Yeah I hear you guys in WA really cop it. What is it with the cops there?! From stupid fees to handpicking what calibers you can and cannot have.
And don't forget, going around and physically measuring the bolts and washers securing your gun safe to the walls, just to make sure they meet Regulations!!
When feeling belligerent they also go around unannounced to your home (while you're at work) and ask your wife/gf etc if they can inspect your firearms. As soon as they open the safe, the police immediately confiscate all your firearms on the grounds that as your wife/gf is not the licensed owner it's illegal for them to have access your firearms.
On the opposite side of the coin, when my mate passed away, the police correctly moved in to store his 28 firearms at his local station until disposed by Estate. Later, when I was informed he'd bequeathed his FN 9.3x62 to me, I naturally went to license it. Imagine my surprise when I was told that it - and 13 other of his firearms - were "missing!! And this from the locked safe room INSIDE that 24-hr manned police station!! I told the OC the station, that he had 48hrs to return those firearms or I was going public.
I was not surprised when I collected my FN 9.3x62 within 18hrs!!
Funny to say, that upon collection, every screw on that rifle was loose as if it had already been pulled apart and then hastily reassembled (which must have occurred to return that rifle to it's rightful owner with lightning speed!!): I found this very strange as I know I was the last civilian to handle that rifle as I had packed it for storage.
(In another case, there was a public furore when it was discovered that a Benelli shotgun, handed in for destruction after the Port Arthur Massacre, was found - licensed!! - In the Northern Territory!!)
Firearms Branch won't admit it, but everyone in the business here knows they work to an anti-firearm policy, and use delaying tactics and obfuscation to discourage applicants. I reckon this is the reason why they're "hand-picking" what firearms you can or cannot own. I also know that the various police jurisdictions around the world are conferring with each other in regards to firearm ownership. So, if one newly jumped up regulation is implemented in one part of the world - it's as sure as hell it will be tried elsewhere too!! In this way, by using "salami tactics" are the authorities restricting firearm ownership (and movement!) worldwide.
But in my case, I was initially told, flatly, that "there's no way" I'd be getting approval for the 9.3 as I already had a 30/06 and a 458WM. I mmediately appealed by writing a concise ballistical essay (using accepted referencing techniques and a bibliography) proving the 3 calibres were of different classes and not "overlapping" for the purposes I require. I then engaged a firearms specialist lawyer to deliver my appeal - and to demonstrate to Firearms Branch I was serious about this issue.
Next morning the OC Firearms Branch phoned me personally to say he'd approved my license for my 9.3x62. Amazing!! Because a super fast firearm application usually takes over 6mths to approve!!
(Hmmm......so one wonders what they're doing for the rest of the time to justify their salaries??)