WA Parliamentary Question on Notice regarding gun-related crimes over the past five financial years. The Police Force provided data on the number of incidents involving firearms but could not provide data on charges or firearm licensing status due to data limitations.

AnsweredQoN 1006Legislative Assembly
Asked
13 March 2024
Portfolio
Police

QuestionView source ↗

With regard to crimes involving guns, can the Minister provide the following information for each of past five financial years: (a) the number of reported crimes involved guns; (b) the number of individuals were charged with crimes while armed with a gun; (c) the number of those charged that were licensed firearm owners; and (d) the number of the firearms used in the crimes recorded in (a) that were licensed weapons?

AnswerView source ↗

Answered
16 April 2024
Responded by
Minister for Police
Response time
5 days
The Western Australia Police Force advise:
(a)
Financial Year
2018-19
2019-20
2020-21
2021-22
2022-23
Incidents with firearms involved
570
566
499
444
484
(b) – (c) The WA Police Force is unable to answer this question as the number of offenders charged while armed with a firearm cannot be determined in a reliable and systematic manner. Manual interrogation of each incident where a firearm is involved will be required to ensure the firearm/s involved were utilised in the commission of the offence.
(d) The WA Police Force is unable to answer this question due to the registration status of firearms not being recorded on the incident management system report for an offence. As a result, manual investigation would be necessary for each firearms related offence to ascertain the registration status of the firearm.
Note:

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