00:02A new rise in gun thefts is concerning gun control advocates.
00:06Where does the police minister think these guns end up?
00:09What does he think happens to them?
00:11The answer is they go into the hands of the wrong people.
00:14The Tasmania police data shows 155 firearms were stolen in 40 theft incidents
00:21between June last year and May this year.
00:24Only 29 were recovered.
00:26The total number of incidents involving firearm use stayed steady at 112.
00:31But within that, incidents where firearms were used as a weapon rose by 22% to 83.
00:38That includes 64 assaults and 12 robberies.
00:42The latest incident came after that reporting.
00:46In Coles Bay a fortnight ago, 15 firearms were stolen from a man's home before it was set alight.
00:52Throughout debate on national firearms reform,
00:55Police Minister Felix Ellis has staunchly opposed a cap on the number of guns a person can own.
01:01The latest figures haven't changed his mind.
01:04What prevents these kind of awful crimes is stronger penalties
01:09and making sure that the people who perpetrate them are held to account.
01:13Critics say the police minister is ignoring the advice of the police commissioner Donna Adams,
01:18who wrote to the minister in February urging him to support ownership limits.
01:23It just, it beggars belief though that we have a police minister that is ignoring a police commissioner
01:31and rage baiting a community when it comes to firearms instead of prioritising public safety.
01:37Mr Ellis says there's no evidence to show caps are effective.
01:415 x 3
01:43APA
01:441 x 4
01:452 x 5
01:471 x 5
01:472 x 5
01:477
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