WA Police Minister Paul Papalia has told Radio 6PR how police are investigating whether the state's new gun reform laws can be changed to allow officers to take firearms from gun owners licensed in the first instance that the police are 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 matrimonial home two months earlier due to domestic violence concerns .
“Requesting assistance while someone is removing their property from a residence of former partners, this happens regularly and does not indicate a threat of violence,” he said.
“We're interested in seeing if in these types of situations, if there are firearms in the home, if they can be removed before the current threshold.”
Mark Bombara had 13 guns legally stored in his home, and he used two of them to murder his wife's friends, Jennifer and Gretl Petelczyc.
loading
Speaking more broadly about gun reforms, which will be debated in parliament today, Papalia referred to WA's recent history of gun violence, including the killing of seven people near Margaret River in 2018, which to be 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 Australia's first school shooting which happened at Two Rocks last year.
Papalia said all the perpetrators and their weapons were licensed, except for the schoolboy.
