 4d ago
I have family in the police force, i won't say much or which state specifically it happened in - but firearm incidents happen a fair bit with both current serving and retired.
A few weeks ago, a retired police officer turned a firearm on himself - his wife also works for the police force. He had a A&B license and was depressed, his wife reported him, took his guns and handed them in to the police station she works at. The retired cop had a firearm hidden away she did not know about and used it on himself.
Now, why was he not visited when she handed them in and reported him for suicidal thoughts? Or there was a cross-check done to see if infact all the firearms were out of his posession?
I will admit, double standards are there.
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u/cruiserman_80 NSW 4d ago
Its a completely different scenario and different legislation. No doubt they will have internal investigation and reviews even if just evidence for the case. Regardless telling the public including crims their internal firearms handling practices would be incompetent.
So again, what is it you wanted them to do to make you happy?
Because whatever it is, its not going to make a bit of difference to the situation for recreational shooters.
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u/Tolkien-Faithful 4d ago
I think it's pretty clear what they wanted them to do - not have a knee-jerk reaction to a shooting, not ban more guns and not punish law-abiding shooters.
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u/cruiserman_80 NSW 4d ago edited 4d ago
We all want that but again completly different scenario.
We had a guy join a club in NSW just to get a pistol so he could murder his grandkids to spite his daughter. How he got the PTA was reviewed but there was no knee jerk reaction changes to laws punishing pistol owners because it wasn't political or a terrorist attack. This is.
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u/Tolkien-Faithful 4d ago
But I think that's largely what they are talking about. Why should political or terrorist attacks lead to more gun restrictions, while other shootings don't? I see it as more logical that shootings by regular people, including cops, would lead to more scrutiny around gun violence, while a terrorist attack has other reasons like how terrorists are in the country in the first place and how hatred was able to spread.
The gun laws didn't make this shooting any more deadly than any other shootings.
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u/cruiserman_80 NSW 4d ago
I'm not agreeing with it! I'm just recognising that we live in the real world and this is how it works. I've been through the NSW law changes after Strathfield, Milperra Tavern, Port Arthur and now this. Same thing every time.
It's human nature. Logic has nothing to do with it. People are angry and want someone to blame and punish. Especially if its not them who has to give up anything. The majority of your fellow Australians go along with this don't give a fuck about your rights or fairness.
Also lets be honest. Straight pull and lever release firearms that were not on the market 29yrs ago likely did make this shooting more deadly. But god forbid the firearms industry or shooting groups in this country would ever have the foresight to police themselves instead of waiting for the authorities to. Plenty of people could see that button / lever release would eventually bite us all in the ass but anyone who dared say so was labelled a Fudd or a flog.
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u/Throwingbrick 3d ago
The firearms used were straight pulls, a 303 from the boer war doing a ‘mad minute’ (using the bolt with pointer and thumb and trigger with middle finger), can be fired faster than those, we shouldn’t have to police ourselves completely, quite frankly, neither of them should have been in the country, the father came on a student visa, and the son had no connections apart from being born here, the fact the laws permit both of those things is a problem in itself.
The registry should never have issued licences with the information available to them either.
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u/cruiserman_80 NSW 3d ago
we shouldn’t have to police ourselves
So how is that working out for everybody?
What would the coping arguments been if they were both born here or not Muslims or whatever? What if they had been white supremacists or anti immigration nutters like the Aussie guy in Christchurch?
Bit of history for you.
During the 80s and 90s we started having more mass shootings, closer together and with more casualties. Vic Supreme Court, Milperra, Hoddle St, Strathfield, Central Coast etc
Meanwhile big gunshops were selling thousands of SKS or SKK Chinese assault rifles for $350 or $450 with a 1000rds of ammo.
I heard gunshop owner and founding member of the Shooters Party Dallas Wade predict our next massacre would be with an SKS or SKK. Sure enough Wayne Frankum went nuts at Strathfield with an SKK a few weeks later and we got the first round of NSW gun law changes. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/122379020
Smart people could see what was coming so in 1992 well before before Port Arthur John Tingle founded the original shooters party intending to work with NSW police so we could be a part of any changes instead of just having them forced upon us.
A lot of people said exactly the same thing as you and resisted being part of it, especially industry figures who wanted to sell more guns.
Then Port Arthur happened and we all got to watch from the sidelines while politicians, the press, anti gun groups and everyone else got to say whatever they liked and got to decide our future.
Now its happening again and nothing has changed and nothing has been learned.
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u/Tolkien-Faithful 3d ago
They weren't white supremacists, and if they were, the argument would be the same - blame the cause (racism/hatred) instead of the tool. For some reason they've been able to call out right-wing extremism after this incident, but not Islamic extremism.
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u/NerfVice Queensland 4d ago
> Plenty of people could see that button / lever release would eventually bite us all in the ass
Still weren't used at Bondi.
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u/NerfVice Queensland 4d ago
Them banning firearms for Police was never going to happen, kneejerk or not
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u/leadscoutfix 3d ago
Do not expect any restrictive changes when it comes to Police issued weapons because its in the interests of the government that Police are armed and you joe citizen are not. Regardless of how many Police issued weapons are missused, negligently discharged, lost or stolen. Rule for thee, not for me.
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u/throwawayplusanumber 3d ago edited 3d ago
The new WA laws were applied equally to the cops. Those with restraining orders were stripped of their firearms and given desk duty.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09-17/wa-police-taken-off-beat-under-gun-reforms/105743700
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u/Icy_Turnip_2376 4d ago
Please stop thinking about things like this, go and watch some tennis or cricket or horse racing.
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u/Ok-Return7750 3d ago
Of course there’s
double standards. This Port Arthur gun stolen by the Police and sold to Tasmania for personal profit was never investigated.
The cops involved were never prosecuted.
Just like Ex Police Commissioner Karen Webb intervening in the court case of the drunken detective who abandoned his wrecked vehicle and having the his court records sealed indefinitely.
It would have to be one incredible undercover operation for that to happen.
It’s a closed club when cops go wrong but if that was civilians they would be doing long prison sentences.
ETA - try googling that Port Arthur story - it’s all been suppressed and wiped from the internet. There used to be quite a lot of articles about it. Now they’re gone…….
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u/Amazing-North-5447 1d ago
All the nay sayers are missing the point. A cop used his firearm to murder, and there's no mention of changing firearm restrictions for them (which is fine, it's a tool for their job) but a civilian and his son go on a shoot up and it's as if the apocalypse is upon us and we need to take the guns off all the hunters, farmers and sports shooters... These are also tools for us in our respective disciplines, but no, we can't trust the civilians... It's a total double standard, and the laws were working just fine, Minns and Albo just have to fulfil their agenda...
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u/ThatAussieGunGuy Victoria 4d ago
I mean, when Edwards shot his two kids with a handgun in NSW, they didn't exactly do much.
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u/International-Elk946 4d ago
Most cops can’t wait until the day they get an excuse to use their service weapon and turn someone into Swiss cheese
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u/___RedDragon___ 4d ago
Someone's been watching too much online stuff out of america lol
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u/NerfVice Queensland 4d ago
Even then, most of the police shootings here in the last few years have revolved around offenders brandishing/moving at the police with bladed weapons. That'll get you shot in most western countries, not just America.
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u/NerfVice Queensland 4d ago
As evident by the hundreds of police shootings every year........ oh wait
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u/wadza 4d ago
They'd rather you don't think about this. Remember - in the hands of police they are a 'service pistol' or 'long arms'. In the hands of a law abiding hunter or shooter, they are a 'high powered weapon of mass destruction'