(Trends Wide) — An American woman was detained in Sydney after arriving on a flight from Los Angeles with a 24-karat gold-plated firearm in her luggage.
The 28-year-old woman, who arrived in Sydney on Sunday, did not have permission to import or possess a firearm in Australia, the Australian Border Force (ABF) said in a statement.
An undeclared 24-carat gold-plated pistol appears inside the luggage of a woman who arrived in Sydney, Australia. (Credit: ABF)
Australia has some of the world’s strictest gun ownership regulations, and it is illegal for anyone to “intentionally” import firearms without prior authorization. The maximum penalty for this offense in Australia is 10 years in prison.
The woman, who was not identified in the statement, appeared Monday before a local court and was released on bail. Her visa status and her continued stay in Australia are up to the courts. Depending on the result, she could be expelled from the country, according to the ABF.
ABF commander Justin Bathurst said the arrest demonstrated the diligence of ABF officers and the sophistication of the country’s detection technology.
ABF agents detected the weapon in the woman’s luggage. (Credit: Australian Border Force)
“ABF officials are committed to protecting our community by working with law enforcement to prevent items like unregistered firearms from crossing the border,” Bathurst added in the statement.
Australia is often held up as an example of how strong gun control action can reduce gun deaths.
The country implemented sweeping gun control measures after a lone gunman murdered 35 people in Port Arthur, Tasmania in April 1996.
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Rapid-fire rifles and shotguns were banned, gun owners’ licenses were strengthened, and the remaining firearms were registered under uniform national standards, along with a highly successful nationwide buy-back and amnesty scheme.
Gun violence has reached record levels in the United States, which is the only country in the world where the number of firearms in civilian use exceeds the number of people. In Australia, there are only about 14 guns per 100 people, compared with 120 per 100 in the United States, according to the Swiss-based Small Arms Survey (SAS).
The United States also has more deaths from gun violence than any other developed country per capita. The rate in the United States is eight times higher than in Canada, 22 times higher than in the European Union and 23 times higher than in Australia, according to 2019 Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) data.
