WA Police Minister Paul Papalia has told Radio 6PR how police are looking into whether the state’s new gun reform laws can be amended to allow officers to remove firearms from licensed gun holders at the first instance of police becoming aware of any domestic violence issues.
It comes after it was revealed yesterday that the wife of the Floreat man who murdered two innocent women on Friday had requested a police escort to retrieve her belongings from their former marital home two months earlier over domestic violence concerns.
“The request for an attendance whilst someone is removing their property from a former partners residence, that happens regularly and does not indicate there is a threat of violence,” he said.
“We’re keen to look at whether or not in those sorts of situations, if there are firearms in the household, whether they can be removed at an earlier time than the current threshold.”
Mark Bombara had 13 guns legally stored at his house, and used two of those in the slaying of his wife’s friends, Jennifer and Gretl Petelczyc.
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Speaking more broadly on the gun reforms, which will be debated in parliament today, Papalia referenced WA’s recent history of gun violence including the slaying of seven people near Margaret River in 2018, which was Australia’s worst mass shooting since the Port Arthur massacre.
He also recalled the sniper shooting of former bikie boss Nick Martin in 2020, the Kelberrin murder-suicide last year, and the first school shooting in Australia occurring in Two Rocks last year.
Papalia said all the perpetrators and their weapons were licensed, except the schoolboy.