US woman arrested after flying to Australia with gold-plated gun in luggage
- She has been charged under the Customs Act and could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted
- Australia has strict gun control laws – there are around 15 guns for every 100 people in the country, compared to 121 per 100 in the US
A 28-year-old American woman was arrested on Sunday after Australian Border Force (ABF) officers say they found an undeclared 24-carat gold-plated handgun in her luggage.
The woman, who arrived in Sydney from Los Angeles, did not have a permit to import or possess the firearm in Australia, the border force said in a press release. As a result, ABF investigators arrested and charged her under Australia’s Customs Act, which prohibits the import of firearms without prior approval.
If convicted, she faces up to 10 years in prison.
The woman, who has not been publicly identified, appeared in a local court on Monday, where she was granted bail, ABF said.
Border officials said they were able to defect the undeclared firearm using officers’ skills and advanced detection technology.
“Time and time again, we have seen just how good ABF officers are at targeting and stopping illegal, and highly dangerous, goods from crossing Australia’s border,” Justin Bathurst, the ABF’s Enforcement and Detained Goods East commander, said in a statement.
“ABF officers are committed to protecting our community by working with law enforcement partners to prevent items like unregistered firearms getting through at the border,” he continued.
According to CNN, Australia’s strict gun control rules are often seen as a prime example of how to reduce deaths from firearms.
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Following a spate of high-profile killings in the country, which included the 1996 Port Arthur Massacre, Australia passed a set of sweeping gun regulations. This reduced the number of firearms in circulation and almost eliminated mass shootings.
There are now around 15 guns for every 100 people in Australia, compared to 121 per 100 in the US, according to the independent Swiss research project the Small Arms Survey.
The death rate from gun violence in the US is 23 times higher than in Australia, according to Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) data from 2019, per CNN.
