The average licensed firearm owner in the Dubbo area owns about five weapons, according to figures released by The Greens.
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According to the website www.toomanyguns.org there are 2,445 registered firearm owners, who own 12,038 registered firearms in the 2830 postcode area.
But local police are unfazed by the figures, and NSW Police Minister and Member for Dubbo, Troy Grant, has labelled the website as ‘irresponsible’.
The website has been authorised by Greens MP David Shoebridge and feature’s the political party’s logo
“The figures themselves don’t surprise or concern me, because there is such strong and strict rules for the storage of registered firearms,” Mr Grant said.
“The biggest issue isn’t the registered weapons and licensed weaponholders, more the illegal guns imported and sold on the grey market.
“I actually think it’s irresponsible that law-abiding firearm owners, licensed people with licensed weapons, are being demonised by The Greens when in the vast majority of cases they do nothing wrong.”
Thousands of firearms and pieces of ammunition were handed in during a recent amnesty, however Inspector Keith Ridley said a final tally from Orana Local Area Command won’t be known until next year.
“The bulk of the firearms have been handed to licensed dealers, and come to us when we have capacity to store them,” he said.
“We took about 220 to be destroyed in September and have booked further runs for December and February so we won’t know a proper figure until after that.
“But the figure of there being 12,000 or so licensed firearms in the Dubbo area isn’t a shock, because landholders and sporting shooters usually have multiple weapons.
“And the use of guns in crimes within Orana LAC is certainly not prevalent.”