ACT Paintball law changes - 15 Jan 09

Paintball is being treated in the ACT as a Category A firearm category. Notwithstanding the (lack of) logic of this approach, that is the law as it is being introduced.

So in order to own a marker, you must meet the same conditions as a standard Cat A.

This includes:
1. Cat A course. I have put forward the position to the AFP that paintball marker safety is entirely different to the ‘standard’ Cat A consideration that would apply to a rifle or shotgun. This advice was ignored. As a compromise, as discussed, I have arranged with an ACT accredited Firearms licensing officer (Bevan) to run a specific paintball oriented Cat A course that will address paintball in addition to the standard Cat A requirements. This course will include the requirement for wearing goggles, barrel plugs and socks, marker transportation and HPA and CO2.
Note: No matter whether or not you do a ‘standard’ Cat A course or the modified paintball one, you will receive a Cat A license that means you can then get a PTA for ANY Cat A firearm.
2. Qualifying requirement. For ALL Cat A firearms, there is a qualification requirement. For some firearms it is 4 range shoots a year. Paintball has a 4 tournament period before applying for a PTA. Adventure Paintball will be running a 5 event Tournament Series Feb/Mar 09.
3. Storage and transportation. As markers are consdiered the same as other Cat A firearms they will need to be stored/transported in the same manner.
4. You need to complete a PTA for all Cat A firearms, including markers.
5. Somewhere in that process there is also a Police Check.

If you really want to play tournaments with your own marker and you live in the ACT then these are the rules. No ACT Cat A, no marker!

cheers,

Kieran AP

Hey all,
as it stands at the moment paintball players can not own or store their own markers, all markers need to be owned and registered to a field.

Also the current legislation does not allow interstate visitors who are licensed in their own state to travel within the ACT with their Marker.

So what should change is that personal ownership is available and interstate players with markers will be allowed meaning the ‘sport’ as a whole should be able to grow within the ACT.

And as it is for people using markers outside registered fields, the requirement to get licensed, play a minimum of four tournaments and also purchase the equipment, I don’t think that anyone who is willing to go through all this effort would be dumb enough to break the law.

Would be kind of crazy if you could have a cupboard full of rifles and shotguns, but not keep a paintball “marker” at home.

On the other hand, since most owners probably won’t have guns at home, and there would be a legitimate fear they would be used outside of a paintball competition, I can understand if that was a rule. Can anyone clarify it?

hopefully this was a vicitory for common sense and the coppers/regulation makers decided that if one can keep rifles at home in approved storage, a paintball marker could also be kept that way

I just had a look at the link and I may have missed something, but it kind of appears that Paintball markers can be kept on the property of the licensed owner.

I thought the new legislation called for all privately owned markers to be kept at an approved range?