Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Firearms Law and legislation Victoria'

This thesis reviews many of the historical, constitutional and legal factors behind today's gun control policy and how they relate to the laws governing the carrying of concealed firearms within the state of Oregon. Many legal cases are explored for their impact on the carriage of concealed weapons. A thorough examination was made of the Oregon legislative history behind HB 3470, sponsored by then-House Speaker Vera Katz, which was enacted in July 1989, was effective January 1, 1990, and became the kernel of the snowball passage of CCW (carry concealed weapon) laws within the United States. Statistical tests were conducted and revealed that the passage of the Oregon law did not result in an increased murder rate. The paper concludes by exploring the arguments raised against the concealed handgun licensing law in Oregon. These arguments are found to be both historically inaccurate and statistically inadequate.

This thesis reports on an empirically based study of the manner in which Victorian Magistrates Courts constructed occupational health and safety (OHS) issues when hearing prosecutions for offences under the Industrial Safety, Health and Welfare Act 1981 (the ISHWA) and the Occupational Health and Safety Act 1985 (OHSA) from 1983 to 1991. These statutes established OHS standards for employers and other relevant parties. The State government enforced these standards through an OHS inspectorate which had a range of enforcement powers, including prosecution. After outlining the historical development of Victoria’s OHS legislation, the magistracy’s historical role in its enforcement, and the development of an enforcement culture in which inspectors viewed prosecution as a last resort, the study shows how the key provisions of the ISHWA and OHSA required occupiers of workplaces and employers to provide and maintain safe systems of work, including the guarding of dangerous machinery. Using a wide range of empirical research methods and legal materials, it shows how the enforcement policies, procedures and practices of the inspectorate heavily slanted inspectors workplace investigations and hence prosecutions towards a restricted and often superficial, analysis of incidents (or “events”) most of which involved injuries on machinery. There was evidence, however, that after the establishment of the Central Investigation Unit in 1989 cases were more thoroughly investigated and prosecuted. From 1990 the majority of prosecutions were taken under the employer’s general duty provisions, and by 1991 there was evidence that prosecutions were focusing on matters other than machinery guarding.

M.B.A.
The new Firearms Control Act, 60 of 2000, will affect the law-abiding firearm owner, through the costs involved for possessing firearms, as well as the legal quantity allowed. The aim of this research is to determine how multiple firearm owners and firearm dealers will be affected by the new Firearms Act, 60 of 2000. 1.3. OBJECTIVES The objectives of this study would be the following: - To evaluate the effect on a hunter/sportsman/collector with more than two firearms,' To evaluate the effect on the number of firearms an owner may legally possess, To evaluate cost involved for the owner, What the Firearms Act implies for all, and what effect legal organisations will have on the firearm industry. To establish how the firearm business environment is affected according to the Political-, Economical-, Social-, Technological and Ecological influences on the business strategies

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for a Master's Degree in Technology: Business Administration, Durban University of Technology, 2008.
The purpose of this research is to compare the firearm legislation between South Africa and selected countries and to determine if multiple firearm owners and firearm dealers are affected in terms of economics, and changes to their business environment by the new Firearms Act, 60 of 2000.The sub-objectives of this study are as follows: - To compare firearm regulations between countries that were affected by access to firearms and deaths as a result thereof; - To evaluate the economic effect of the legislation on a firearm dealer/dedicated hunter/dedicated sportsman/collector of firearms; - To evaluate the economic effect of the restrictions on the number of firearms an owner may legally possess; - To evaluate the economic impact of the cost involved for re-licensing a firearm; - To establish how the firearm business environment is affected according to the political, economic, social, technological and ecological influences on business strategies. The research does not include firearm owners with hand weapons or individuals with fewer than four firearms. It also excludes South African Police Service and South African Defence Force weapons, as these are not usually provided to the public. The aim of this research is to establish if there is an effect on the dealers and hunters in the firearm industry in South Africa with the advent of the Firearms Control Act 60 of 2000. The world trend changed firearm legislation world-wide and South Africa followed. In the following chapter the global and South African issue is discussed with some of the arguments on why the firearm legislation had to change.

This dissertation analyzes the contextual background, drafting history, text, original understanding, interpretive evolution, and contemporary judicial application of the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution. The dissertation develops the argument that as originally understood, the Second Amendment protected a right to keep and bear arms closely linked to and dependent upon service in the lawfully established militia. Two recent United States Supreme Court decisions, Heller v. District of Columbia and MacDonald v. City of Chicago, depart from this original understanding and recognize a constitutional right to weapons possession for purposes of purely private self-defense - particularly self-defense in the home. The dissertation recognizes that there are grounds for recognizing such a right, and that these include natural law, substantive due process, procedural due process, the Ninth Amendment, and emanations from particular provisions in the Bill of Rights including the Second Amendment. At the same time, the dissertation develops the case that the original public understanding mode of interpretation avowedly applied by the Supreme Court in its recent right to arms decisions relies on untenable "law office" history to justify results not dictated by the text, structure, or original understanding of the Constitution or by prior Supreme Court precedent.

This thesis explores the dynamics of social change through an examination of the making and remaking of Victoria's Residential Tenancies Act. The conditions leading up to the creation of the Tenancies Act are examined, as are the changes which the Act has produced. The findings of this thesis suggest that, despite the hopes of social reformers, the Tenancies Act has not produced a redistribution of power between landlords and tenants. It is argues, however, that this is not the fault of the Act itself, nor of its administrators, but rather of wider structural changes in the housing market which have served to negate many of the gains made by the Tenancies Act. Indeed, it is argued that, despite appearances, the Act has produced a number of important changes to the structure of, and agents participating in the rental housing market. As a result, Victoria's rental market is now quite different compared to how it was prior to the Act's introduction.

The research project investigated the impact of the Firearms Control Act (FCA) 60 of 2000 in restricting gun ownership for at-risk individuals in the Pretoria North Firearm Registration Centre (FRC) policing area and identified prevention strategy as well as specific factors that contributed to this problem. Secondary prevention focuses on situational factors that reduces the means and opportunity for at-risk people to commit crime and can be applied in restricting firearms from at-risk individuals. One hundred and thirteen legal firearm owners in the Pretoria North FRC policing area responded to the questionnaire schedule. Data was also collected through interviews with Designated Firearm Officers (DFO) and court officials in that area. Specific factors have been identified that contribute to firearms landing in the hands of at-risk individuals in the Pretoria North FRC policing area. They are among others, poor administration of some sections of the FCA like background checks and section 102 and 103 unfitness declarations. The role of the DFO in continuous public education program on the FCA is also invaluable. The same goes to the general public s involvement in the identification of at-risk individuals. The South African Police Service management needs to address issues within the police service such as additional trained personnel, allocation of sufficient logistical resources like vehicles, computers and scanners to ensure effectiveness in restricting firearms from at-risk individuals. Several secondary role players have been identified that should work closely with the primary role players to address this problem. The recommendations drawn from conclusions as well as the inter-departmental role of all the different role players may assist in restricting firearms from at-risk individuals.
Police Practice
M.Tech. (Policing)

The crime of incest is rendered invisible in the 1990's under the all-embracing label of "child abuse", where the public eye is alerted to grave cases of physical abuse, by a media hungry for sensationalism. Likewise, incest is effaced amid the current outrage over the deviant outsider - typically perceived as the paedophile. It is the very nature of the sphere in which incest is committed, which makes the crime 'hermetic'. The view that the patriarchal family is somehow sacrosanct, and the debate over the public/private dichotomy relating to child protection, adjoin to further obscure this iniquity. In addition to this, the perpetrators of incest frequently deny, minimise or rationalise their crime, hence making the legal sphere the only legitimate area of redress for victims. However, the law attempts to deal with these private moral perplexities in the objective and constrained manner representative of the court system. This may not be reconcilable with just outcomes. Social policy's footing in this arena appears to be equivocal, due to the inherent confines of the legal system. But the legal system, and in particular the court arena, can be made more equitable, by being flexible and amenable to innovation, through the embodiment of other areas of expertise. Instead of being self-referential, the legal system should be more accommodating of other esteemed knowledges, in the name of justice.

This book focuses on the use of small arms in violence and attempts by the state to govern the use and acquisition of these weapons. It is likely that hundreds of thousands of people are killed every year as a result of armed violence ¿ in contexts ranging from war zones to domestic violence. This edited volume examines why these deaths occur, the role of guns and other weapons, and how governance can be used to reduce and prevent those deaths. Drawing on a variety of disciplines, ranging from anthropology through economics to peace and security studies, the book¿s main concern throughout is that of human security ¿ the causes and means of prevention of armed violence. The first part of the book concerns warfare, the second armed violence and crime, and the last governance of arms and their (mis)-use. The concluding chapter builds on the contributors¿ key findings and suggests priorities for future research, with the aim of forming a coherent narrative which examines what we know, why armed violence occurs, and what can be done to reduce it.

This thesis addresses the question of why work stress prevention has not been adopted systemically in organisations, despite some research findings that it is effective, that it has been mandated by legislative regulations and that it has the potential for significant cost savings. Work stress is recognised as an increasing and global problem in terms of negative economic, health and social outcomes. Its significant costs related to work injury compensation have resulted in growing pressure from governmental health and safety jurisdictions for organisations to manage and prevent stress through systemic risk management approaches.

This thesis argues that the ‘rule of law’ was not followed in colonial and post-federation Australia in relation to a fundamental principle of the common law. According to the rule in Calvin’s Case (1608), no person born as a ‘subject’ in any part of the King’s dominions could be an ‘alien’. This was the legal position in Australia from the reception of English law until well after federation. In colonial and post-federation Australia the racial meaning of ‘alien’ was consistently used in political and legal contexts instead of its proper legal meaning. In legislation and parliamentary debates, cases and prosecutions, inter-colonial conferences and conventions it was employed to refer not merely to those who were ‘aliens’ under the common law but also to people regarded as ‘aliens’ in the broader or racial sense of the word, especially those of non-European background. Chinese and Indian settlers, Pacific islanders and even indigenous Australians were treated as ‘aliens’ in Australia even if under British law they were actually ‘subjects’ of the Crown and not ‘aliens’ at all in the accepted legal sense. In the 1820s and 1830s the New South Wales Supreme Court thought it inconceivable that ‘barbarous’ indigenous inhabitants could ‘owe fealty’ or allegiance to the British Crown, considering their legal position analogous to that of ‘foreigners’ or ‘strangers’. In debates on exclusionary legislation in the 1870s and 1880s, parliamentarians in the Australian colonies portrayed all Chinese settlers as ‘aliens’, despite acknowledging that many came from Hong Kong, the Straits Settlements or other British possessions. Immigrants from British India were generally treated the same way. Delegates to Australia’s constitutional conventions in the 1890s, including prominent legal figures, repeated this mistake. And in the 1900s Pacific islanders born in Australia as British subjects were deported as ‘aliens’ with the approval of the Australian High Court. The misuse of ‘alien’ in this case contributed to a defective judgment still cited today in support of the Commonwealth’s claims to extensive exclusionary power. Between federation and the Second World War, Queensland’s dictation test legislation and industrial awards regulating various occupations provide many examples of the misuse and manipulation of the term ‘alien’ in a legal context. In prosecutions under these laws the word was used as a weapon against non-Europeans whether they were ‘aliens’ under the law or not. Commentators both in the early years of federation and in more recent times have failed to identify the misuse of ‘alien’– and have made the same error themselves. This mistake is critical because of the continued force of the term in Australian law. The Commonwealth’s sweeping power to define who shall be citizens of Australia and to exclude, detain indefinitely without trial and deport ‘aliens’ is still justified by reference to colonial and post-federation cases and constitutional convention debates where ‘alien’ was incorrectly used in its racial sense contrary to the rule of law.