The Western Australian firearm licence

From 1 January 1932 the Firearms and Guns Act, 1931 made a licence necessary to have a pistol or an air gun anywhere in Western Australia, and any firearm in a municipality or within a mile of one; out in the country a rifle or a shotgun needed none, unless the Governor proclaimed otherwise. The Commissioner of Police, or a constable with his authority, granted the licence to possess, naming and identifying each firearm, for a fee the regulations fixed at five shillings at most; it ran to 31 December of the year it was granted, was personal to its holder and had to be produced to any constable on demand. No one under twenty-one could have a pistol, no one under sixteen any firearm. The Act refused a licence to any Asiatic or African alien, and to any person of Asiatic or African race claiming to be a British subject, without the Commissioner's express approval, and said the bar did not apply to persons of the Jewish and Lebanese races.

The regulations and their forms have not been found, so the licence Bearer prints is set on the Act's words, and the office says so above it. Before 1932 the Gun License Act, 1885 applied; it is not read, and nothing is offered before that day. For the expedition that sets out from Port Hedland armed.

Bearer makes an investigator's papers for Call of Cthulhu and any 1920s or 1930s tabletop campaign: the passport a consul would have filled in, with the visas and frontier stamps a campaign leaves in it, and the permits, certificates and tickets of the period, to print or to share.

An example

Open this example in the office

The paper

A reconstruction

This paper is a reconstruction. The Firearms and Guns Act, 1931 of Western Australia, read, says a licence to possess a firearm named and identified the firearms, was granted by the Commissioner of Police or a constable with his authority for a fee of five shillings at most, ran to 31 December of the year granted and was personal to its holder. The forms the regulations prescribed have not been found: the words and the layout are ours.

The same paper elsewhere

• Firearm licences by country

Still to be confirmed

• the Act is read in its reprint of 1938, as amended by No. 25 of 1931; the regulations (forms and fee) are not read. What would settle it: the regulations under the Firearms and Guns Act, 1931, or a licence of 1932 to 1939.
• before 1932 the Gun License Act, 1885-1925 applied; it is not read, so no paper is offered before 1 January 1932. What would settle it: the Gun License Act, 1885 and its amendments to 1925.

Sources

• Parliament of Western Australia; Government Printer, Perth (reprint under the Amendments Incorporation Act, 1938), Firearms and Guns Act, 1931 (Western Australia), No. 8 of 1931, reprinted as amended by No. 25 of 1931, assented 21 August 1931, proclaimed to commence 1 January 1932; s. 4 (pistols and air guns throughout the State; Asiatic and African aliens throughout; other firearms in and within a mile of municipalities); s. 5 (licences from the Commissioner of Police or a member of the force with his authority; four kinds, the first to possess a specific firearm named and identified in the licence); s. 6 (in force to 31 December of the year granted); s. 7 (personal, not transferable); s. 8 (none for a pistol under 21, none under 16; none to an Asiatic or African alien or person of Asiatic or African race claiming to be a British subject without the Commissioner's express approval, the proviso not applying to persons of the Jewish and Lebanese races); s. 11 (production on demand); s. 18(h) (fee for a licence to possess not above five shillings); Schedule (repeal of the Gun License Act, 1885-1925) (read directly)

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